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diff --git a/old/b067w10.txt b/old/b067w10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4609217 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/b067w10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19216 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Disowned, by Bulwer-Lytton, Complete +#67 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, Complete + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7639] +[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, COMPLETE *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +THE DISOWNED + +by Edward Bulwer Lytton + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +I'll tell you a story if you please to attend. + G. KNIGHT: Limbo. + +It was the evening of a soft, warm day in the May of 17--. The sun +had already set, and the twilight was gathering slowly over the large, +still masses of wood which lay on either side of one of those green +lanes so peculiar to England. Here and there, the outline of the +trees irregularly shrunk back from the road, leaving broad patches of +waste land covered with fern and the yellow blossoms of the dwarf +furze, and at more distant intervals thick clusters of rushes, from +which came the small hum of gnats,--those "evening revellers" +alternately rising and sinking in the customary manner of their +unknown sports,--till, as the shadows grew darker and darker, their +thin and airy shapes were no longer distinguishable, and no solitary +token of life or motion broke the voiceless monotony of the +surrounding woods. + +The first sound which invaded the silence came from the light, quick +footsteps of a person whose youth betrayed itself in its elastic and +unmeasured tread, and in the gay, free carol which broke out by fits +and starts upon the gentle stillness of the evening. + +There was something rather indicative of poetical taste than musical +science in the selection of this vesper hymn, which always commenced +with,-- + + "'T is merry, 't is merry, in good green wood," + +and never proceeded a syllable further than the end of the second +line,-- + + "when birds are about and singing;" + +from the last word of which, after a brief pause, it invariably +started forth into joyous "iteration." + +Presently a heavier, yet still more rapid, step than that of the youth +was heard behind; and, as it overtook the latter, a loud, clear, good- +humoured voice gave the salutation of the evening. The tone in which +this courtesy was returned was frank, distinct, and peculiarly +harmonious. + +"Good evening, my friend. How far is it to W----? I hope I am not +out of the direct road?" + +"To W----, sir?" said the man, touching his hat, as he perceived, in +spite of the dusk, something in the air and voice of his new +acquaintance which called for a greater degree of respect than he was +at first disposed to accord to a pedestrian traveller,--"to W----, +sir? why, you will not surely go there to-night? it is more than +eight miles distant, and the roads none of the best" + +"Now, a curse on all rogues!" quoth the youth, with a serious sort of +vivacity. "Why, the miller at the foot of the hill assured me I +should be at my journey's end in less than an hour." + +"He may have said right, sir," returned the man, "yet you will not +reach W---- in twice that time." + +"How do you mean?" said the younger stranger. + +"Why, that you may for once force a miller to speak truth in spite of +himself, and make a public-house, about three miles hence, the end of +your day's journey." + +"Thank you for the hint," said the youth. "Does the house you speak +of lie on the road-side?" + +"No, sir: the lane branches off about two miles hence, and you must +then turn to the right; but till then our way is the same, and if you +would not prefer your own company to mine we can trudge on together." + +"With all my heart," rejoined the younger stranger; "and not the less +willingly from the brisk pace you walk. I thought I had few equals in +pedestrianism; but it should not be for a small wager that I would +undertake to keep up with you." + +"Perhaps, sir," said the man, laughing, "I'll have had in the course of +my life a better usage and a longer experience of my heels than you +have." + +Somewhat startled by a speech of so equivocal a meaning, the youth, +for the first time, turned round to examine, as well as the increasing +darkness would permit, the size and appearance of his companion. He +was not perhaps too well satisfied with his survey. His fellow +pedestrian was about six feet high, and of a corresponding girth of +limb and frame, which would have made him fearful odds in any +encounter where bodily strength was the best means of conquest. +Notwithstanding the mildness of the weather, he was closely buttoned +in a rough great-coat, which was well calculated to give all due +effect to the athletic proportions of the wearer. + +There was a pause of some moments. + +"This is but a wild, savage sort of scene for England, sir, in this +day of new-fashioned ploughs and farming improvements," said the tall +stranger, looking round at the ragged wastes and grim woods, which lay +steeped in the shade beside and before them. + +"True," answered the youth; "and in a few years agricultural +innovation will scarcely leave, even in these wastes, a single furze- +blossom for the bee or a tuft of green-sward for the grasshopper; but, +however unpleasant the change may be for us foot-travellers, we must +not repine at what they tell us is so sure a witness of the prosperity +of the country." + +"They tell us! who tell us?" exclaimed the stranger, with great +vivacity. "Is it the puny and spiritless artisan, or the debased and +crippled slave of the counter and the till, or the sallow speculator +on morals, who would mete us out our liberty, our happiness, our very +feelings by the yard and inch and fraction? No, no, let them follow +what the books and precepts of their own wisdom teach them; let them +cultivate more highly the lands they have already parcelled out by +dikes and fences, and leave, though at scanty intervals, some green +patches of unpolluted land for the poor man's beast and the free man's +foot." + +"You are an enthusiast on this subject," said the younger traveller, +not a little surprised at the tone and words of the last speech; "and +if I were not just about to commence the world with a firm persuasion +that enthusiasm on any matter is a great obstacle to success, I could +be as warm though not so eloquent as yourself." + +"Ah, sir," said the stranger, sinking into a more natural and careless +tone, "I have a better right than I imagine you can claim to repine or +even to inveigh against the boundaries which are, day by day and hour +by hour, encroaching upon what I have learned to look upon as my own +territory. You were, just before I joined you, singing an old song; I +honour you for your taste: and no offence, sir, but a sort of +fellowship in feeling made me take the liberty to accost you. I am no +very great scholar in other things; but I owe my present circumstances +of life solely to my fondness for those old songs and quaint +madrigals. And I believe no person can better apply to himself Will +Shakspeare's invitation,-- + + 'Under the greenwood tree + Who loves to lie with me, + And tune his merry note + Unto the sweet bird's throat, + Come hither, come hither, come hither, + Here shall he see + No enemy + But winter and rough weather.'" + +Relieved from his former fear, but with increased curiosity at this +quotation, which was half said, half sung, in a tone which seemed to +evince a hearty relish for the sense of the words, the youth replied,-- + +"Truly, I did not expect to meet among the travellers of this wild +country with so well-stored a memory. And, indeed, I should have +imagined that the only persons to whom your verses could exactly have +applied were those honourable vagrants from the Nile whom in vulgar +language we term gypsies." + +"Precisely so, sir," answered the tall stranger, indifferently; +"precisely so. It is to that ancient body that I belong." + +"The devil you do!" quoth the youth, in unsophisticated surprise; "the +progress of education is indeed astonishing!" + +"Why," answered the stranger, laughing, "to tell you the truth, sir, I +am a gypsy by inclination, not birth. The illustrious Bamfylde Moore +Carew is not the only example of one of gentle blood and honourable +education whom the fleshpots of Egypt have seduced." + +"I congratulate myself," quoth the youth, in a tone that might have +been in jest, "upon becoming acquainted with a character at once so +respectable and so novel; and, to return your quotation in the way of +a compliment, I cry out with the most fashionable author of +Elizabeth's days,-- + + 'O for a bowl of fat Canary, + Rich Palermo, sparkling Sherry,' + +in order to drink to our better acquaintance." + +"Thank you, sir,--thank you," cried the strange gypsy, seemingly +delighted with the spirit with which his young acquaintance appeared +to enter into his character, and his quotation from a class of authors +at that time much less known and appreciated than at present; "and if +you have seen already enough of the world to take up with ale when +neither Canary, Palermo, nor Sherry are forthcoming, I will promise, +at least, to pledge you in large draughts of that homely beverage. +What say you to passing a night with us? our tents are yet more at +hand than the public-house of which I spoke to you." The young man +hesitated a moment, then replied,-- + +"I will answer you frankly, my friend, even though I may find cause to +repent my confidence. I have a few guineas about me, which, though +not a large sum, are my all. Now, however ancient and honourable your +fraternity may be, they labour under a sad confusion, I fear, in their +ideas of meum and tuum." + +"Faith, sir, I believe you are right; and were you some years older, I +think you would not have favoured me with the same disclosure you have +done now; but you may be quite easy on that score. If you were made +of gold, the rascals would not filch off the corner of your garment as +long as you were under my protection. Does this assurance satisfy +you?" + +"Perfectly," said the youth; "and now how far are we from your +encampment? I assure you I am all eagerness to be among a set of +which I have witnessed such a specimen." + +"Nay, nay," returned the gypsy, "you must not judge of all my brethren +by me: I confess that they are but a rough tribe. However, I love +them dearly; and am only the more inclined to think them honest to +each other, because they are rogues to all the rest of the world." + +By this time our travellers had advanced nearly two miles since they +had commenced companionship; and at a turn in the lane, about three +hundred yards farther on, they caught a glimpse of a distant fire +burning brightly through the dim trees. They quickened their pace, +and striking a little out of their path into a common, soon approached +two tents, the Arab homes of the vagrant and singular people with whom +the gypsy claimed brotherhood and alliance. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Here we securely live and eat + The cream of meat; + And keep eternal fires + By which we sit and do divine. + HERRICK: Ode to Sir Clipseby Crew. + +Around a fire which blazed and crackled beneath the large seething- +pot, that seemed an emblem of the mystery and a promise of the good +cheer which are the supposed characteristics of the gypsy race, were +grouped seven or eight persons, upon whose swarthy and strong +countenances the irregular and fitful flame cast a picturesque and not +unbecoming glow. All of these, with the exception of an old crone who +was tending the pot, and a little boy who was feeding the fire with +sundry fragments of stolen wood, started to their feet upon the +entrance of the stranger. + +"What ho! my bob cuffins," cried the gypsy guide, "I have brought you +a gentry cove, to whom you will show all proper respect: and hark ye, +my maunders, if ye dare beg, borrow, or steal a single croker,--ay, +but a bawbee of him, I'll--but ye know me." The gypsy stopped +abruptly, and turned an eye, in which menace vainly struggled with +good-humour, upon each of his brethren, as they submissively bowed to +him and his protege, and poured forth a profusion of promises, to +which their admonitor did not even condescend to listen. He threw off +his great-coat, doubled it down by the best place near the fire, and +made the youth forthwith possess himself of the seat it afforded. He +then lifted the cover of the mysterious caldron. "Well, Mort," cried +he to the old woman, as he bent wistfully down, "what have we here?" + +"Two ducks, three chickens, and a rabbit, with some potatoes," growled +the old hag, who claimed the usual privilege of her culinary office, +to be as ill-tempered as she pleased. + +"Good!" said the gypsy; "and now, Mim, my cull, go to the other tent, +and ask its inhabitants, in my name, to come here and sup; bid them +bring their caldron to eke out ours: I'll find the lush." + +With these words (which Mim, a short, swarthy member of the gang, with +a countenance too astute to be pleasing, instantly started forth to +obey) the gypsy stretched himself at full length by the youth's side, +and began reminding him, with some jocularity and at some length, of +his promise to drink to their better acquaintance. + +Something there was in the scene, the fire, the caldron, the intent +figure and withered countenance of the old woman, the grouping of the +other forms, the rude but not unpicturesque tent, the dark still woods +on either side, with the deep and cloudless skies above, as the stars +broke forth one by one upon the silent air, which (to use the orthodox +phrase of the novelist) would not have been wholly unworthy the bold +pencil of Salvator himself. + +The youth eyed, with that involuntary respect which personal +advantages always command, the large yet symmetrical proportions of +his wild companion; nor was the face which belonged to that frame much +less deserving of attention. Though not handsome, it was both shrewd +and prepossessing in its expression; the forehead was prominent, the +brows overhung the eyes, which were large, dark, and, unlike those of +the tribe in general, rather calm than brilliant; the complexion, +though sun-burnt, was not swarthy, and the face was carefully and +cleanly shaved, so as to give all due advantage of contrast to the +brown luxuriant locks which fell rather in flakes than curls, on +either side of the healthful and manly cheeks. In age, he was about +thirty-five, and, though his air and mien were assuredly not lofty nor +aristocratic, yet they were strikingly above the bearing of his +vagabond companions: those companions were in all respects of the +ordinary race of gypsies; the cunning and flashing eye, the raven +locks, the dazzling teeth, the bronzed colour, and the low, slight, +active form, were as strongly their distinguishing characteristics as +the tokens of all their tribe. + +But to these, the appearance of the youth presented a striking and +beautiful contrast. + +He had only just passed the stage of boyhood, perhaps he might have +seen eighteen summers, probably not so many. He had, in imitation of +his companion, and perhaps from mistaken courtesy to his new society, +doffed his hat; and the attitude which he had chosen fully developed +the noble and intellectual turn of his head and throat. His hair, as +yet preserved from the disfiguring fashions of the day, was of a deep +auburn, which was rapidly becoming of a more chestnut hue, and curled +in short close curls from the nape of the neck to the commencement of +a forehead singularly white and high. His brows finely and lightly +pencilled, and his long lashes of the darkest dye, gave a deeper and +perhaps softer shade than they otherwise would have worn to eyes quick +and observant in their expression and of a light hazel in their +colour. His cheek was very fair, and the red light of the fire cast +an artificial tint of increased glow upon a complexion that had +naturally rather bloom than colour; while a dark riding frock set off +in their full beauty the fine outline of his chest and the slender +symmetry of his frame. + +But it was neither his features nor his form, eminently handsome as +they were, which gave the principal charm to the young stranger's +appearance: it was the strikingly bold, buoyant, frank, and almost +joyous expression which presided over all. There seemed to dwell the +first glow and life of youth, undimmed by a single fear and unbaffled +in a single hope. There were the elastic spring, the inexhaustible +wealth of energies which defied in their exulting pride the heaviness +of sorrow and the harassments of time. It was a face that, while it +filled you with some melancholy foreboding of the changes and chances +which must, in the inevitable course of fate, cloud the openness of +the unwrinkled brow, and soberize the fire of the daring and restless +eye, instilled also within you some assurance of triumph, and some +omen of success,--a vague but powerful sympathy with the adventurous +and cheerful spirit which appeared literally to speak in its +expression. It was a face you might imagine in one born under a +prosperous star; and you felt, as you gazed, a confidence in that +bright countenance, which, like the shield of the British Prince, +[Prince Arthur.--See "The Faerie Queene."] seemed possessed with a +spell to charm into impotence the evil spirits who menaced its +possessor. + +"Well, sir," said his friend, the gypsy, who had in his turn been +surveying with admiration the sinewy and agile frame of his young +guest, "well, sir, how fares your appetite? Old Dame Bingo will be +mortally offended if you do not do ample justice to her good cheer." + +"If so," answered our traveller, who, young as he was, had learnt +already the grand secret of making in every situation a female friend, +"if so, I shall be likely to offend her still more." + +"And how, my pretty master?" said the old crone with an iron smile. + +"Why, I shall be bold enough to reconcile matters with a kiss, Mrs. +Bingo," answered the youth. + +"Ha! Ha!" shouted the tall gypsy; "it is many a long day since my old +Mort slapped a gallant's face for such an affront. But here come our +messmates. Good evening, my mumpers; make your bows to this gentleman +who has come to bowse with us to-night. 'Gad, we'll show him that old +ale's none the worse for keeping company with the moon's darlings. +Come, sit down, sit down. Where's the cloth, ye ill-mannered loons, +and the knives and platters? Have we no holiday customs for +strangers, think ye? Mim, my cove, off to my caravan; bring out the +knives, and all other rattletraps; and harkye, my cuffin, this small +key opens the inner hole, where you will find two barrels; bring one +of them. I'll warrant it of the best, for the brewer himself drank +some of the same sort but two hours before I nimm'd them. Come, +stump, my cull, make yourself wings. Ho, Dame Bingo, is not that pot +of thine seething yet? Ah, my young gentleman, you commence betimes; +so much the better; if love's a summer's day, we all know how early a +summer morning begins," added the jovial Egyptian in a lower voice +(feeling perhaps that he was only understood by himself), as he gazed +complacently on the youth, who, with that happy facility of making +himself everywhere at home so uncommon to his countrymen, was already +paying compliments suited to their understanding to two fair daughters +of the tribe who had entered with the new-comers. Yet had he too much +craft or delicacy, call it which you will, to continue his addresses +to that limit where ridicule or jealousy from the male part of the +assemblage might commence; on the contrary, he soon turned to the men, +and addressed them with a familiarity so frank and so suited to their +taste that he grew no less rapidly in their favour than he had already +done in that of the women, and when the contents of the two caldrons +were at length set upon the coarse but clean cloth which in honour of +his arrival covered the sod, it was in the midst of a loud and +universal peal of laughter which some broad witticism of the young +stranger had produced that the party sat down to their repast. + +Bright were the eyes and sleek the tresses of the damsel who placed +herself by the side of the stranger, and many were the alluring +glances and insinuated compliments which replied to his open +admiration and profuse flattery; but still there was nothing exclusive +in his attentions; perhaps an ignorance of the customs of his +entertainers, and a consequent discreet fear of offending them, +restrained him; or perhaps he found ample food for occupation in the +plentiful dainties which his host heaped before him. + +"Now tell me," said the gypsy chief (for chief he appeared to be), "if +we lead not a merrier life than you dreamt of? or would you have us +change our coarse fare and our simple tents, our vigorous limbs and +free hearts, for the meagre board, the monotonous chamber, the +diseased frame, and the toiling, careful, and withered spirit of some +miserable mechanic?" + +"Change!" cried the youth, with an earnestness which, if affected, was +an exquisite counterfeit, "by Heaven, I would change with you myself." + +"Bravo, my fine cove!" cried the host, and all the gang echoed their +sympathy with his applause. + +The youth continued: "Meat, and that plentiful; ale, and that strong; +women, and those pretty ones: what can man desire more?" + +"Ay," cried the host, "and all for nothing,--no, not even a tax; who +else in this kingdom can say that? Come, Mim, push round the ale." + +And the ale was pushed round, and if coarse the merriment, loud at +least was the laugh that rang ever and anon from the old tent; and +though, at moments, something in the guest's eye and lip might have +seemed, to a very shrewd observer, a little wandering and absent, yet, +upon the whole, he was almost as much at ease as the rest, and if he +was not quite as talkative he was to the full as noisy. + +By degrees, as the hour grew later and the barrel less heavy, the +conversation changed into one universal clatter. Some told their +feats in beggary; others, their achievements in theft; not a viand +they had fed on but had its appropriate legend; even the old rabbit, +which had been as tough as old rabbit can well be, had not been +honestly taken from his burrow; no less a person than Mim himself had +purloined it from a widow's footman who was carrying it to an old maid +from her nephew the Squire. + +"Silence," cried the host, who loved talking as well as the rest, and +who for the last ten minutes had been vainly endeavouring to obtain +attention. "Silence! my maunders, it's late, and we shall have the +queer cuffins [magistrates] upon us if we keep it up much longer. +What, ho, Mim, are you still gabbling at the foot of the table when +your betters are talking? As sure as my name's King Cole, I'll choke +you with your own rabbit skin, if you don't hush your prating cheat,-- +nay, never look so abashed: if you will make a noise, come forward, +and sing us a gypsy song. You see, my young sir," turning to his +guest, "that we are not without our pretensions to the fine arts." + +At this order, Mim started forth, and taking his station at the right +hand of the soi-disant King Cole, began the following song, the chorus +of which was chanted in full diapason by the whole group, with the +additional force of emphasis that knives, feet, and fists could +bestow:-- + + THE GYPSY'S SONG. + + The king to his hall, and the steed to his stall, + And the cit to his bilking board; + But we are not bound to an acre of ground, + For our home is the houseless sward. + We sow not, nor toil; yet we glean from the soil + As much as its reapers do; + And wherever we rove, we feed on the cove + Who gibes at the mumping crew. + CHORUS.--So the king to his hall, etc. + + We care not a straw for the limbs of the law, + Nor a fig for the cuffin queer; + While Hodge and his neighbour shall lavish and labour, + Our tent is as sure of its cheer. + CHORUS.--So the king to his hall, etc. + + The worst have an awe of the harman's [constable] claw, + And the best will avoid the trap; [bailiff] + But our wealth is as free of the bailiff's see + As our necks of the twisting crap. [gallows] + CHORUS.--So the king to his hall, etc. + + They say it is sweet to win the meat + For the which one has sorely wrought; + But I never could find that we lacked the mind + For the food that has cost us nought! + CHRUS.--So the king to his hall, etc. + + And when we have ceased from our fearless feast + Why, our jigger [door] will need no bars; + Our sentry shall be on the owlet's tree, + And our lamps the glorious stars. + + CHORUS. + So the king to his hall, and the steed to his stall, + And the cit to his bilking board; + But we are not bound to an acre of ground, + For our home is the houseless sward. + +Rude as was this lawless stave, the spirit with which it was sung +atoned to the young stranger for its obscurity and quaintness; as for +his host, that curious personage took a lusty and prominent part in +the chorus; nor did the old woods refuse their share of the burden, +but sent back a merry echo to the chief's deep voice and the harsher +notes of his jovial brethren. + +When the glee had ceased, King Cole rose, the whole band followed his +example, the cloth was cleared in a trice, the barrel--oh! what a +falling off was there!--was rolled into a corner of the tent, and the +crew to whom the awning belonged began to settle themselves to rest; +while those who owned the other encampment marched forth, with King +Cole at their head. Leaning with no light weight upon his guest's +arm, the lover of ancient minstrelsy poured into the youth's ear a +strain of eulogy, rather eloquent than coherent, upon the scene they +had just witnessed. + +"What," cried his majesty in an enthusiastic tone, "what can be so +truly regal as our state? Can any man control us? Are we not above +all laws? Are we not the most despotic of kings? Nay, more than the +kings of earth, are we not the kings of Fairyland itself? Do we not +realize the golden dreams of the old rhymers, luxurious dogs that they +were? Who would not cry out,-- + + 'Blest silent groves! Oh, may ye be + Forever Mirth's best nursery! + May pure Contents + Forever pitch their tents + Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains.'" + +Uttering this notable extract from the thrice-honoured Sir Henry +Wotton, King Cole turned abruptly from the common, entered the wood +which skirted it, and, only attended by his guest and his minister +Mim, came suddenly, by an unexpected and picturesque opening in the +trees, upon one of those itinerant vehicles termed caravans, he +ascended the few steps which led to the entrance, opened the door, and +was instantly in the arms of a pretty and young woman. On seeing our +hero (for such we fear the youth is likely to become), she drew back +with a blush not often found upon regal cheeks. + +"Pooh," said King Cole, half tauntingly, half fondly, "pooh, Lucy, +blushes are garden flowers, and ought never to be found wild in the +woods:" then changing his tone, he said, "come, put some fresh straw +in the corner, this stranger honours our palace to-night; Mim, unload +thyself of our royal treasures; watch without and vanish from within!" + +Depositing on his majesty's floor the appurtenances of the regal +supper-table, Mim made his respectful adieus and disappeared; +meanwhile the queen scattered some fresh straw over a mattress in the +narrow chamber, and, laying over all a sheet of singularly snowy hue, +made her guest some apology for the badness of his lodging; this King +Cole interrupted by a most elaborately noisy yawn and a declaration of +extreme sleepiness. "Now, Lucy, let us leave the gentleman to what he +will like better than soft words even from a queen. Good night, sir, +we shall be stirring at daybreak;" and with this farewell King Cole +took the lady's arm, and retired with her into an inner compartment of +the caravan. + +Left to himself, our hero looked round with surprise at the exceeding +neatness which reigned over the whole apartment. But what chiefly +engrossed the attention of one to whose early habits books had always +been treasures were several volumes, ranged in comely shelves, fenced +with wirework, on either side of the fireplace. "Courage," thought +he, as he stretched himself on his humble couch, "my adventures have +commenced well: a gypsy tent, to be sure, is nothing very new; but a +gypsy who quotes poetry, and enjoys a modest wife, speaks better than +books do for the improvement of the world!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Hath not old custom made this life more sweet + Than that of painted pomp?--As You Like It. + +The sun broke cheerfully through the small lattice of the caravan, as +the youth opened his eyes and saw the good-humoured countenance of his +gypsy host bending over him complacently. + +"You slept so soundly, sir, that I did not like to disturb you; but my +good wife only waits your rising to have all ready for breakfast." + +"It were a thousand pities," cried the guest, leaping from his bed, +"that so pretty a face should look cross on my account, so I will not +keep her waiting an instant." + +The gypsy smiled, as he answered, "I require no professional help from +the devil, sir, to foretell your fortune." + +"No!--and what is it?" + +"Honour, reputation, success: all that are ever won by a soft tongue, +if it be backed by a bold heart." + +Bright and keen was the flash which shot over the countenance of the +one for whom this prediction was made, as he listened to it with a +fondness for which his reason rebuked him. + +He turned aside with a sigh, which did not escape the gypsy, and +bathed his face in the water which the provident hand of the good +woman had set out for his lavations. + +"Well," said his host, when the youth had finished his brief toilet, +"suppose we breathe the fresh air, while Lucy smooths your bed and +prepares the breakfast?" + +"With all my heart," replied the youth, and they descended the steps +which led into the wood. It was a beautiful, fresh morning; the air +was like a draught from a Spirit's fountain, and filled the heart with +new youth and the blood with a rapturous delight; the leaves--the +green, green leaves of spring--were quivering on the trees, among +which the happy birds fluttered and breathed the gladness of their +souls in song. While the dewdrops that-- + + "strewed + A baptism o'er the flowers"-- + +gave back in their million mirrors the reflected smiles of the +cloudless and rejoicing sun. + +"Nature," said the gypsy, "has bestowed on her children a gorgeous +present in such a morning." + +"True," said the youth; "and you, of us two, perhaps only deserve it; +as for me, when I think of the long road of dust, heat, and toil, that +lies before me, I could almost wish to stop here and ask an admission +into the gypsy's tents." + +"You could not do a wiser thing!" said the gypsy, gravely. + +"But fate leaves me no choice," continued the youth, as seriously as +if he were in earnest; "and I must quit you immediately after I have a +second time tasted of your hospitable fare." + +"If it must be so," answered the gypsy, "I will see you, at least, a +mile or two on your road." The youth thanked him for a promise which +his curiosity made acceptable, and they turned once more to the +caravan. + +The meal, however obtained, met with as much honour as it could +possibly have received from the farmer from whom its materials were +borrowed. + +It was not without complacency that the worthy pair beheld the notice +their guest lavished upon a fair, curly-headed boy of about three +years old, the sole child and idol of the gypsy potentates. But they +did not perceive, when the youth rose to depart, that he slipped into +the folds of the child's dress a ring of some value, the only one he +possessed. + +"And now," said he, after having thanked his entertainers for their +hospitality, "I must say good-by to your flock, and set out upon my +day's journey." + +Lucy, despite her bashfulness, shook hands with her handsome guest; +and the latter, accompanied by the gypsy chief, strolled down to the +encampments. + +Open and free was his parting farewell to the inmates of the two +tents, and liberal was the hand which showered upon all--especially on +the damsel who had been his Thais of the evening feast--the silver +coins which made no inconsiderable portion of his present property. + +It was amidst the oracular wishes and favourable predictions of the +whole crew that he recommenced his journey with the gypsy chief. + +When the tents were fairly out of sight, and not till then, King Cole +broke the silence which had as yet subsisted between them. + +"I suppose, my young gentleman, that you expect to meet some of your +friends or relations at W----? I know not what they will say when +they hear where you have spent the night." + +"Indeed!" said the youth; "whoever hears my adventures, relation or +not, will be delighted with my description; but in sober earnest, I +expect to find no one at W---- more my friend than a surly innkeeper, +unless it be his dog." + +"Why, they surely do not suffer a stripling of your youth and evident +quality to wander alone!" cried King Cole, in undisguised surprise. + +The young traveller made no prompt answer, but bent down as if to +pluck a wild-flower which grew by the road-side: after a pause, he +said,-- + +"Nay, Master Cole, you must not set me the example of playing the +inquisitor, or you cannot guess how troublesome I shall be. To tell +you the truth, I am dying with curiosity to know something more about +you than you may be disposed to tell me: you have already confessed +that, however boon companions your gypsies may be, it is not among +gypsies that you were born and bred." + +King Cole laughed: perhaps he was not ill pleased by the curiosity of +his guest, nor by the opportunity it afforded him of being his own +hero. + +"My story, sir," said he, "would be soon told, if you thought it worth +the hearing, nor does it contain anything which should prevent my +telling it." + +"If so," quoth the youth, "I shall conceive your satisfying my request +a still greater favour than those you have already bestowed upon me." + +The gypsy relaxed his pace into an indolent saunter, as he commenced:-- + +"The first scene that I remember was similar to that which you +witnessed last night. The savage tent, and the green moor; the fagot +blaze; the eternal pot, with its hissing note of preparation; the old +dame who tended it, and the ragged urchins who learned from its +contents the first reward of theft and the earliest temptation to it, +--all these are blended into agreeable confusion as the primal +impressions of my childhood. The woman who nurtured me as my mother +was rather capricious than kind, and my infancy passed away, like that +of more favoured scions of fortune, in alternate chastisement and +caresses. In good truth, Kinching Meg had the shrillest voice and the +heaviest hand of the whole crew; and I cannot complain of injustice, +since she treated me no worse than the rest. Notwithstanding the +irregularity of my education, I grew up strong and healthy, and my +reputed mother had taught me so much fear for herself that she left me +none for anything else; accordingly, I became bold, reckless, and +adventurous, and at the age of thirteen was as thorough a reprobate as +the tribe could desire. At that time a singular change befell me: we +(that is, my mother and myself) were begging not many miles hence at +the door of a rich man's house in which the mistress lay on her death- +bed. That mistress was my real mother, from whom Meg had stolen me in +the first year of existence. Whether it was through the fear of +conscience or the hope of reward, no sooner had Meg learnt the +dangerous state of my poor mother, the constant grief, which they said +had been the sole though slow cause of her disease, and the large sums +which had been repeatedly offered for my recovery; no sooner, I say, +did Meg ascertain all these particulars than she fought her way up to +the sick-chamber, fell on her knees before the bed, owned her crime, +and produced myself. Various little proofs of time, place, +circumstance; the clothing I had worn when stolen, and which was still +preserved, joined to the striking likeness I bore to both my parents, +especially to my father, silenced all doubt and incredulity: I was +welcomed home with a joy which it is in vain to describe. My return +seemed to recall my mother from the grave; she lingered on for many +months longer than her physicians thought it possible, and when she +died her last words commended me to my father's protection." + +"My surviving parent needed no such request. He lavished upon me all +that superfluity of fondness and food of which those good people who +are resolved to spoil their children are so prodigal. He could not +bear the idea of sending me to school; accordingly he took a tutor for +me,--a simple-hearted, gentle, kind man, who possessed a vast store of +learning rather curious than useful. He was a tolerable, and at least +an enthusiastic antiquarian, a more than tolerable poetaster; and he +had a prodigious budget full of old ballads and songs, which he loved +better to teach and I to learn, than all the 'Latin, Greek, geography, +astronomy, and the use of the globes,' which my poor father had so +sedulously bargained for." + +"Accordingly, I became exceedingly well-informed in all the 'precious +conceits' and 'golden garlands' of our British ancients, and continued +exceedingly ignorant of everything else, save and except a few of the +most fashionable novels of the day, and the contents of six lying +volumes of voyages and travels, which flattered both my appetite for +the wonderful and my love of the adventurous. My studies, such as +they were, were not by any means suited to curb or direct the vagrant +tastes my childhood had acquired: on the contrary, the old poets, with +their luxurious description of the 'green wood' and the forest life; +the fashionable novelists, with their spirited accounts of the +wanderings of some fortunate rogue, and the ingenious travellers, with +their wild fables, so dear to the imagination of every boy, only +fomented within me a strong though secret regret at my change of life, +and a restless disgust to the tame home and bounded roamings to which +I was condemned. When I was about seventeen, my father sold his +property (which he had become possessed of in right of my mother), and +transferred the purchase money to the security of the Funds. Shortly +afterwards he died; the bulk of his fortune became mine; the remainder +was settled upon a sister, many years older than myself, whom, in +consequence of her marriage and residence in a remote part of Wales, I +had never yet seen." + +"Now, then, I was perfectly free and unfettered; my guardian lived in +Scotland, and left me entirely to the guidance of my tutor, who was +both too simple and too indolent to resist my inclinations. I went to +London, became acquainted with a set of most royal scamps, frequented +the theatres and the taverns, the various resorts which constitute the +gayeties of a blood just above the middle class, and was one of the +noisiest and wildest 'blades' that ever heard the 'chimes by midnight' +and the magistrate's lecture for matins. I was a sort of leader among +the jolly dogs I consorted with." + +"My earlier education gave a raciness and nature to my delineations of +'life' which delighted them. But somehow or other I grew wearied of +this sort of existence. About a year after I was of age my fortune +was more than three parts spent; I fell ill with drinking and grew +dull with remorse: need I add that my comrades left me to myself? A +fit of the spleen, especially if accompanied with duns, makes one +wofully misanthropic; so, when I recovered from my illness, I set out +on a tour through Great Britain and France,--alone, and principally on +foot. Oh, the rapture of shaking off the half friends and cold +formalities of society and finding oneself all unfettered, with no +companion but Nature, no guide but youth, and no flatterer but hope!" + +"Well, my young friend, I travelled for two years, and saw even in +that short time enough of this busy world to weary and disgust me with +its ordinary customs. I was not made to be polite, still less to be +ambitious. I sighed after the coarse comrades and the free tents of +my first associates; and a thousand remembrances of the gypsy +wanderings, steeped in all the green and exhilarating colours of +childhood, perpetually haunted my mind. On my return from my +wanderings I found a letter from my sister, who, having become a +widow, had left Wales, and had now fixed her residence in a well +visited watering-place in the west of England. I had never yet seen +her, and her letter was a fine-ladylike sort of epistle, with a great +deal of romance and a very little sense, written in an extremely +pretty hand, and ending with a quotation from Pope (I never could +endure Pope, nor indeed any of the poets of the days of Anne and her +successors). It was a beautiful season of the year: I had been inured +to pedestrian excursions; so I set off on foot to see my nearest +surviving relative. On the way, I fell in (though on a very different +spot) with the very encampment you saw last night. By heavens, that +was a merry meeting to me! I joined, and journeyed with them for +several days: never do I remember a happier time. Then, after many +years of bondage and stiffness, and accordance with the world, I found +myself at ease, like a released bird; with what zest did I join in the +rude jokes and the knavish tricks, the stolen feasts and the roofless +nights of those careless vagabonds!" + +"I left my fellow-travellers at the entrance of the town where my +sister lived. Now came the contrast. Somewhat hot, rather coarsely +clad, and covered with the dust of a long summer's day, I was ushered +into a little drawing-room, eighteen feet by twelve, as I was +afterwards somewhat pompously informed. A flaunting carpet, green, +red, and yellow, covered the floor. A full-length picture of a thin +woman, looking most agreeably ill-tempered, stared down at me from the +chimney-piece; three stuffed birds--how emblematic of domestic life!-- +stood stiff and imprisoned, even after death, in a glass cage. A +fire-screen and a bright fireplace; chairs covered with holland, to +preserve them from the atmosphere; and long mirrors, wrapped as to the +frame-work in yellow muslin, to keep off the flies,--finish the +panorama of this watering-place mansion. The door opened, silks +rustled, a voice shrieked 'My Brother!' and a figure, a thin figure, +the original of the picture over the chimney-piece, rushed in." + +"I can well fancy her joy," said the youth. + +"You can do no such thing, begging your pardon, sir," resumed King +Cole. "She had no joy at all: she was exceedingly surprised and +disappointed. In spite of my early adventures, I had nothing +picturesque or romantic about me at all. I was very thirsty, and I +called for beer; I was very tired, and I lay down on the sofa; I wore +thick shoes and small buckles; and my clothes were made God knows +where, and were certainly put on God knows how. My sister was +miserably ashamed of me: she had not even the manners to disguise it. +In a higher rank of life than that which she held she would have +suffered far less mortification; for I fancy great people pay but +little real attention to externals. Even if a man of rank is vulgar, +it makes no difference in the orbit in which he moves: but your +'genteel gentlewomen' are so terribly dependent upon what Mrs. Tomkins +will say; so very uneasy about their relations and the opinion they +are held in; and, above all, so made up of appearances and clothes; so +undone if they do not eat, drink, and talk a la mode,--that I can +fancy no shame like that of my poor sister at having found, and being +found with, a vulgar brother." + +"I saw how unwelcome I was and I did not punish myself by a long +visit. I left her house and returned towards London. On my road, I +again met with my gypsy friends: the warmth of their welcome enchanted +me; you may guess the rest. I stayed with them so long that I could +not bear to leave them; I re-entered their crew: I am one among them. +Not that I have become altogether and solely of the tribe: I still +leave them whenever the whim seizes me, and repair to the great cities +and thoroughfares of man. There I am soon driven back again to my +favourite and fresh fields, as a reed upon a wild stream is dashed +back upon the green rushes from which it has been torn. You perceive +that I have many comforts and distinctions above the rest; for, alas, +sir, there is no society, however free and democratic, where wealth +will not create an aristocracy; the remnant of my fortune provides me +with my unostentatious equipage and the few luxuries it contains; it +repays secretly to the poor what my fellow-vagrants occasionally filch +from them; it allows me to curb among the crew all the grosser and +heavier offences against the law to which want might otherwise compel +them; and it serves to keep up that sway and ascendency which my +superior education and fluent spirits enabled me at first to attain. +Though not legally their king, I assume that title over the few +encampments with which I am accustomed to travel; and you perceive +that I have given my simple name both to the jocular and kingly +dignity of which the old song will often remind you. My story is +done." + +"Not quite," said his companion: "your wife? How came you by that +blessing?" + +"Ah! thereby hangs a pretty and a love-sick tale, which would not +stand ill in an ancient ballad; but I will content myself with briefly +sketching it. Lucy is the daughter of a gentleman farmer: about four +years ago I fell in love with her. I wooed her clandestinely, and at +last I owned I was a gypsy: I did not add my birth nor fortune; no, I +was full of the romance of the Nut-brown Maid's lover, and attempted a +trial of woman's affection, which even in these days was not +disappointed. Still her father would not consent to our marriage, +till very luckily things went bad with him; corn, crops, cattle,--the +deuce was in them all; an execution was in his house, and a writ out +against his person. I settled these matters for him, and in return +received a father-in-law's blessing, and we are now the best friends +in the world. Poor Lucy is perfectly reconciled to her caravan and +her wandering husband, and has never, I believe, once repented the day +on which she became the gypsy's wife!" + +"I thank you heartily for your history," said the youth, who had +listened very attentively to this detail; "and though my happiness and +pursuits are centred in that world which you despise, yet I confess +that I feel a sensation very like envy at your singular choice; and I +would not dare to ask of my heart whether that choice is not happier, +as it is certainly more philosophical, than mine." + +They had now reached a part of the road where the country assumed a +totally different character; the woods and moors were no longer +visible, but a broad and somewhat bleak extent of country lay before +them. Here and there only a few solitary trees broke the uniformity +of the wide fields and scanty hedgerows, and at distant intervals the +thin spires of the scattered churches rose, like the prayers of which +they were the symbols, to mingle themselves with heaven. + +The gypsy paused: "I will accompany you," said he, "no farther; your +way lies straight onwards, and you will reach W---- before noon; +farewell, and may God watch over you!" + +"Farewell!" said the youth, warmly pressing the hand which was +extended to him. "If we ever meet again, it will probably solve a +curious riddle; namely, whether you are not disgusted with the caravan +and I with the world!" + +"The latter is more likely than the former," said the gypsy, for one +stands a much greater chance of being disgusted with others than with +one's self; so changing a little the old lines, I will wish you adieu +after my own fashion, namely, in verse,-- + + 'Go, set thy heart on winged wealth, + Or unto honour's towers aspire; + But give me freedom and my health, + And there's the sum of my desire!'" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + The letter, madam; have you none for me?--The Rendezvous. + Provide surgeons.--Lover's Progress. + +Our solitary traveller pursued his way with the light step and gay +spirits of youth and health. + +"Turn gypsy, indeed!" he said, talking to himself; "there is something +better in store for me than that. Ay, I have all the world before me +where to choose--not my place of rest. No, many a long year will pass +away ere any place of rest will be my choice! I wonder whether I +shall find the letter at W----; the letter, the last letter I shall +ever have from home but it is no home to me now; and I--I, insulted, +reviled, trampled upon, without even a name--well, well, I will earn a +still fairer one than that of my forefathers. They shall be proud to +own me yet." And with these words the speaker broke off abruptly, +with a swelling chest and a flashing eye; and as, an unknown and +friendless adventurer, he gazed on the expanded and silent country +around him, he felt like Castruccio Castrucani that he could stretch +his hands to the east and to the west and exclaim, "Oh, that my power +kept pace with my spirit, then should it grasp the corners of the +earth!" + +The road wound at last from the champaign country, through which it +had for some miles extended itself, into a narrow lane, girded on +either side by a dead fence. As the youth entered this lane, he was +somewhat startled by the abrupt appearance of a horseman, whose steed +leaped the hedge so close to our hero as almost to endanger his +safety. The rider, a gentleman of about five-and-twenty, pulled up, +and in a tone of great courtesy apologized for his inadvertency; the +apology was readily admitted, and the horseman rode onwards in the +direction of W----. + +Trifling as this incident was, the air and mien of the stranger were +sufficient to arrest irresistibly the thoughts of the young traveller; +and before they had flowed into a fresh channel he found himself in +the town and at the door of the inn to which his expedition was bound. +He entered the bar; a buxom landlady and a still more buxom daughter +were presiding over the spirits of the place. + +"You have some boxes and a letter for me, I believe," said the young +gentleman to the comely hostess. + +"To you, sir!--the name, if you please?" + +"To--to--to C---- L----," said the youth; "the initials C. L., to be +left till called for." + +"Yes, sir, we have some luggage; came last night by the van; and a +letter besides, sir, to C. L. also." + +The daughter lifted her large dark eyes at the handsome stranger, and +felt a wonderful curiosity to know what the letter to C. L. could +possibly be about; meanwhile mine hostess, raising her hand to a shelf +on which stood an Indian slop-basin, the great ornament of the bar at +the Golden Fleece, brought from its cavity a well-folded and well- +sealed epistle. + +"That is it," cried the youth; "show me a private room instantly." + +"What can he want a private room for?" thought the landlady's +daughter. + +"Show the gentleman to the Griffin, No. 4, John Merrylack," said the +landlady herself. + +With an impatient step the owner of the letter followed a slipshod and +marvellously unwashed waiter into No. 4,--a small square asylum for +town travellers, country yeomen, and "single gentlemen;" presenting, +on the one side, an admirable engraving of the Marquis of Granby, and +on the other an equally delightful view of the stable-yard. + +Mr. C. L. flung himself on a chair (there were only four chairs in No. +4), watched the waiter out of the room, seized his letter, broke open +the seal, and read--yea, reader, you shall read it too--as follows:-- + +"Enclosed is the sum to which you are entitled; remember, that it is +all which you can ever claim at my hands; remember also that you have +made the choice which now nothing can persuade me to alter. Be the +name you have so long iniquitously borne henceforth and always +forgotten; upon that condition you may yet hope from my generosity the +future assistance which you must want, but which you could not ask +from my affection. Equally by my heart and my reason you are forever +DISOWNED." + +The letter fell from the reader's hands. He took up the inclosure: it +was an order payable in London for 1,000 pounds; to him it seemed like +the rental of the Indies. + +"Be it so!" he said aloud, and slowly; "be it so! With this will I +carve my way: many a name in history was built upon a worse +foundation!" + +With these words he carefully put up the money, re-read the brief note +which enclosed it, tore the latter into pieces, and then, going +towards the aforesaid view of the stable-yard, threw open the window +and leaned out, apparently in earnest admiration of two pigs which +marched gruntingly towards him, one goat regaling himself upon a +cabbage, and a broken-winded, emaciated horse, which having just been +what the hostler called "rubbed down," was just going to be what the +hostler called "fed." + +While engaged in this interesting survey, the clatter of hoofs was +suddenly heard upon the rough pavement, a bell rang, a dog barked, the +pigs grunted, the hostler ran out, and the stranger, whom our hero had +before met on the road, trotted into the yard. + +It was evident from the obsequiousness of the attendants that the +horseman was a personage of no mean importance; and indeed there was +something singularly distinguished and highbred in his air and +carriage. + +"Who can that be?" said the youth, as the horseman, having dismounted, +turned towards the door of the inn: the question was readily answered, +"There goes pride and poverty!" said the hostler, "Here comes Squire +Mordaunt!" said the landlady. + +At the farther end of the stable-yard, through a narrow gate, the +youth caught a glimpse of the green sward and the springing flowers of +a small garden. Wearied with the sameness of No. 4 rather than with +his journey, he sauntered towards the said gate, and, seating himself +in a small arbour within the garden, surrendered himself to +reflection. + +The result of this self-conference was a determination to leave the +Golden Fleece by the earliest conveyance which went to that great +object and emporium of all his plans and thoughts, London. As, full +of this resolution and buried in the dream which it conjured up, he +was returning with downcast eyes and unheeding steps through the +stable-yard, to the delights of No. 4, he was suddenly accosted by a +loud and alarmed voice,-- + +"For God's sake, sir, look out, or--" + +The sentence was broken off, the intended warning came too late, our +hero staggered back a few steps, and fell, stunned and motionless, +against the stable door. Unconsciously he had passed just behind the +heels of the stranger's horse, which being by no means in good humour +with the clumsy manoeuvres of his shampooer, the hostler, had taken +advantage of the opportunity presented to him of working off his +irritability, and had consequently inflicted a severe kick upon the +right shoulder of Mr. C. L. + +The stranger, honoured by the landlady with the name and title of +Squire Mordaunt, was in the yard at the moment. He hastened towards +the sufferer, who as yet was scarcely sensible, and led him into the +house. The surgeon of the village was sent for and appeared. This +disciple of Galen, commonly known by the name of Jeremiah Bossolton, +was a gentleman considerably more inclined to breadth than length. He +was exactly five feet one inch in height, but thick and solid as a +milestone; a wig of modern cut, carefully curled and powdered, gave +somewhat of a modish and therefore unseemly grace to a solemn eye; a +mouth drawn down at the corners; a nose that had something in it +exceedingly consequential; eyebrows sage and shaggy; ears large and +fiery; and a chin that would have done honour to a mandarin. Now Mr. +Jeremiah Bossolton had a certain peculiarity of speech to which I +shall find it difficult to do justice. Nature had impressed upon his +mind a prodigious love of the grandiloquent; Mr. Bossolton, therefore, +disdained the exact language of the vulgar, and built unto himself a +lofty fabric of words in which his sense managed very frequently to +lose itself. Moreover, upon beginning a sentence of peculiar dignity, +Mr. Bossolton was, it must be confessed, sometimes at a loss to +conclude it in a period worthy of the commencement; and this caprice +of nature which had endowed him with more words than thoughts +(necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention) drove him into a very +ingenious method of remedying the deficiency; this was simply the plan +of repeating the sense by inverting the sentence. + +"How long a period of time," said Mr. Bossolton, "has elapsed since +this deeply-to-be-regretted and seriously-to-be-investigated accident +occurred?" + +"Not many minutes," said Mordaunt; "make no further delay, I beseech +you, but examine the arm; it is not broken, I trust?" + +"In this world, Mr. Mordaunt," said the practitioner, bowing very low, +for the person he addressed was of the most ancient lineage in the +county, "in this world, Mr. Mordaunt, even at the earliest period of +civilization, delay in matters of judgment has ever been considered of +such vital importance, and--and such important vitality, that we find +it inculcated in the proverbs of the Greeks and the sayings of the +Chaldeans as a principle of the most expedient utility, and--and--the +most useful expediency!" + +"Mr. Bossolton," said Mordaunt, in a tone of remarkable and even +artificial softness and civility, "have the kindness immediately to +examine this gentleman's bruises." + +Mr. Bossolton looked up to the calm but haughty face of the speaker, +and without a moment's hesitation proceeded to handle the arm, which +was already stripped for his survey. + +"It frequently occurs," said Mr. Bossolton, "in the course of my +profession, that the forcible, sudden, and vehement application of any +hard substance, like the hoof of a quadruped, to the soft, tender, and +carniferous parts of the human frame, such as the arm, occasions a +pain--a pang, I should rather say--of the intensest acuteness, and-- +and of the acutest intensity." + +"Pray, Mr. Bossolton, is the bone broken?" asked Mordaunt. + +By this time the patient, who had been hitherto in that languor which +extreme pain always produces at first, especially on young frames, was +sufficiently recovered to mark and reply to the kind solicitude of the +last speaker: "I thank you, sir," said he with a smile, "for your +anxiety, but I feel that the bone is not broken; the muscles are a +little hurt, that is all." + +"Young gentleman," said Mr. Bossolton, "you must permit me to say that +they who have all their lives been employed in the pursuit, and the +investigation, and the analysis of certain studies are in general +better acquainted with those studies than they who have neither given +them any importance of consideration--nor--nor any consideration of +importance. Establishing this as my hypothesis, I shall now proceed +to--" + +"Apply immediate remedies, if you please, Mr. Bossolton," interrupted +Mr. Mordaunt, in that sweet and honeyed tone which somehow or other +always silenced even the garrulous practitioner. + +Driven into taciturnity, Mr. Bossolton again inspected the arm, and +proceeded to urge the application of liniments and bandages, which he +promised to prepare with the most solicitudinous despatch and the most +despatchful solicitude. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Your name, Sir! + Ha! my name, you say--my name? + 'T is well--my name--is--nay, I must consider.--Pedrillo. + +This accident occasioned a delay of some days in the plans of the +young gentleman, for whom we trust very soon, both for our own +convenience and that of our reader, to find a fitting appellation. + +Mr. Mordaunt, after seeing every attention paid to him both surgical +and hospitable, took his departure with a promise to call the next +day; leaving behind him a strong impression of curiosity and interest +to serve our hero as some mental occupation until his return. The +bonny landlady came up in a new cap, with blue ribbons, in the course +of the evening, to pay a visit of inquiry to the handsome patient, who +was removed from the Griffin, No. 4, to the Dragon, No. 8,--a room +whose merits were exactly in proportion to its number, namely, twice +as great as those of No. 4. + +"Well, sir," said Mrs. Taptape, with a courtesy, "I trust you find +yourself better." + +"At this moment I do," said the gallant youth, with a significant air. + +"Hem," quoth the landlady. + +A pause ensued. In spite of the compliment, a certain suspicion +suddenly darted across the mind of the hostess. Strong as are the +prepossessions of the sex, those of the profession are much stronger. + +"Honest folk," thought the landlady, "don't travel with their initials +only; the last 'Whitehall Evening' was full of shocking accounts of +swindlers and cheats; and I gave nine pounds odd shillings for the +silver teapot John has brought him up,--as if the delft one was not +good enough for a foot traveller!" + +Pursuing these ideas, Mrs. Taptape, looking bashfully down, said,-- + +"By the by, sir; Mr. Bossolton asked me what name he should put down +in his book for the medicines; what would you please me to say, sir?" + +"Mr. who?" said the youth, elevating his eyebrows. + +"Mr. Bossolton, sir, the apothecary." + +"Oh! Bossolton! very odd name that,--not near so pretty as--dear me, +what a beautiful cap that is of yours!" said the young gentleman. + +"Lord, sir, do you think so? The ribbon is pretty enough; but--but, +as I was saying, what name shall I tell Mr. Bossolton to put in his +book?" "This," thought Mrs. Taptape, "is coming to the point." + +"Well!" said the youth, slowly, and as if in a profound reverie, +"well, Bossolton is certainly the most singular name I ever heard; he +does right to put it in a book: it is quite a curiosity! is he +clever?" + +"Very, sir," said the landlady, somewhat sharply; "but it is your +name, not his, that he wishes to put into his book." + +"Mine?" said the youth, who appeared to have been seeking to gain time +in order to answer a query which most men find requires very little +deliberation, "mine, you say; my name is Linden--Clarence Linden--you +understand?" + +"What a pretty name!" thought the landlady's daughter, who was +listening at the keyhole; "but how could he admire that odious cap of +Ma's!" + +"And, now, landlady, I wish you would send up my boxes; and get me a +newspaper, if you please." + +"Yes, sir," said the landlady, and she rose to retire. + +"I do not think," said the youth to himself, "that I could have hit on +a prettier name, and so novel a one too!--Clarence Linden,--why, if I +were that pretty girl at the bar I could fall in love with the very +words. Shakspeare was quite wrong when he said,-- + + 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.'" + +"A rose by any name would not smell as sweet; if a rose's name was +Jeremiah Bossolton, for instance, it would not, to my nerves at least, +smell of anything but an apothecary's shop!" + +When Mordaunt called the next morning, he found Clarence much better, +and carelessly turning over various books, part of the contents of the +luggage superscribed C. L. A book of whatever description was among +the few companions for whom Mordaunt had neither fastidiousness nor +reserve; and the sympathy of taste between him and the sufferer gave +rise to a conversation less cold and commonplace than it might +otherwise have been. And when Mordaunt, after a stay of some length, +rose to depart, he pressed Linden to return his visit before he left +that part of the country; his place, he added, was only about five +miles distant from W----. Linden, greatly interested in his visitor, +was not slow in accepting the invitation, and, perhaps for the first +time in his life, Mordaunt was shaking hands with a stranger he had +only known two days. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + While yet a child, and long before his time, + He had perceived the presence and the power + Of greatness. + . . . . . + But eagerly he read, and read again. + . . . . . + Yet still uppermost + Nature was at his heart, as if he felt, + Though yet he knew not how, a wasting power + In all things that from her sweet influence + Might seek to wean him. Therefore with her hues, + Her forms, and with the spirit of her forms, + He clothed the nakedness of austere truth. + WORDSWORTH. + +Algernon Mordaunt was the last son of an old and honourable race, +which had centuries back numbered princes in its line. His parents +had had many children, but all (save Algernon, the youngest) died in +their infancy. His mother perished in giving him birth. +Constitutional infirmity and the care of mercenary nurses contributed +to render Algernon a weakly and delicate child: hence came a taste for +loneliness and a passion for study; and from these sprung, on the one +hand, the fastidiousness and reserve which render us apparently +unamiable, and, on the other, the loftiness of spirit and the kindness +of heart which are the best and earliest gifts of literature, and more +than counterbalance our deficiencies in the "minor morals" due to +society by their tendency to increase our attention to the greater +ones belonging to mankind. Mr. Mordaunt was a man of luxurious habits +and gambling propensities: wedded to London, he left the house of his +ancestors to moulder into desertion and decay; but to this home +Algernon was constantly consigned during his vacations from school; +and its solitude and cheerlessness gave to a disposition naturally +melancholy and thoughtful those colours which subsequent events were +calculated to deepen, not efface. + +Truth obliges us to state, despite our partiality to Mordaunt, that, +when he left his school after a residence of six years, it was with +the bitter distinction of having been the most unpopular boy in it. +Why, nobody could exactly explain, for his severest enemies could not +accuse him of ill-nature, cowardice, or avarice, and these make the +three capital offences of a school-boy; but Algernon Mordaunt had +already acquired the knowledge of himself, and could explain the +cause, though with a bitter and swelling heart. His ill health, his +long residence at home, his unfriended and almost orphan situation, +his early habits of solitude and reserve, all these, so calculated to +make the spirit shrink within itself, made him, on his entrance at +school, if not unsocial, appear so: this was the primary reason of his +unpopularity; the second was that he perceived, for he was sensitive +(and consequently acute) to the extreme, the misfortune of his manner, +and in his wish to rectify it, it became doubly unprepossessing; to +reserve, it now added embarrassment, to coldness, gloom; and the pain +he felt in addressing or being addressed by another was naturally and +necessarily reciprocal, for the effects of sympathy are nowhere so +wonderful, yet so invisible, as in the manners. + +By degrees he shunned the intercourse which had for him nothing but +distress, and his volatile acquaintances were perhaps the first to set +him the example. Often in his solitary walks he stopped afar off to +gaze upon the sports which none ever solicited him to share; and as +the shout of laughter and of happy hearts came, peal after peal, upon +his ear, he turned enviously, yet not malignantly away, with tears, +which not all his pride could curb, and muttered to himself, "And +these, these hate me!" + +There are two feelings common to all high or affectionate natures,-- +that of extreme susceptibility to opinion and that of extreme +bitterness at its injustice. These feelings were Mordaunt's: but the +keen edge which one blow injures, the repetition blunts; and by little +and little, Algernon became not only accustomed, but, as he persuaded +himself, indifferent, to his want of popularity; his step grew more +lofty, and his address more collected, and that which was once +diffidence gradually hardened into pride. + +His residence at the University was neither without honour nor profit. +A college life was then, as now, either the most retired or the most +social of all others; we need scarcely say which it was to Mordaunt, +but his was the age when solitude is desirable, and when the closet +forms the mind better than the world. Driven upon itself, his +intellect became inquiring and its resources profound; admitted to +their inmost recesses, he revelled among the treasures of ancient +lore, and in his dreams of the Nymph and Naiad, or his researches +after truth in the deep wells of the Stagyrite or the golden fountains +of Plato, he forgot the loneliness of his lot and exhausted the +hoarded enthusiasm of his soul. + +But his mind, rather thoughtful than imaginative, found no idol like +"Divine Philosophy." It delighted to plunge itself into the mazes of +metaphysical investigation; to trace the springs of the intellect; to +connect the arcana of the universe; to descend into the darkest +caverns, or to wind through the minutest mysteries of Nature, and +rise, step by step, to that arduous elevation on which Thought stands +dizzy and confused, looking beneath upon a clouded earth, and above +upon an unfathomable heaven. + +Rarely wandering from his chamber, known personally to few and +intimately by none, Algernon yet left behind him at the University the +most remarkable reputation of his day. He had obtained some of the +highest of academical honours, and by that proverbial process of +vulgar minds which ever frames the magnificent from the unknown, the +seclusion in which he lived and the recondite nature of his favourite +pursuits attached to his name a still greater celebrity and interest +than all the orthodox and regular dignities he had acquired. There +are few men who do not console themselves for not being generally +loved, if they can reasonably hope that they are generally esteemed. +Mordaunt had now grown reconciled to himself and to his kind. He had +opened to his interest a world in his own breast, and it consoled him +for his mortification in the world without. But, better than this, +his habits as well as studies had strengthened the principles and +confirmed the nobility of his mind. He was not, it is true, more +kind, more benevolent, more upright than before; but those virtues now +emanated from principle, not emotion: and principle to the mind is +what a free constitution is to a people; without that principle or +that free constitution, the one may be for the moment as good, the +other as happy; but we cannot tell how long the goodness and the +happiness will continue. + +On leaving the University, his father sent for him to London. He +stayed there a short time, and mingled partially in its festivities; +but the pleasures of English dissipation have for a century been the +same, heartless without gayety, and dull without refinement. Nor +could Mordaunt, the most fastidious, yet warm-hearted of human beings, +reconcile either his tastes or his affections to the cold insipidities +of patrician society. His father's habits and evident distresses +deepened his disgust to his situation; for the habits were incurable +and the distresses increasing; and nothing but a circumstance which +Mordaunt did not then understand prevented the final sale of an estate +already little better than a pompons incumbrance. + +It was therefore with the half painful, half pleasurable sensation +with which we avoid contemplating a ruin we cannot prevent that +Mordaunt set out upon that Continental tour deemed then so necessary a +part of education. His father, on taking leave of him, seemed deeply +affected. "Go, my son," said he, "may God bless you, and not punish +me too severely. I have wronged you deeply, and I cannot bear to look +upon your face." + +To these words Algernon attached a general, but they cloaked a +peculiar, meaning: in three years, he returned to England; his father +had been dead some months, and the signification of his parting +address was already deciphered,--but of this hereafter. + +In his travels Mordaunt encountered an Englishman whose name I will +not yet mention: a person of great reputed wealth; a merchant, yet a +man of pleasure; a voluptuary in life, yet a saint in reputation; or, +to abstain from the antithetical analysis of a character which will +not be corporeally presented to the reader till our tale is +considerably advanced, one who drew from nature a singular combination +of shrewd but false conclusions, and a peculiar philosophy, destined +hereafter to contrast the colours and prove the practical utility of +that which was espoused by Mordaunt. + +There can be no education in which the lessons of the world do not +form a share. Experience, in expanding Algernon's powers, had ripened +his virtues. Nor had the years which had converted knowledge into +wisdom failed in imparting polish to refinement. His person had +acquired a greater grace, and his manners an easier dignity than +before. His noble and generous mind had worked its impress upon his +features and his mien; and those who could overcome the first coldness +and shrinking hauteur of his address found it required no minute +examination to discover the real expression of the eloquent eye and +the kindling lip. + +He had not been long returned before he found two enemies to his +tranquillity,--the one was love, the other appeared in the more +formidable guise of a claimant to his estate. Before Algernon was +aware of the nature of the latter he went to consult with his lawyer. + +"If the claim be just, I shall not, of course, proceed to law," said +Mordaunt. + +"But without the estate, sir, you have nothing!" + +"True," said Algernon, calmly. + +But the claim was not just, and to law he went. + +In this lawsuit, however, he had one assistant in an old relation, who +had seen, indeed, but very little of him, but who compassionated his +circumstances, and above all hated his opponent. This relation was +rich and childless; and there were not wanting those who predicted +that his money would ultimately discharge the mortgages and repair the +house of the young representative of the Mordaunt honours. But the +old kinsman was obstinate, self-willed, and under the absolute +dominion of patrician pride; and it was by no means improbable that +the independence of Mordaunt's character would soon create a disunion +between them, by clashing against the peculiarities of his relation's +temper. + +It was a clear and sunny morning when Linden, tolerably recovered of +his hurt, set out upon a sober and aged pony, which after some natural +pangs of shame he had hired of his landlord, to Mordaunt Court. + +Mordaunt's house was situated in the midst of a wild and extensive +park, surrounded with woods, and interspersed with trees of the +stateliest growth, now scattered into irregular groups, now marshalled +into sweeping avenues; while, ever and anon, Linden caught glimpses of +a rapid and brawling rivulet, which in many a slight but sounding +waterfall gave a music strange and spirit-like to the thick copses and +forest glades through which it went exulting on its way. The deer lay +half concealed by the fern among which they couched, turning their +stately crests towards the stranger, but not stirring from their rest; +while from the summit of beeches which would have shamed the pavilion +of Tityrus the rooks--those monks of the feathered people--were loud +in their confused but not displeasing confabulations. + +As Linden approached the house, he was struck with the melancholy air +of desolation which spread over and around it: fragments of stone, +above which clomb the rank weed, insolently proclaiming the triumph of +Nature's meanest offspring over the wrecks of art; a moat dried up; a +railing once of massive gilding, intended to fence a lofty terrace on +the right from the incursions of the deer, but which, shattered and +decayed, now seemed to ask with the satirist,-- + + "To what end did our lavish ancestors + Erect of old these stately piles of ours?" + +--a chapel on the left, perfectly in ruins,--all appeared strikingly +to denote that time had outstripped fortune, and that the years, which +alike hallow and destroy, had broken the consequence, in deepening the +antiquity, of the House of Mordaunt. + +The building itself agreed but too well with the tokens of decay +around it; most of the windows were shut up, and the shutters of dark +oak, richly gilt, contrasted forcibly with the shattered panes and +mouldered framing of the glass. It was a house of irregular +architecture. Originally built in the fifteenth century, it had +received its last improvement, with the most lavish expense, during +the reign of Anne; and it united the Gallic magnificence of the latter +period with the strength and grandeur of the former; it was in a great +part overgrown with ivy, and, where that insidious ornament had not +reached, the signs of decay, and even ruin, were fully visible. The +sun itself, bright and cheering as it shone over Nature, making the +green sod glow like emeralds, and the rivulet flash in its beam, like +one of those streams of real light, imagined by Swedenborg in his +visions of heaven, and clothing tree and fell, brake and hillock, with +the lavish hues of infant summer,--the sun itself only made more +desolate, because more conspicuous, the venerable fabric, which the +youthful traveller frequently paused more accurately to survey, and +its laughing and sportive beams playing over chink and crevice, seemed +almost as insolent and untimeous as the mirth of the young mocking the +silent grief of some gray-headed and solitary mourner. + +Clarence had now reached the porch, and the sound of the shrill bell +he touched rang with a strange note through the general stillness of +the place. A single servant appeared, and ushered Clarence through a +screen hall, hung round with relics of armour, and ornamented on the +side opposite the music gallery with a solitary picture of gigantic +size, and exhibiting the full length of the gaunt person and sable +steed of that Sir Piers de Mordaunt who had so signalized himself in +the field in which Henry of Richmond changed his coronet for a crown. +Through this hall Clarence was led to a small chamber clothed with +uncouth and tattered arras, in which, seemingly immersed in papers, he +found the owner of the domain. + +"Your studies," said Linden, after the salutations of the day, "seem +to harmonize with the venerable antiquity of your home;" and he +pointed to the crabbed characters and faded ink of the papers on the +table. + +"So they ought," answered Mordaunt, with a faint smile; "for they are +called from their quiet archives in order to support my struggle for +that home. But I fear the struggle is in vain, and that the quibbles +of law will transfer into other hands a possession I am foolish enough +to value the more from my inability to maintain it" + +Something of this Clarence had before learned from the communicative +gossip of his landlady; and less desirous to satisfy his curiosity +than to lead the conversation from a topic which he felt must be so +unwelcome to Mordaunt, he expressed a wish to see the state apartments +of the house. With something of shame at the neglect they had +necessarily experienced, and something of pride at the splendour which +no neglect could efface, Mordaunt yielded to the request, and led the +way up a staircase of black oak, the walls and ceiling of which were +covered with frescoes of Italian art, to a suite of apartments in +which time and dust seemed the only tenants. Lingeringly did Clarence +gaze upon the rich velvet, the costly mirrors, the motley paintings of +a hundred ancestors, and the antique cabinets, containing, among the +most hoarded relics of the Mordaunt race, curiosities which the +hereditary enthusiasm of a line of cavaliers had treasured as the most +sacred of heirlooms, and which, even to the philosophical mind of +Mordaunt, possessed a value he did not seek too minutely to analyze. +Here was the goblet from which the first prince of Tudor had drunk +after the field of Bosworth. Here the ring with which the chivalrous +Francis the First had rewarded a signal feat of that famous Robert de +Mordaunt, who, as a poor but adventurous cadet of the house, had +brought to the "first gentleman of France" the assistance of his +sword. Here was the glove which Sir Walter had received from the +royal hand of Elizabeth, and worn in the lists upon a crest which the +lance of no antagonist in that knightly court could abase. And here, +more sacred than all, because connected with the memory of misfortune, +was a small box of silver which the last king of a fated line had +placed in the hands of the gray-headed descendant of that Sir Walter +after the battle of the Boyne, saying, "Keep this, Sir Everard +Mordaunt, for the sake of one who has purchased the luxury of +gratitude at the price of a throne!" + +As Clarence glanced from these relics to the figure of Mordaunt, who +stood at a little distance leaning against the window, with arms +folded on his breast and with eyes abstractedly wandering over the +noble woods and extended park, which spread below, he could not but +feel that if birth had indeed the power of setting its seal upon the +form, it was never more conspicuous than in the broad front and lofty +air of the last descendant of the race by whose memorials he was +surrounded. Touched by the fallen fortunes of Mordaunt, and +interested by the uncertainty which the chances of law threw over his +future fate, Clarence could not resist exclaiming, with some warmth +and abruptness,-- + +"And by what subterfuge or cavil does the present claimant of these +estates hope to dislodge their rightful possessor?" + +"Why," answered Mordaunt, "it is a long story in detail, but briefly +told in epitome. My father was a man whose habits greatly exceeded +his fortune, and a few months after his death, Mr. Vavasour, a distant +relation, produced a paper, by which it appeared that my father had, +for a certain sum of ready money, disposed of his estates to this Mr. +Vavasour, upon condition that they should not be claimed nor the +treaty divulged till after his death; the reason for this proviso +seems to have been the shame my father felt for his exchange, and his +fear of the censures of that world to which he was always devoted." + +"But how unjust to you!" said Clarence. + +"Not so much so as it seems," said Mordaunt, deprecatingly; "for I was +then but a sickly boy, and according to the physicians, and I +sincerely believe according also to my poor father's belief, almost +certain of a premature death. In that case Vavasour would have been +the nearest heir; and this expectancy, by the by, joined to the +mortgages on the property, made the sum given ridiculously +disproportioned to the value of the estate. I must confess that the +news came upon me like a thunderbolt. I should have yielded up +possession immediately, but was informed by my lawyers that my father +had no legal right to dispose of the property; the discussion of that +right forms the ground of the present lawsuit. But," continued +Mordaunt, proudly, yet mournfully, "I am prepared for the worst; if, +indeed, I should call that the worst which can affect neither +intellect nor health nor character nor conscience." + +Clarence was silent, and Mordaunt after a brief pause once more +resumed his guidance. Their tour ended in a large library filled with +books, and this Mordaunt informed his guest was his chosen sitting- +room. + +An old carved table was covered with works which for the most part +possessed for the young mind of Clarence, more accustomed to imagine +than reflect, but a very feeble attraction; on looking over them, he, +however, found, half hid by a huge folio of Hobbes, and another of +Locke, a volume of Milton's poems; this paved the way to a +conversation in which both had an equal interest, for both were +enthusiastic in the character and genius of that wonderful man, for +whom "the divine and solemn countenance of Freedom" was dearer than +the light of day, and whose solitary spell, accomplishing what the +whole family of earth once vainly began upon the plain of Shinar, has +built of materials more imperishable than "slime and brick" "a city +and a tower whose summit has reached to heaven." + +It was with mutual satisfaction that Mordaunt and his guest continued +their commune till the hour of dinner was announced to them by a bell, +which, formerly intended as an alarum, now served the peaceful purpose +of a more agreeable summons. + +The same servant who had admitted Clarence ushered them through the +great hall into the dining-room, and was their solitary attendant +during their repast. + +The temper of Mordaunt was essentially grave and earnest, and his +conversation almost invariably took the tone of his mind; this made +their conference turn upon less minute and commonplace topics than one +between such new acquaintances, especially of different ages, usually +does. + +"You will positively go to London to-morrow, then?" said Mordaunt, as +the servant, removing the appurtenances of dinner, left them alone. + +"Positively," answered Clarence. "I go there to carve my own +fortunes, and, to say truth, I am impatient to begin." Mordaunt +looked earnestly at the frank face of the speaker, and wondered that +one so young, so well-educated, and, from his air and manner, +evidently of gentle blood, should appear so utterly thrown upon his +own resources. + +"I wish you success," said he, after a pause; "and it is a noble part +of the organization of this world that, by increasing those riches +which are beyond fortune, we do in general take the surest method of +obtaining those which are in its reach." + +Clarence looked inquiringly at Mordaunt, who, perceiving it, +continued, "I see that I should explain myself further. I will do so +by using the thoughts of a mind not the least beautiful and +accomplished which this country has produced. 'Of all which belongs +to us,' said Bolingbroke, 'the least valuable parts can alone fall +under the will of others. Whatever is best is safest; lies out of the +reach of human power; can neither be given nor taken away. Such is +this great and beautiful work of Nature, the world. Such is the mind +of man, which contemplates and admires the world whereof it makes the +noblest part. These are inseparably ours, and as long as we remain in +one we shall enjoy the other.'" + +"Beautiful, indeed!" exclaimed Clarence, with the enthusiasm of a +young and pure heart, to which every loftier sentiment is always +beautiful. + +"And true as beautiful!" said Mordaunt. "Nor is this all, for the +mind can even dispense with that world 'of which it forms a part' if +we can create within it a world still more inaccessible to chance. +But (and I now return to and explain my former observation) the means +by which we can effect this peculiar world can be rendered equally +subservient to our advancement and prosperity in that which we share +in common with our race; for the riches which by the aid of wisdom we +heap up in the storehouses of the mind are, though not the only, the +most customary coin by which external prosperity is bought. So that +the philosophy which can alone give independence to ourselves becomes; +under the name of honesty, the best policy in commerce with our kind." + +In conversation of this nature, which the sincerity and lofty +enthusiasm of Mordaunt rendered interesting to Clarence, despite the +distaste to the serious so ordinary to youth, the hours passed on, +till the increasing evening warned Linden to depart. + +"Adieu!" said he to Mordaunt. "I know not when we shall meet again, +but if we ever do, I will make it my boast, whether in prosperity or +misfortune, not to have forgotten the pleasure I have this day +enjoyed!" + +Returning his guest's farewell with a warmth unusual to his manner, +Mordaunt followed him to the door and saw him depart. + +Fate ordained that they should pursue in very different paths their +several destinies; nor did it afford them an opportunity of meeting +again, till years and events had severely tried the virtue of one and +materially altered the prospects of the other. + +The next morning Clarence Linden was on his road to London. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"Upon my word," cries Jones, "thou art a very odd fellow, and I like +thy humour extremely."--FIELDING. + +The rumbling and jolting vehicle which conveyed Clarence to the +metropolis stopped at the door of a tavern in Holborn. Linden was +ushered into a close coffee-room and presented with a bill of fare. +While he was deliberating between the respective merits of mutton +chops and beefsteaks, a man with a brown coat, brown breeches, and a +brown wig, walked into the room; he cast a curious glance at Clarence +and then turned to the waiter. + +"A pair of slippers!" + +"Yes, sir," and the waiter disappeared. + +"I suppose," said the brown gentleman to Clarence, "I suppose, sir, +you are the gentleman just come to town?" + +"You are right, sir," said Clarence. + +"Very well, very well indeed," resumed the stranger, musingly. "I +took the liberty of looking at your boxes in the passage; I knew a +lady, sir, a relation of yours, I think." + +"Sir!" exclaimed Linden, colouring violently. + +"At least I suppose, for her name was just the same as yours, only, at +least, one letter difference between them: yours is Linden I see, sir; +hers was Minden. Am I right in my conjecture that you are related to +her?" + +"Sir," answered Clarence, gravely, "notwithstanding the similarity of +our names, we are not related." + +"Very extraordinary," replied the stranger. + +"Very," repeated Linden. + +"I had the honour, sir," said the brown gentleman, "to make Mrs. +Minden many presents of value, and I should have been very happy to +have obliged you in the same manner, had you been in any way connected +with that worthy gentlewoman." + +"You are very kind," said Linden, "you are very kind; and since such +were your intentions, I believe I must have been connected with Mrs. +Minden. At all events, as you justly observe, there is only the +difference of a letter between our names, a discrepancy too slight, I +am sure, to alter your benevolent intentions." + +Here the waiter returned with the slippers. + +The stranger slowly unbuttoned his gaiters. "Sir," said he to Linden, +"we will renew our conversation presently." + +No sooner had the generous friend of Mrs. Minden deposited his feet in +their easy tenements than he quitted the room. "Pray," said Linden to +the waiter, when he had ordered his simple repast, "who is that +gentleman in brown?" + +"Mr. Brown," replied the waiter. + +"And who or what is Mr. Brown?" asked our hero. + +Before the waiter could reply, Mr. Brown returned, with a large +bandbox, carefully enveloped in a blue handkerchief. "You come from +----, sir?" said Mr. Brown, quietly seating himself at the same table +as Linden. + +"No, sir, I do not." + +"From ----, then?" + +"No, sir,--from W----." + +"W----?--ay--well. I knew a lady with a name very like W---- (the +late Lady Waddilove) extremely well. I made her some valuable +presents: her ladyship was very sensible of it." + +"I don't doubt it, sir," replied Clarence; "such instances of general +beneficence rarely occur!" + +"I have some magnificent relics of her ladyship in this box," returned +Mr. Brown. + +"Really! then she was no less generous than yourself, I presume?" + +"Yes, her ladyship was remarkably generous. About a week before she +died (the late Lady Waddilove was quite sensible of her danger), she +called me to her,--'Brown,' said she, 'you are a good creature; I have +had my most valuable things from you. I am not ungrateful: I will +leave you--my maid! She is as clever as you are and as good.' I took +the hint, sir, and married. It was an excellent bargain. My wife is +a charming woman; she entirely fitted up Mrs. Minden's wardrobe and I +furnished the house. Mrs. Minden was greatly indebted to us." + +"Heaven help me!" thought Clarence, "the man is certainly mad." + +The waiter entered with the dinner; and Mr. Brown, who seemed to have +a delicate aversion to any conversation in the presence of the +Ganymede of the Holborn tavern, immediately ceased his communications; +meanwhile, Clarence took the opportunity to survey him more minutely +than he had hitherto done. + +His new acquaintance was in age about forty-eight; in stature, rather +under the middle height; and thin, dried, withered, yet muscular +withal, like a man who, in stinting his stomach for the sake of +economy, does not the less enjoy the power of undergoing any fatigue +or exertion that an object of adequate importance may demand. We have +said already that he was attired, like twilight, "in a suit of sober +brown;" and there was a formality, a precision, and a cat-like sort of +cleanliness in his garb, which savoured strongly of the respectable +coxcombry of the counting-house. His face was lean, it is true, but +not emaciated; and his complexion, sallow and adust, harmonized well +with the colours of his clothing. An eye of the darkest hazel, sharp, +shrewd, and flashing at times, especially at the mention of the +euphonious name of Lady Waddilove,--a name frequently upon the lips of +the inheritor of her abigail,--with a fire that might be called +brilliant, was of that modest species which can seldom encounter the +straightforward glance of another; on the contrary, it seemed +restlessly uneasy in any settled place, and wandered from ceiling to +floor, and corner to corner, with an inquisitive though apparently +careless glance, as if seeking for something to admire or haply to +appropriate; it also seemed to be the especial care of Mr. Brown to +veil, as far as he was able, the vivacity of his looks beneath an +expression of open and unheeding good-nature, an expression strangely +enough contrasting with the closeness and sagacity which Nature had +indelibly stamped upon features pointed, aquiline, and impressed with +a strong mixture of the Judaical physiognomy. The manner and bearing +of this gentleman partook of the same undecided character as his +countenance: they seemed to be struggling between civility and +importance; a real eagerness to make the acquaintance of the person he +addressed, and an assumed recklessness of the advantages which that +acquaintance could bestow;--it was like the behaviour of a man who is +desirous of having the best possible motives imputed to him, but is +fearful lest that desire should not be utterly fulfilled. At the +first glance you would have pledged yourself for his respectability; +at the second, you would have half suspected him to be a rogue; and, +after you had been half an hour in his company, you would confess +yourself in the obscurest doubt which was the better guess, the first +or the last. + +"Waiter!" said Mr. Brown, looking enviously at the viands upon which +Linden, having satisfied his curiosity, was now with all the appetite +of youth regaling himself. "Waiter!" + +"Yes, sir!" + +"Bring me a sandwich--and--and, waiter, see that I have plenty of-- +plenty of--" + +"What, sir?" + +"Plenty of mustard, waiter." + +"Mustard" (and here Mr. Brown addressed himself to Clarence) "is a +very wonderful assistance to the digestion. By the by, sir, if you +want any curiously fine mustard, I can procure you some pots quite +capital,--a great favour, though,--they were smuggled from France, +especially for the use of the late Lady Waddilove." + +"Thank you," said Linden, dryly; "I shall be very happy to accept +anything you may wish to offer me." + +Mr. Brown took a pocket-book from his pouch. "Six pots of mustard, +sir,--shall I say six?" + +"As many as you please," replied Clarence; and Mr. Brown wrote down +"Six pots of French mustard." + +"You are a very young gentleman, sir," said Mr. Brown, "probably +intended for some profession: I don't mean to be impertinent, but if I +can be of any assistance--" + +"You can, sir," replied Linden, "and immediately--have the kindness to +ring the bell." + +Mr. Brown, with a grave smile, did as he was desired; the waiter re- +entered, and, receiving a whispered order from Clarence, again +disappeared. + +"What profession did you say, sir?" renewed Mr. Brown, artfully. + +"None!" replied Linden. + +"Oh, very well,--very well indeed. Then as an idle, independent +gentleman, you will of course be a bit of a beau; want some shirts, +possibly; fine cravats, too; gentlemen wear a particular pattern now; +gloves, gold, or shall I say gilt chain, watch and seals, a ring or +two, and a snuff-box?" + +"Sir, you are vastly obliging," said Clarence, in undisguised +surprise. + +"Not at all, I would do anything for a relation of Mrs. Minden." + +The waiter re-entered; "Sir," said he to Linden, "your room is quite +ready." + +"I am glad to hear it," said Clarence, rising. "Mr. Brown, I have the +honour of wishing you a good evening." + +"Stay, sir--stay; you have not looked into these things belonging to +the late Lady Waddilove." + +"Another time," said Clarence, hastily. + +"To-morrow, at ten o'clock," muttered Mr. Brown. + +"I am exceedingly glad I have got rid of that fellow," said Linden to +himself, as he stretched his limbs in his easy-chair, and drank off +the last glass of his pint of port. "If I have not already seen, I +have already guessed, enough of the world, to know that you are to +look to your pockets when a man offers you a present; they who 'give,' +also 'take away.' So here I am in London, with an order for 1000 +pounds in my purse, the wisdom of Dr. Latinas in my head, and the +health of eighteen in my veins; will it not be my own fault if I do +not both enjoy and make myself--" + +And then, yielding to meditations of future success, partaking +strongly of the inexperienced and sanguine temperament of the +soliloquist, Clarence passed the hours till his pillow summoned him to +dreams no less ardent and perhaps no less unreal. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"Oh, how I long to be employed!"--Every Man in his Humour. + +Clarence was sitting the next morning over the very unsatisfactory +breakfast which tea made out of broomsticks, and cream out of chalk +(adulteration thrived even in 17--) afforded, when the waiter threw +open the door and announced Mr. Brown. + +"Just in time, sir, you perceive," said Mr. Brown; "I am punctuality +itself: exactly a quarter of a minute to ten. I have brought you the +pots of French mustard, and I have some very valuable articles which +you must want, besides." + +"Thank you, sir," said Linden, not well knowing what to say; and Mr. +Brown, untying a silk handkerchief, produced three shirts, two pots of +pomatum, a tobacco canister with a German pipe, four pair of silk +stockings, two gold seals, three rings, and a stuffed parrot! + +"Beautiful articles these, sir," said Mr. Brown, with a snuffle "of +inward sweetness long drawn out," and expressive of great admiration +of his offered treasures; "beautiful articles, sir, ar'n't they?" + +"Very, the parrot in particular," said Clarence. + +"Yes, sir," returned Mr. Brown, "the parrot is indeed quite a jewel; +it belonged to the late Lady Waddilove; I offer it to you with +considerable regret, for--" + +"Oh!" interrupted Clarence, "pray do not rob yourself of such a jewel; +it really is of no use to me." + +"I know that, sir,--I know that," replied Mr. Brown; "but it will be +of use to your friends; it will be inestimable to any old aunt, sir, +any maiden lady living at Hackney, any curious elderly gentleman fond +of a knack-knack. I knew you would know some one to send it to as a +present, even though you should not want it yourself." + +"Bless me!" thought Linden, "was there ever such generosity? Not +content with providing for my wants, he extends his liberality even to +any possible relations I may possess!" + +Mr. Brown now re-tied "the beautiful articles" in his handkerchief. +"Shall I leave them, sir?" said he. + +"Why, really," said Clarence, "I thought yesterday that you were in +jest; but you must be aware that I cannot accept presents from any +gentleman so much,--so much a stranger to me as you are." + +"No, sir, I am aware of that," replied Mr. Brown; "and in order to +remove the unpleasantness of such a feeling, sir, on your part,-- +merely in order to do that, I assure you with no other view, sir, in +the world,--I have just noted down the articles on this piece of +paper; but as you will perceive, at a price so low as still to make +them actually presents in everything but the name. Oh, sir, I +perfectly understand your delicacy, and would not for the world +violate it." + +So saying, Mr. Brown put a paper into Linden's hands, the substance of +which a very little more experience of the world would have enabled +Clarence to foresee; it ran thus:-- + +CLARENCE LINDEN, ESQ., DR. + TO Mr. MORRIS BROWN. + l. s. d. +To Six Pots of French Mustard . . . . . . . . . 1 4 0 +To Three Superfine Holland Shirts, with Cambric Bosoms, + Complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1 0 +To Two Pots of Superior French Pomatum . . . . . . 0 10 0 +To a Tobacco Canister of enamelled Tin, with a finely + Executed Head of the Pretender; slight flaw in the same. 0 12 6 +To a German Pipe, second hand, as good as new, belonging + to the late Lady Waddilove . . . . . . . . . . 1 18 0 +To Four Pair of Black Silk Hose, ditto, belonging to her + Ladyship's Husband . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 0 +To Two Superfine Embossed Gold Watch Seals, with a + Classical Motto and Device to each, namely, Mouse Trap, + and "Prenez Garde," to one, and "Who the devil can this + be from?" [One would not have thought these ingenious + devices had been of so ancient a date as the year 17--.] + to the other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 0 +To a remarkably fine Antique Ring, having the head of a + Monkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 16 6 +A ditto, with blue stones . . . . . . . . . . . 0 12 6 +A ditto, with green ditto . . . . . . . . . . . 0 12 6 +A Stuffed Green Parrot, a remarkable favourite of the late + Lady W. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 0 + -------- + Sum Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 18 0 + Deduction for Ready Money . . . . . . . . . . 0 13 6 + -------- + 15 4 6 + Mr. Brown's Profits for Brokerage . . . . . . . . 1 10 0 + -------- + Sum Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 14 6 + +Received of Clarence Linden, Esq., this day of 17--. + +It would have been no unamusing study to watch the expression of +Clarence's face as it lengthened over each article until he had +reached the final conclusion. He then carefully folded up the paper, +restored it to Mr. Brown, with a low bow, and said, "Excuse me, sir, I +will not take advantage of your generosity; keep your parrot and other +treasures for some more worthy person. I cannot accept of what you +are pleased to term your very valuable presents!" + +"Oh, very well, very well," said Mr. Brown, pocketing the paper, and +seeming perfectly unconcerned at the termination of his proposals; +"perhaps I can serve you in some other way?" + +"In none, I thank you," replied Linden. + +"Just consider, sir!--you will want lodgings; I can find them for you +cheaper than you can yourself; or perhaps you would prefer going into +a nice, quiet, genteel family where you can have both board and +lodging, and be treated in every way as the pet child of the master?" + +A thought crossed Linden's mind. He was going to stay in town some +time; he was ignorant of its ways; he had neither friends nor +relations, at least none whom he could visit and consult; moreover, +hotels, he knew, were expensive; lodgings, though cheaper, might, if +tolerably comfortable, greatly exceed the sum prudence would allow him +to expend would not this plan proposed by Mr. Brown, of going into a +"nice quiet genteel family," he the most advisable one he could adopt? +The generous benefactor of the late and ever-to-be-remembered Lady +Waddilove perceived his advantage, and making the most of Clarence's +hesitation, continued,-- + +"I know of a charming little abode, sir, situated in the suburbs of +London, quite rus in urbe, as the scholars say; you can have a +delightful little back parlour, looking out upon the garden, and all +to yourself, I dare say." + +"And pray, Mr. Brown," interrupted Linden, "what price do you think +would be demanded for such enviable accommodation? If you offer me +them as 'a present,' I shall have nothing to say to them." + +"Oh, sir," answered Mr. Brown, "the price will be a trifle,--a mere +trifle; but I will inquire, and let you know the exact sum in the +course of the day: all they want is a respectable gentlemanlike +lodger; and I am sure so near a relation of Mrs. Minden will upon my +recommendation be received with avidity. Then you won't have any of +these valuable articles, sir? You'll repent it, sir; take my word for +it--hem! + +"Since," replied Clarence, dryly, "your word appears of so much more +value than your articles, pardon me, if I prefer taking the former +instead of the latter." + +Mr. Brown forced a smile,--"Well, sir, very well, very well indeed. +You will not go out before two o'clock? and at that time I shall call +upon you respecting the commission you have favoured me with." + +"I will await you," said Clarence; and he bowed Mr. Brown out of the +room. + +"Now, really," said Linden to himself, as he paced the narrow limits +of his apartment, "I do not see what better plan I can pursue; but let +me well consider what is my ultimate object. A high step in the +world's ladder! how is this to be obtained? First, by the regular +method of professions; but what profession should I adopt? The Church +is incompatible with my object, the army and navy with my means. Next +come the irregular methods of adventure and enterprise, such as +marriage with a fortune,"--here he paused and looked at the glass,-- +"the speculation of a political pamphlet, or an ode to the minister; +attendance on some dying miser of my own name, without a relation in +the world; or, in short, any other mode of making money that may +decently offer itself. Now, situated as I am, without a friend in +this great city, I might as well purchase my experience at as cheap a +rate and in as brief a time as possible, nor do I see any plan of +doing so more promising than that proposed by Mr. Brown." + +These and such like reflections, joined to the inspiriting pages of +the "Newgate Calendar" and "The Covent Garden Magazine," two works +which Clarence dragged from their concealment under a black tea-tray, +afforded him ample occupation till the hour of two, punctual to which +time Mr. Morris Brown returned. + +"Well, sir," said Clarence, "what is your report?" + +The friend of the late Lady W. wiped his brow and gave three long +sighs before he replied: "A long walk, sir--a very long walk I have +had; but I have succeeded. No thanks, sir,--no thanks,--the lady, a +most charming, delightful, amiable woman, will receive you with +pleasure; you will have the use of a back parlour (as I said) all the +morning, and a beautiful little bedroom entirely to yourself; think of +that, sir. You will have an egg for breakfast, and you will dine with +the family at three o'clock: quite fashionable hours you see, sir." + +"And the terms?" said Linden, impatiently. + +"Why, sir," replied Mr. Brown, "the lady was too genteel to talk to me +about them; you had better walk with me to her house and see if you +cannot yourself agree with her." + +"I will," said Clarence. "Will you wait here till I have dressed?" + +Mr. Brown bowed his assent. + +"I might as well," thought Clarence, as he ascended to his bedroom, +"inquire into the character of this gentleman to whose good offices I +am so rashly intrusting myself." He rang his bell; the chambermaid +appeared, and was dismissed for the waiter. The character was soon +asked, and soon given. For our reader's sake we will somewhat enlarge +upon it. + +Mr. Morris Brown originally came into the world with the simple +appellation of Moses, a name which his father--honest man--had, as the +Minories can still testify, honourably borne before him. Scarcely, +however, had the little Moses attained the age of five, when his +father, for causes best known to himself, became a Christian. Somehow +or other there is a most potent connection between the purse and the +conscience, and accordingly the blessings of Heaven descended in +golden showers upon the proselyte. "I shall die worth a plum," said +Moses the elder (who had taken unto himself the Christian cognomen of +Brown); "I shall die worth a plum," repeated he, as he went one fine +morning to speculate at the Exchange. A change of news, sharp and +unexpected as a change of wind, lowered the stocks and blighted the +plum. Mr. Brown was in the "Gazette" that week, and his wife in weeds +for him the next. He left behind him, besides the said wife, several +debts and his son Moses. Beggared by the former, our widow took a +small shop in Wardour Street to support the latter. Patient, but +enterprising--cautious of risking pounds, indefatigable in raising +pence--the little Moses inherited the propensities of his Hebrew +ancestors; and though not so capable as his immediate progenitor of +making a fortune, he was at least far less likely to lose one. In +spite, however, of all the industry both of mother and son, the gains +of the shop were but scanty; to increase them capital was required, +and all Mr. Moses Brown's capital lay in his brain. "It is a bad +foundation," said the mother, with a sigh. "Not at all!" said the +son, and leaving the shop, he turned broker. Now a broker is a man +who makes an income out of other people's funds,--a gleaner of stray +extravagances; and by doing the public the honour of living upon them +may fairly be termed a little sort of state minister in his way. What +with haunting sales, hawking china, selling the curiosities of one old +lady and purchasing the same for another, Mr. Brown managed to enjoy a +very comfortable existence. Great pains and small gains will at last +invert their antithesis, and make little trouble and great profit; so +that by the time Mr. Brown had attained his fortieth year, the petty +shop had become a large warehouse; and, if the worthy Moses, now +christianized into Morris, was not so sanguine as his father in the +gathering of plums, he had been at least as fortunate in the +collecting of windfalls. To say truth, the abigail of the defunct +Lady Waddilove had been no unprofitable helpmate to our broker. As +ingenious as benevolent, she was the owner of certain rooms of great +resort in the neighbourhood of St. James's,--rooms where caps and +appointments were made better than anywhere else, and where credit was +given and character lost upon terms equally advantageous to the +accommodating Mrs. Brown. + +Meanwhile her husband, continuing through liking what he had begun +through necessity, slackened not his industry in augmenting his +fortune; on the contrary, small profits were but a keener incentive to +large ones,--as the glutton only sharpened by luncheon his appetite +for dinner. Still was Mr. Brown the very Alcibiades of brokers, the +universal genius, suiting every man to his humour. Business of +whatever description, from the purchase of a borough to that of a +brooch, was alike the object of Mr. Brown's most zealous pursuit: +taverns, where country cousins put up; rustic habitations, where +ancient maidens resided; auction or barter; city or hamlet,--all were +the same to that enterprising spirit, which made out of every +acquaintance--a commission! Sagacious and acute, Mr. Brown perceived +the value of eccentricity in covering design, and found by experience +that whatever can be laughed at as odd will be gravely considered as +harmless. Several of the broker's peculiarities were, therefore, more +artificial than natural; and many were the sly bargains which he +smuggled into effect under the comfortable cloak of singularity. No +wonder, then, that the crafty Morris grew gradually in repute as a +person of infinite utility and excellent qualifications; or that the +penetrating friends of his deceased sire bowed to the thriving +itinerant, with a respect which they denied to many in loftier +professions and more general esteem. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Trust me you have an exceeding fine lodging here,--very neat and +private.--BEN JONSON. + +It was a tolerably long walk to the abode of which the worthy broker +spoke in such high terms of commendation. At length, at the suburbs +towards Paddington, Mr. Brown stopped at a very small house; it stood +rather retired from its surrounding neighbours, which were of a +loftier and more pretending aspect than itself, and, in its awkward +shape and pitiful bashfulness, looked exceedingly like a school-boy +finding himself for the first time in a grown up party, and shrinking +with all possible expedition into the obscurest corner he can +discover. Passing through a sort of garden, in which a spot of grass +lay in the embraces of a stripe of gravel, Mr. Brown knocked upon a +very bright knocker at a very new door. The latter was opened, and a +foot-boy appeared. + +"Is Mrs. Copperas within?" asked the broker. + +"Yees, sir," said the boy. + +"Show this gentleman and myself up stairs," resumed Brown. + +"Yees," reiterated the lackey. + +Up a singularly narrow staircase, into a singularly diminutive +drawing-room, Clarence and his guide were ushered. There, seated on a +little chair by a little work-table, with one foot on a little stool +and one hand on a little book, was a little--very little lady. + +"This is the young gentleman," said Mr. Brown; and Clarence bowed low, +in token of the introduction. + +The lady returned the salutation with an affected bend, and said, in a +mincing and grotesquely subdued tone, "You are desirous, sir, of +entering into the bosom of my family. We possess accommodations of a +most elegant description; accustomed to the genteelest circles, +enjoying the pure breezes of the Highgate hills, and presenting to any +guest we may receive the attractions of a home rather than of a +lodging, you will find our retreat no less eligible than unique. You +are, I presume, sir, in some profession, some city avocation--or--or +trade?" + +"I have the misfortune," said he, smiling, "to belong to no +profession." + +The lady looked hard at the speaker, and then at the broker. With +certain people to belong to no profession is to be of no +respectability. + +"The most unexceptionable references will be given-and required," +resumed Mrs. Copperas. + +"Certainly," said Mr. Brown, "certainly, the gentleman is a relation +of Mrs. Minden, a very old customer of mine." + +"In that case," said Mrs. Copperas, "the affair is settled;" and, +rising, she rang the bell, and ordered the foot-boy, whom she +addressed by the grandiloquent name of "De Warens" to show the +gentleman the apartments. While Clarence was occupied in surveying +the luxuries of a box at the top of the house, called a bed-chamber, +which seemed just large and just hot enough for a chrysalis, and a +corresponding box below, termed the back parlour, which would +certainly not have been large enough for the said chrysalis when +turned into a butterfly, Mr. Morris Brown, after duly, expatiating on +the merits of Clarence, proceeded to speak of the terms; these were +soon settled, for Clarence was yielding and the lady not above three +times as extortionate as she ought to have been. + +Before Linden left the house, the bargain was concluded. That night +his trunks were removed to his new abode, and having with incredible +difficulty been squeezed into the bedroom, Clarence surveyed them with +the same astonishment with which the virtuoso beheld the flies in +amber,-- + + "Not that the things were either rich or rare, + He wondered how the devil they got there!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Such scenes had tempered with a pensive grace + The maiden lustre of that faultless face; + Had hung a sad and dreamlike spell upon + The gliding music of her silver tone, + And shaded the soft soul which loved to lie + In the deep pathos of that volumed eye.--O'Neill; or, The Rebel. + +The love thus kindled between them was of no common or calculating +nature: it was vigorous and delicious, and at times so suddenly +intense as to appear to their young hearts for a moment or so with +almost an awful character.--Inesilla. + +The reader will figure to himself a small chamber, in a remote wing of +a large and noble mansion. The walls were covered with sketches whose +extreme delicacy of outline and colouring betrayed the sex of the +artist; a few shelves filled with books supported vases of flowers. A +harp stood neglected at the farther end of the room, and just above +hung the slender prison of one of those golden wanderers from the +Canary Isles which hear to our colder land some of the gentlest music +of their skies and zephyrs. The window, reaching to the ground, was +open, and looked, through the clusters of jessamine and honeysuckle +which surrounded the low veranda, beyond upon thick and frequent +copses of blossoming shrubs, redolent of spring and sparkling in the +sunny tears of a May shower which had only just wept itself away. +Embosomed in these little groves lay plots of flowers, girdled with +turf as green as ever wooed the nightly dances of the fairies; and +afar off, through one artful opening, the eye caught the glittering +wanderings of water, on whose light and smiles the universal happiness +of the young year seemed reflected. + +But in that chamber, heedless of all around, and cold to the joy with +which everything else, equally youthful, beautiful, and innocent, +seemed breathing and inspired, sat a very young and lovely female. +Her cheek leaned upon her hand, and large tears flowed fast and +burningly over the small and delicate fingers. The comb that had +confined her tresses lay at her feet, and the high dress which +concealed her swelling breast had been loosened, to give vent to the +suffocating and indignant throbbings which had rebelled against its +cincture; all appeared to announce that bitterness of grief when the +mind, as it were, wreaks its scorn upon the body in its contempt for +external seemings, and to proclaim that the present more subdued and +softened sorrow had only succeeded to a burst far less quiet and +uncontrolled. Woe to those who eat the bread of dependence their +tears are wrung from the inmost sources of the heart. + +Isabel St. Leger was the only child of a captain in the army who died +in her infancy; her mother had survived him but a few months; and to +the reluctant care and cold affections of a distant and wealthy +relation of the same name the warm-hearted and penniless orphan was +consigned. Major-General Cornelius St. Leger, whose riches had been +purchased in India at the price of his constitution, was of a temper +as hot as his curries, and he wreaked it the more unsparingly on his +ward, because the superior ill-temper of his maiden sister had +prevented his giving vent to it upon her. That sister, Miss Diana St. +Leger, was a meagre gentlewoman of about six feet high, with a loud +voice and commanding aspect. Long in awe of her brother, she rejoiced +at heart to find some one whom she had such right and reason to make +in awe of herself; and from the age of four to that of seventeen +Isabel suffered every insult and every degradation which could be +inflicted upon her by the tyranny of her two protectors. Her spirit, +however, was far from being broken by the rude shocks it received; on +the contrary, her mind, gentleness itself to the kind, rose +indignantly against the unjust. It was true that the sense of wrong +did not break forth audibly; for, though susceptible, Isabel was meek, +and her pride was concealed by the outward softness and feminacy of +her temper: but she stole away from those who had wounded her heart or +trampled upon its feelings, and nourished with secret but passionate +tears the memory of the harshness or injustice she had endured. Yet +she was not vindictive: her resentment was a noble not a debasing +feeling; once, when she was yet a child, Miss Diana was attacked with +a fever of the most malignant and infectious kind; her brother loved +himself far too well to risk his safety by attending her; the servants +were too happy to wreak their hatred under the pretence of obeying +their fears; they consequently followed the example of their master; +and Miss Diana St. Leger might have gone down to her ancestors +"unwept, unhonoured, and unsung," if Isabel had not volunteered and +enforced her attendance. Hour after hour her fairy form flitted +around the sick-chamber; or sat mute and breathless by the feverish +bed; she had neither fear for contagion nor bitterness for past +oppression; everything vanished beneath the one hope of serving, the +one gratification of feeling herself, in the wide waste of creation, +not utterly without use, as she had been hitherto without friends. + +Miss St. Leger recovered. "For your recovery, in the first place," +said the doctor, "you will thank Heaven; in the second, you will thank +your young relation;" and for several days the convalescent did +overwhelm the happy Isabel with her praises and caresses. But this +change did not last long: the chaste Diana had been too spoiled by the +prosperity of many years for the sickness of a single month to effect +much good in her disposition. Her old habits were soon resumed; and +though it is probable that her heart was in reality softened towards +the poor Isabel, that softening by no means extended to her temper. +In truth, the brother and sister were not without affection for one so +beautiful and good, but they had been torturing slaves all their +lives, and their affection was, and could be, but that of a taskmaster +or a planter. + +But Isabel was the only relation who ever appeared within their walls; +and among the guests with whom the luxurious mansion was crowded, she +passed no less for the heiress than the dependant; to her, therefore, +was offered the homage of many lips and hearts, and if her pride was +perpetually galled and her feelings insulted in private, her vanity +(had that equalled her pride and her feelings in its susceptibility) +would in no slight measure have recompensed her in public. Unhappily, +however, her vanity was the least prominent quality she possessed; and +the compliments of mercenary adulation were not more rejected by her +heart than despised by her understanding. + +Yet did she bear within her a deep fund of buried tenderness, and a +mine of girlish and enthusiastic romance,--dangerous gifts to one so +situated, which, while they gave to her secret moments of solitude a +powerful but vague attraction, probably only prepared for her future +years the snare which might betray them into error or the delusion +which would colour them with regret. + +Among those whom the ostentatious hospitality of General St. Leger +attracted to his house was one of very different character and +pretensions to the rest. Formed to be unpopular with the generality +of men, the very qualities that made him so were those which +principally fascinate the higher description of women of ancient +birth, which rendered still more displeasing the pride and coldness of +his mien; of talents peculiarly framed to attract interest as well as +esteem; of a deep and somewhat morbid melancholy, which, while it +turned from ordinary ties, inclined yearningly towards passionate +affections; of a temper where romance was only concealed from the many +to become more seductive to the few; unsocial, but benevolent; +disliked, but respected; of the austerest demeanour, but of passions +the most fervid, though the most carefully concealed,--this man united +within himself all that repels the common mass of his species, and all +that irresistibly wins and fascinates the rare and romantic few. To +these qualities were added a carriage and bearing of that high and +commanding order which men mistake for arrogance and pretension, and +women overrate in proportion to its contrast to their own. Something +of mystery there was in the commencement of the deep and eventful love +which took place between this person and Isabel, which I have never +been able to learn whatever it was, it seemed to expedite and heighten +the ordinary progress of love; and when in the dim twilight, beneath +the first melancholy smile of the earliest star, their hearts opened +audibly to each other, that confession had been made silently long +since and registered in the inmost recesses of the soul. + +But their passion, which began in prosperity, was soon darkened. +Whether he took offence at the haughtiness of Isabel's lover, or +whether he desired to retain about him an object which he could +torment and tyrannize over, no sooner did the General discover the +attachment of his young relation than he peremptorily forbade its +indulgence, and assumed so insolent and overbearing an air towards the +lover that the latter felt he could no longer repeat his visits to or +even continue his acquaintance with the nabob. + +To add to these adverse circumstances, a relation of the lover, from +whom his expectations had been large, was so enraged, not only at the +insult his cousin had received, but at the very idea of his forming an +alliance with one in so dependent a situation and connected with such +new blood as Isabel St. Leger, that, with that arrogance which +relations, however distant, think themselves authorized to assume, he +enjoined his cousin, upon pain of forfeiture of favour and fortune, to +renounce all idea of so disparaging an alliance. The one thus +addressed was not of a temper patiently to submit to such threats: he +answered them with disdain; and the breach, so dangerous to his +pecuniary interest, was already begun. + +So far had the history of our lover proceeded at the time in which we +have introduced Isabel to the reader, and described to him the chamber +to which, in all her troubles and humiliations, she was accustomed to +fly, as to a sad but still unviolated sanctuary of retreat. + +The quiet of this asylum was first broken by a slight rustling among +the leaves; but Isabel's back was turned towards the window, and in +the engrossment of her feelings she heard it not. The thick copse +that darkened the left side of the veranda was pierced, and a man +passed within the covered space, and stood still and silent before the +window, intently gazing upon the figure, which (though the face was +turned from him) betrayed in its proportions that beauty which in his +eyes had neither an equal nor a fault. + +The figure of the stranger, though not very tall, was above the +ordinary height, and gracefully rather than robustly formed. He was +dressed in the darkest colours and the simplest fashion, which +rendered yet more striking the nobleness of his mien, as well as the +clear and almost delicate paleness of his complexion; his features +were finely and accurately formed; and had not ill health, long +travel, or severe thought deepened too much the lines of the +countenance, and sharpened its contour, the classic perfection of +those features would have rendered him undeniably and even eminently +handsome. As it was, the paleness and the somewhat worn character of +his face, joined to an expression at first glance rather haughty and +repellent, made him lose in physical what he certainly gained in +intellectual beauty. His eyes were large, deep, and melancholy, and +had the hat which now hung over his brow been removed, it would have +displayed a forehead of remarkable boldness and power. + +Altogether, the face was cast in a rare and intellectual mould, and, +if wanting in those more luxuriant attractions common to the age of +the stranger, who could scarcely have attained his twenty-sixth year, +it betokened, at least, that predominance of mind over body which in +some eyes is the most requisite characteristic of masculine beauty. + +With a soft and noiseless step, the stranger moved from his station +without the window, and, entering the room, stole towards the spot on +which Isabel was sitting. He leaned over her chair, and his eye +rested upon his own picture, and a letter in his own writing, over +which the tears of the young orphan flowed fast. + +A moment more of agitated happiness for one, of unconscious and +continued sadness for the other,-- + + "'T is past, her lover's at her feet." + +And what indeed "was to them the world beside, with all its changes of +time and tide"? Joy, hope, all blissful and bright sensations, lay +mingled, like meeting waters, in one sunny stream of heartfelt and +unfathomable enjoyment; but this passed away, and the remembrance of +bitterness and evil succeeded. + +"Oh, Algernon!" said Isabel, in a low voice, "is this your promise?" + +"Believe me," said Mordaunt, for it was indeed he, "I have struggled +long with my feelings, but in vain; and for both our sakes, I rejoice +at the conquest they obtained. I listened only to a deceitful +delusion when I imagined I was obeying the dictates of reason. Ah, +dearest, why should we part for the sake of dubious and distant evils, +when the misery of absence is the most certain, the most unceasing +evil we can endure?" + +"For your sake, and therefore for mine!" interrupted Isabel, +struggling with her tears. "I am a beggar and an outcast. You must +not link your fate with mine. I could bear, Heaven knows how +willingly, poverty and all its evils for you and with you; but I +cannot bring them upon you." + +"Nor will you," said Mordaunt, passionately, as he covered the hand he +held with his burning kisses. "Have I not enough for both of us? It +is my love, not poverty, that I beseech you to share." + +"No! Algernon, you cannot deceive me; your own estate will be torn +from you by the law: if you marry me, your cousin will not assist you; +I, you know too well, can command nothing; and I shall see you, for +whom in my fond and bright dreams I have presaged everything great and +exalted, buried in an obscurity from which your talents can never +rise, and suffering the pangs of poverty and dependence and +humiliation like my own; and--and--I--should be the wretch who caused +you all. Never, Algernon, never!--I love you too--too well!" + +But the effort which wrung forth the determination of the tone in +which these words were uttered was too violent to endure; and, as the +full desolation of her despair crowded fast and dark upon the orphan's +mind, she sank back upon her chair in very sickness of soul, nor +heeded, in her unconsious misery, that her hand was yet clasped by her +lover and that her head drooped upon his bosom. + +"Isabel," he said, in a low, sweet tone, which to her ear seemed the +concentration of all earthly music,--"Isabel, look up,--my own, my +beloved,--look up and hear me. Perhaps you say truly when you tell me +that the possessions of my house shall melt away from me, and that my +relation will not offer to me the precarious bounty which, even if he +did offer, I would reject; but, dearest, are there not a thousand +paths open to me,--the law, the state, the army?--you are silent, +Isabel,--speak!" + +Isabel did not reply, but the soft eyes which rested upon his told, in +their despondency, how little her reason was satisfied by the +arguments he urged. + +"Besides," he continued, "we know not yet whether the law may not +decide in my favour: at all events years may pass before the judgment +is given; those years make the prime and verdure of our lives; let us +not waste them in mourning over blighted hopes and severed hearts; let +us snatch what happiness is yet in our power, nor anticipate, while +the heavens are still bright above us, the burden of the thunder or +the cloud." + +Isabel was one of the least selfish and most devoted of human beings, +yet she must be forgiven if at that moment her resolution faltered, +and the overpowering thought of being in reality his forever flashed +upon her mind. It passed from her the moment it was formed; and, +rising from a situation in which the touch of that dear hand and the +breath of those wooing lips endangered the virtue and weakened the +strength of her resolves, she withdrew herself from his grasp, and +while she averted her eyes, which dared not encounter his, she said in +a low but firm voice,-- + +"It is in vain, Algernon; it is in vain. I can be to you nothing but +a blight or burden, nothing but a source of privation and anguish. +Think you that I will be this?--no, I will not darken your fair hopes +and impede your reasonable ambition. Go (and here her voice faltered +for a moment, but soon recovered its tone), go, Algernon, dear +Algernon; and if my foolish heart will not ask you to think of me no +more, I can at least implore you to think of me only as one who would +die rather than cost you a moment of that poverty and debasement, the +bitterness of which she has felt herself, and who for that very reason +tears herself away from you forever." + +"Stay, Isabel, stay!" cried Mordaunt, as he caught hold of her robe, +"give me but one word more, and you shall leave me. Say that if I can +create for myself a new source of independence; if I can carve out a +road where the ambition you erroneously impute to me can be gratified, +as well as the more moderate wishes our station has made natural to us +to form,--say, that if I do this, I may permit myself to hope,--say, +that when I have done it, I may claim you as my own!" + +Isabel paused, and turned once more her face towards his own. Her +lips moved, and though the words died within her heart, yet Mordaunt +read well their import in the blushing cheek and the heaving bosom, +and the lips which one ray of hope and comfort was sufficient to +kindle into smiles. He gazed, and all obstacles, all difficulties, +disappeared; the gulf of time seemed passed, and he felt as if already +he had earned and won his reward. + +He approached her yet nearer; one kiss on those lips, one pressure of +that thrilling hand, one long, last embrace of that shrinking and +trembling form,--and then, as the door closed upon his view, he felt +that the sunshine of Nature had passed away, and that in the midst of +the laughing and peopled earth he stood in darkness and alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +He who would know mankind must be at home with all men. + STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + +We left Clarence safely deposited in his little lodgings. Whether +from the heat of his apartment or the restlessness a migration of beds +produces in certain constitutions, his slumbers on the first night of +his arrival were disturbed and brief. He rose early and descended to +the parlour; Mr. de Warens, the nobly appellatived foot-boy, was +laying the breakfast-cloth. From three painted shelves which +constituted the library of "Copperas Bower," as its owners gracefully +called their habitation, Clarence took down a book very prettily +bound; it was "Poems by a Nobleman." No sooner had he read two pages +than he did exactly what the reader would have done, and restored the +volume respectfully to its place. He then drew his chair towards the +window, and wistfully eyed sundry ancient nursery maids, who were +leading their infant charges to the "fresh fields and pastures new" of +what is now the Regent's Park. + +In about an hour Mrs. Copperas descended, and mutual compliments were +exchanged; to her succeeded Mr. Copperas, who was well scolded for his +laziness: and to them, Master Adolphus Copperas, who was also +chidingly termed a naughty darling for the same offence. Now then +Mrs. Copperas prepared the tea, which she did in the approved method +adopted by all ladies to whom economy is dearer than renown, namely, +the least possible quantity of the soi-disant Chinese plant was first +sprinkled by the least possible quantity of hot water; after this +mixture had become as black and as bitter as it could possibly be +without any adjunct from the apothecary's skill, it was suddenly +drenched with a copious diffusion, and as suddenly poured forth--weak, +washy, and abominable,--into four cups, severally appertaining unto +the four partakers of the matutinal nectar. + +Then the conversation began to flow. Mrs. Copperas was a fine lady, +and a sentimentalist,--very observant of the little niceties of phrase +and manner. Mr. Copperas was a stock-jobber and a wit,--loved a good +hit in each capacity; was very round, very short, and very much like a +John Dory; and saw in the features and mind of the little Copperas the +exact representative of himself. + +"Adolphus, my love," said Mrs. Copperas, "mind what I told you, and +sit upright. Mr. Linden, will you allow me to cut you a leetle piece +of this roll?" + +"Thank you," said Clarence, "I will trouble you rather for the whole +of it." + +Conceive Mrs. Copperas's dismay! From that moment she saw herself +eaten out of house and home; besides, as she afterwards observed to +her friend Miss Barbara York, the "vulgarity of such an amazing +appetite!" + +"Any commands in the city, Mr. Linden?" asked the husband; "a coach +will pass by our door in a few minutes,--must be on 'Change in half an +hour. Come, my love, another cup of tea; make haste; I have scarcely +a moment to take my fare for the inside, before coachee takes his for +the outside. Ha! ha! ha! Mr. Linden." + +"Lord, Mr. Copperas," said his helpmate, "how can you be so silly? +setting such an example to your son, too; never mind him, Adolphus, my +love; fie, child! a'n't you ashamed of yourself? never put the spoon +in your cup till you have done tea: I must really send you to school +to learn manners. We have a very pretty little collection of books +here, Mr. Linden, if you would like to read an hour or two after +breakfast,--child, take your hands out of your pockets,--all the best +English classics I believe,--'Telemachus,' and Young's 'Night +Thoughts,' and 'Joseph Andrews,' and the 'Spectator,' and Pope's +Iliad, and Creech's Lucretius; but you will look over them yourself! +This is Liberty Hall, as well as Copperas Bower, Mr. Linden!" + +"Well, my love," said the stock-jobber, "I believe I must be off. +Here Tom, Tom (Mr. de Warens had just entered the room with some more +hot water, to weaken still further "the poor remains of what was once +"--the tea!), Tom, just run out and stop the coach; it will be by in +five minutes." + +"Have not I prayed and besought you, many and many a time, Mr. +Copperas," said the lady, rebukingly, "not to call De Warens by his +Christian name? Don't you know that all people in genteel life, who +only keep one servant, invariably call him by his surname, as if he +were the butler, you know?" + +"Now, that is too good, my love," said Copperas. "I will call poor +Tom by any surname you please, but I really can't pass him off for a +butler! Ha--ha--ha--you must excuse me there, my love!" + +"And pray, why not, Mr. Copperas? I have known many a butler bungle +more at a cork than he does; and pray tell me who did you ever see +wait better at dinner?" + +"He wait at dinner, my love! it is not he who waits." + +"Who then, Mr. Copperas?" + +"Why we, my love; it's we who wait for dinner; but that's the cook's +fault, not his." + +"Pshaw! Mr. Copperas; Adolphus, my love, sit upright, darling." + +Here De Warens cried from the bottom of the stairs,--"Measter, the +coach be coming up." + +"There won't be room for it to turn then," said the facetious Mr. +Copperas, looking round the apartment as if he took the words +literally. + +"What coach is it, boy?" + +Now that was not the age in which coaches scoured the city every half +hour, and Mr. Copperas knew the name of the coach as well as he knew +his own. + +"It be the Swallow coach, sir." + +"Oh, very well: then since I have swallowed in the roll, I will now +roll in the Swallow--ha--ha--ha! Good-by, Mr. Linden." + +No sooner had the witty stock-jobber left the room than Mrs. Copperas +seemed to expand into a new existence. "My husband, sir," said she, +apologetically, "is so odd, but he's an excellent sterling character; +and that, you know, Mr. Linden, tells more in the bosom of a family +than all the shining qualities which captivate the imagination. I am +sure, Mr. Linden, that the moralist is right in admonishing us to +prefer the gold to the tinsel. I have now been married some years, +and every year seems happier than the last; but then, Mr. Linden, it +is such a pleasure to contemplate the growing graces of the sweet +pledge of our mutual love.--Adolphus, my dear, keep your feet still, +and take your hands out of your pockets!" + +A short pause ensued. + +"We see a great deal of company," said Mrs. Copperas, pompously, "and +of the very best description. Sometimes we are favoured by the +society of the great Mr. Talbot, a gentleman of immense fortune and +quite the courtier: he is, it is true, a little eccentric in his +dress: but then he was a celebrated beau in his young days. He is our +next neighbour; you can see his house out of the window, just across +the garden--there! We have also, sometimes, our humble board graced +by a very elegant friend of mine, Miss Barbara York, a lady of very +high connections, her first cousin was a lord mayor.--Adolphus, my +dear, what are you about? Well, Mr. Linden, you will find your +retreat quite undisturbed; I must go about the household affairs; not +that I do anything more than superintend, you know, sir; but I think +no lady should be above consulting her husband's interests; that's +what I call true old English conjugal affection. Come, Adolphus, my +dear." + +And Clarence was now alone. "I fear," thought he, "that I shall get +on very indifferently with these people. But it will not do for me to +be misanthropical, and (as Dr. Latinas was wont to say) the great +merit of philosophy, when we cannot command circumstances, is to +reconcile us to them." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A retired beau is one of the most instructive spectacles in the world. + STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + +It was quite true that Mrs. Copperas saw a great deal of company, for +at a certain charge, upon certain days, any individual might have the +honour of sharing her family repast; and many, of various callings, +though chiefly in commercial life, met at her miscellaneous board. +Clarence must, indeed, have been difficult to please, or obtuse of +observation, if, in the variety of her guests, he had not found +something either to interest or amuse him. Heavens! what a motley +group were accustomed, twice in the week, to assemble there! the +little dining-parlour seemed a human oven; and it must be owned that +Clarence was no slight magnet of attraction to the female part of the +guests. Mrs. Copperas's bosom friend in especial, the accomplished +Miss Barbara York, darted the most tender glances on the handsome +young stranger; but whether or not a nose remarkably prominent and +long prevented the glances from taking full effect, it is certain that +Clarence seldom repaid them with that affectionate ardour which Miss +Barbara York had ventured to anticipate. The only persons indeed for +whom he felt any sympathetic attraction were of the same sex as +himself. The one was Mr. Talbot, the old gentleman whom Mrs. Copperas +had described as the perfect courtier; the other, a young artist of +the name of Warner. Talbot, to Clarence's great astonishment (for +Mrs. Copperas's eulogy had prepared him for something eminently +displeasing) was a man of birth, fortune, and manners peculiarly +graceful and attractive. It is true, however, that, despite of his +vicinity, and Mrs. Copperas's urgent solicitations, he very seldom +honoured her with his company, and he always cautiously sent over his +servant in the morning to inquire the names and number of her expected +guests; nor was he ever known to share the plenteous board of the +stock-jobber's lady whenever any other partaker of its dainties save +Clarence and the young artist were present. The latter, the old +gentleman really liked; and as for one truly well born and well bred +there is no vulgarity except in the mind, the slender means, obscure +birth, and struggling profession of Warner were circumstances which, +as they increased the merit of a gentle manner and a fine mind, spoke +rather in his favour than the reverse. Mr. Talbot was greatly struck +by Clarence Linden's conversation and appearance; and indeed there was +in Talbot's tastes so strong a bias to aristocratic externals that +Clarence's air alone would have been sufficient to win the good graces +of a man who had, perhaps, more than most courtiers of his time, +cultivated the arts of manner and the secrets of address. + +"You will call upon me soon?" said he to Clarence, when, after dining +one day with the Copperases and their inmate, he rose to return home. +And Clarence, delighted with the urbanity and liveliness of his new +acquaintance, readily promised that he would. + +Accordingly the next day Clarence called upon Mr. Talbot. The house, +as Mrs. Copperas had before said, adjoined her own, and was only +separated from it by a garden. It was a dull mansion of brick, which +had disdained the frippery of paint and whitewashing, and had indeed +been built many years previously to the erection of the modern +habitations which surrounded it. It was, therefore, as a consequence +of this priority of birth, more sombre than the rest, and had a +peculiarly forlorn and solitary look. As Clarence approached the +door, he was struck with the size of the house; it was of very +considerable extent, and in the more favourable situations of London, +would have passed for a very desirable and spacious tenement. An old +man, whose accurate precision of dress bespoke the tastes of the +master, opened the door, and after ushering Clarence through two long, +and, to his surprise, almost splendidly furnished rooms, led him into +a third, where, seated at a small writing-table, he found Mr. Talbot. +That person, one whom Clarence then little thought would hereafter +exercise no small influence over his fate, was of a figure and +countenance well worthy the notice of a description. + +His own hair, quite white, was carefully and artificially curled, and +gave a Grecian cast to features whose original delicacy, and exact +though small proportions, not even age could destroy. His eyes were +large, black, and sparkled with almost youthful vivacity; and his +mouth, which was the best feature he possessed, developed teeth white +and even as rows of ivory. Though small and somewhat too slender in +the proportions of his figure, nothing could exceed the ease and the +grace of his motions and air; and his dress, though singularly rich in +its materials, eccentric in its fashion, and from its evident study, +unseemly to his years, served nevertheless to render rather venerable +than ridiculous a mien which could almost have carried off any +absurdity, and which the fashion of the garb peculiarly became. The +tout ensemble was certainly that of a man who was still vain of his +exterior, and conscious of its effect; and it was as certainly +impossible to converse with Mr. Talbot for five minutes without +merging every less respectful impression in the magical fascination of +his manner. + +"I thank you, Mr. Linden," said Talbot, rising, "for your accepting so +readily an old man's invitation. If I have felt pleasure in +discovering that we were to be neighbours, you may judge what that +pleasure is to-day at finding you my visitor." + +Clarence, who, to do him justice, was always ready at returning a fine +speech, replied in a similar strain, and the conversation flowed on +agreeably enough. There was more than a moderate collection of books +in the room, and this circumstance led Clarence to allude to literary +subjects; these Mr. Talbot took up with avidity, and touched with a +light but graceful criticism upon many of the then modern and some of +the older writers. He seemed delighted to find himself understood and +appreciated by Clarence, and every moment of Linden's visit served to +ripen their acquaintance into intimacy. At length they talked upon +Copperas Bower and its inmates. + +"You will find your host and hostess," said the gentleman, "certainly +of a different order from the persons with whom it is easy to see you +have associated; but, at your happy age, a year or two may be very +well thrown away upon observing the manners and customs of those whom, +in later life, you may often be called upon to conciliate or perhaps +to control. That man will never be a perfect gentleman who lives only +with gentlemen. To be a man of the world, we must view that world in +every grade and in every perspective. In short, the most practical +art of wisdom is that which extracts from things the very quality they +least appear to possess; and the actor in the world, like the actor on +the stage, should find 'a basket-hilted sword very convenient to carry +milk in.' [See the witty inventory of a player's goods in the +"Tatler."] As for me, I have survived my relations and friends. I +cannot keep late hours, nor adhere to the unhealthy customs of good +society; nor do I think that, to a man of my age and habits, any +remuneration would adequately repay the sacrifice of health or +comfort. I am, therefore, well content to sink into a hermitage in an +obscure corner of this great town, and only occasionally to revive my +'past remembrances of higher state,' by admitting a few old +acquaintances to drink my bachelor's tea and talk over the news of the +day. Hence, you see, Mr. Linden, I pick up two or three novel +anecdotes of state and scandal, and maintain my importance at Copperas +Bower by retailing them second-hand. Now that you are one of the +inmates of that abode, I shall be more frequently its guest. By the +by, I will let you into a secret: know that I am somewhat a lover of +the marvellous, and like to indulge a little embellishing exaggeration +in any place where there is no chance of finding me out. Mind, +therefore, my dear Mr. Linden, that you take no ungenerous advantage +of this confession; but suffer me, now and then, to tell my stories my +own way, even when you think truth would require me to tell them in +another." + +"Certainly," said Clarence, laughing; "let us make an agreement: you +shall tell your stories as you please, if you will grant me the same +liberty in paying my compliments; and if I laugh aloud at the stories, +you shall promise me not to laugh aloud at the compliments." + +"It is a bond," said Talbot; "and a very fit exchange of service it +is. It will be a problem in human nature to see who has the best of +it: you shall pay your court by flattering the people present, and I +mine by abusing those absent. Now, in spite of your youth and curling +locks, I will wager that I succeed the best; for in vanity there is so +great a mixture of envy that no compliment is like a judicious abuse: +to enchant your acquaintance, ridicule his friends." + +"Ah, sir," said Clarence, "this opinion of yours is, I trust, a little +in the French school, where brilliancy is more studied than truth, and +where an ill opinion of our species always has the merit of passing +for profound." + +Talbot smiled, and shook his head. "My dear young friend," said he, +"it is quite right that you, who are coming into the world, should +think well of it; and it is also quite right that I, who am going out +of it, should console myself by trying to despise it. However, let me +tell you, my young friend, that he whose opinion of mankind is not too +elevated will always be the most benevolent, because the most +indulgent, to those errors incidental to human imperfection to place +our nature in too flattering a view is only to court disappointment, +and end in misanthropy. The man who sets out with expecting to find +all his fellow-creatures heroes of virtue will conclude by condemning +them as monsters of vice; and, on the contrary, the least exacting +judge of actions will be the most lenient. If God, in His own +perfection, did not see so many frailties in us, think you He would be +so gracious to our virtues?" + +"And yet," said Clarence, "we remark every day examples of the highest +excellence." + +"Yes," replied Talbot, "of the highest but not of the most constant +excellence. He knows very little of the human heart who imagines we +cannot do a good action; but, alas! he knows still less of it who +supposes we can be always doing good actions. In exactly the same +ratio we see every day the greatest crimes are committed; but we find +no wretch so depraved as to be always committing crimes. Man cannot +be perfect even in guilt." + +In this manner Talbot and his young visitor conversed, till Clarence, +after a stay of unwarrantable length, rose to depart. + +"Well," said Talbot, "if we now rightly understand each other, we +shall be the best friends in the world. As we shall expect great +things from each other sometimes, we will have no scruple in exacting +a heroic sacrifice every now and then; for instance, I will ask you to +punish yourself by an occasional tete-a-tete with an ancient +gentleman; and, as we can also by the same reasoning pardon great +faults in each other, if they are not often committed, so I will +forgive you, with all my heart, whenever you refuse my invitations, if +you do not refuse them often. And now farewell till we meet again." + +It seemed singular and almost unnatural to Linden that a man like +Talbot, of birth, fortune, and great fastidiousness of taste and +temper, should have formed any sort of acquaintance, however slight +and distant, with the facetious stock-jobber and his wife; but the +fact is easily explained by a reference to the vanity which we shall +see hereafter made the ruling passion of Talbot's nature. This +vanity, which branching forth into a thousand eccentricities, +displayed itself in the singularity of his dress, the studied yet +graceful warmth of his manner, his attention to the minutiae of life, +his desire, craving and insatiate, to receive from every one, however +insignificant, his obolus of admiration,--this vanity, once flattered +by the obsequious homage it obtained from the wonder and reverence of +the Copperases, reconciled his taste to the disgust it so frequently +and necessarily conceived; and, having in great measure resigned his +former acquaintance and wholly outlived his friends, he was contented +to purchase the applause which had become to him a necessary of life +at the humble market more immediately at his command. + +There is no dilemma in which Vanity cannot find an expedient to +develop its form, no stream of circumstances in which its buoyant and +light nature will not rise to float upon the surface. And its +ingenuity is as fertile as that of the player who (his wardrobe +allowing him no other method of playing the fop) could still exhibit +the prevalent passion for distinction by wearing stockings of +different colours. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Who dares + Interpret then my life for me as 't were + One of the undistinguishable many? + COLERIDGE: Wallenstein. + +The first time Clarence had observed the young artist, he had taken a +deep interest in his appearance. Pale, thin, undersized, and slightly +deformed, the sanctifying mind still shed over the humble frame a +spell more powerful than beauty. Absent in manner, melancholy in air, +and never conversing except upon subjects on which his imagination was +excited, there was yet a gentleness about him which could not fail to +conciliate and prepossess; nor did Clarence omit any opportunity to +soften his reserve, and wind himself into his more intimate +acquaintance. Warner, the only support of an aged and infirm +grandmother (who had survived her immediate children), was distantly +related to Mrs. Copperas; and that lady extended to him, with +ostentatious benevolence, her favour and support. It is true that she +did not impoverish the young Adolphus to enrich her kinsman, but she +allowed him a seat at her hospitable board, whenever it was not +otherwise filled; and all that she demanded in return was a picture of +herself, another of Mr. Copperas, a third of Master Adolphus, a fourth +of the black cat, and from time to time sundry other lesser +productions of his genius, of which, through the agency of Mr. Brown, +she secretly disposed at a price that sufficiently remunerated her for +whatever havoc the slender appetite of the young painter was able to +effect. + +By this arrangement, Clarence had many opportunities of gaining that +intimacy with Warner which had become to him an object; and though the +painter, constitutionally diffident and shy, was at first averse to, +and even awed by, the ease, boldness, fluent speech, and confident +address of a man much younger than himself, yet at last he could not +resist the being decoyed into familiarity; and the youthful pair +gradually advanced from companionship into friendship. There was a +striking contrast between the two: Clarence was bold and frank, Warner +close and timid. Both had superior abilities; but the abilities of +Clarence were for action, those of Warner for art: both were +ambitious; but the ambition of Clarence was that of circumstances +rather than character. Compelled to carve his own fortunes without +sympathy or aid, he braced his mind to the effort, though naturally +too gay for the austerity, and too genial for the selfishness of +ambition. But the very essence of Warner's nature was the feverish +desire of fame: it poured through his veins like lava; it preyed as a +worm upon his cheek; it corroded his natural sleep; it blackened the +colour of his thoughts; it shut out, as with an impenetrable wall, the +wholesome energies and enjoyments and objects of living men; and, +taking from him all the vividness of the present, all the tenderness +of the past, constrained his heart to dwell forever and forever amidst +the dim and shadowy chimeras of a future he was fated never to enjoy. + +But these differences of character, so far from disturbing, rather +cemented their friendship; and while Warner (notwithstanding his +advantage of age) paid involuntary deference to the stronger character +of Clarence, he, in his turn, derived that species of pleasure by +which he was most gratified, from the affectionate and unenvious +interest Clarence took in his speculations of future distinction, and +the unwearying admiration with which he would sit by his side, and +watch the colours start from the canvas, beneath the real though +uncultured genius of the youthful painter. + +Hitherto, Warner had bounded his attempts to some of the lesser +efforts of the art; he had now yielded to the urgent enthusiasm of his +nature, and conceived the plan of an historical picture. Oh! what +sleepless nights, what struggles of the teeming fancy with the dense +brain, what labours of the untiring thought wearing and intense as +disease itself, did it cost the ambitious artist to work out in the +stillness of his soul, and from its confused and conflicting images, +the design of this long meditated and idolized performance! But when +it was designed; when shape upon shape grew and swelled, and glowed +from the darkness of previous thought upon the painter's mind; when, +shutting his eyes in the very credulity of delight, the whole work +arose before him, glossy with its fresh hues, bright, completed, +faultless, arrayed as it were, and decked out for immortality,--oh! +then what a full and gushing moment of rapture broke like a released +stream upon his soul! What a recompense for wasted years, health, and +hope! What a coronal to the visions and transports of Genius: brief, +it is true, but how steeped in the very halo of a light that might +well be deemed the glory of heaven! + +But the vision fades, the gorgeous shapes sweep on into darkness, and, +waking from his revery, the artist sees before him only the dull walls +of his narrow chamber; the canvas stretched a blank upon its frame; +the works, maimed, crude, unfinished, of an inexperienced hand, lying +idly around; and feels himself--himself, but one moment before the +creator of a world of wonders, the master spirit of shapes glorious +and majestical beyond the shapes of men-dashed down from his momentary +height, and despoiled both of his sorcery and his throne. + +It was just in such a moment that Warner, starting up, saw Linden (who +had silently entered his room) standing motionless before him. + +"Oh, Linden!" said the artist, "I have had so superb a dream,--a dream +which, though I have before snatched some such vision by fits and +glimpses, I never beheld so realized, so perfect as now; and--but you +shall see, you shall judge for yourself; I will sketch out the design +for you;" and, with a piece of chalk and a rapid hand, Warner conveyed +to Linden the outline of his conception. His young friend was eager +in his praise and his predictions of renown, and Warner listened to +him with a fondness which spread over his pale cheek a richer flush +than lover ever caught from the whispers of his beloved. + +"Yes," said he, as he rose, and his sunken and small eye flashed out +with a feverish brightness, "yes, if my hand does not fail my thought, +it shall rival even--" Here the young painter stopped short, abashed +at that indiscretion of enthusiasm about to utter to another the +hoarded vanities hitherto locked in his heart of hearts as a sealed +secret, almost from himself. + +"But come," said Clarence, affectionately, "your hand is feverish and +dry, and of late you have seemed more languid than you were wont,-- +come, Warner, you want exercise: it is a beautiful evening, and you +shall explain your picture still further to me as we walk." + +Accustomed to yield to Clarence, Warner mechanically and abstractedly +obeyed; they walked out into the open streets. + +"Look around us," said Warner, pausing, "look among this toiling and +busy and sordid mass of beings who claim with us the fellowship of +clay. The poor labour; the rich feast: the only distinction between +them is that of the insect and the brute; like them they fulfil the +same end and share the same oblivion; they die, a new race springs up, +and the very grass upon their graves fades not so soon as their +memory. Who that is conscious of a higher nature would not pine and +fret himself away to be confounded with these? Who would not burn and +sicken and parch with a delirious longing to divorce himself from so +vile a herd? What have their petty pleasures and their mean aims to +atone for the abasement of grinding down our spirits to their level? +Is not the distinction from their blended and common name a sufficient +recompense for all that ambition suffers or foregoes? Oh, for one +brief hour (I ask no more) of living honour, one feeling of conscious, +unfearing certainty that Fame has conquered Death! and then for this +humble and impotent clay, this drag on the spirit which it does not +assist but fetter, this wretched machine of pains and aches, and +feverish throbbings, and vexed inquietudes, why, let the worms consume +it, and the grave hide--for Fame there is no grave." + +At that moment one of those unfortunate women who earn their polluted +sustenance by becoming the hypocrites of passions abruptly accosted +them. + +"Miserable wretch!" said Warner, loathingly, as he pushed her aside; +but Clarence, with a kindlier feeling, noticed that her haggard cheek +was wet with tears, and that her frame, weak and trembling, could +scarcely support itself; he, therefore, with that promptitude of +charity which gives ere it discriminates put some pecuniary assistance +in her hand and joined his comrade. + +"You would not have spoken so tauntingly to the poor girl had you +remarked her distress," said Clarence. + +"And why," said Warner, mournfully, "why be so cruel as to prolong, +even for a few hours, an existence which mercy would only seek to +bring nearer to the tomb? That unfortunate is but one of the herd, +one of the victims to pleasures which debase by their progress and +ruin by their end. Yet perhaps she is not worse than the usual +followers of love,--of love, that passion the most worshipped, yet the +least divine,--selfish and exacting,--drawing its aliment from +destruction, and its very nature from tears." + +"Nay," said Clarence, "you confound the two loves, the Eros and the +Anteros; gods whom my good tutor was wont so sedulously to +distinguish: you surely do not inveigh thus against all love?" + +"I cry you mercy," said Warner, with something of sarcasm in his +pensiveness of tone. "We must not dispute; so I will hold my peace: +but make love all you will; what are the false smiles of a lip which a +few years can blight as an autumn leaf? what the homage of a heart as +feeble and mortal as your own? Why, I, with a few strokes of a little +hair and an idle mixture of worthless colours, will create a beauty in +whose mouth there shall be no hollowness, in whose lip there shall be +no fading; there, in your admiration, you shall have no need of +flattery and no fear of falsehood; you shall not be stung with +jealousy nor maddened with treachery; nor watch with a breaking heart +over the waning bloom, and departing health, till the grave open, and +your perishable paradise is not. No: the mimic work is mightier than +the original, for it outlasts it; your love cannot wither it, or your +desertion destroy; your very death, as the being who called it into +life, only stamps it with a holier value." + +"And so then," said Clarence, "you would seriously relinquish, for the +mute copy of the mere features, those affections which no painting can +express?" + +"Ay," said the painter, with an energy unusual to his quiet manner, +and slightly wandering in his answer from Clarence's remark, "ay, one +serves not two mistresses: mine is the glory of my art. Oh! what are +the cold shapes of this tame earth, where the footsteps of the gods +have vanished, and left no trace, the blemished forms, the debased +brows, and the jarring features, to the glorious and gorgeous images +which I can conjure up at my will? Away with human beauties, to him +whose nights are haunted with the forms of angels and wanderers from +the stars, the spirits of all things lovely and exalted in the +universe: the universe as it was; when to fountain, and stream, and +hill, and to every tree which the summer clothed, was allotted the +vigil of a Nymph! when through glade, and by waterfall, at glossy +noontide, or under the silver stars, the forms of Godhead and Spirit +were seen to walk; when the sculptor modelled his mighty work from the +beauty and strength of Heaven, and the poet lay in the shade to dream +of the Naiad and the Faun, and the Olympian dwellers whom he walked in +rapture to behold; and the painter, not as now, shaping from shadow +and in solitude the dim glories of his heart, caught at once his +inspiration from the glow of earth and its living wanderers, and, lo, +the canvas breathed! Oh! what are the dull realities and the abortive +offspring of this altered and humbled world--the world of meaner and +dwarfish men--to him whose realms are peopled with visions like +these?" + +And the artist, whose ardour, long excited and pent within, had at +last thus audibly, and to Clarence's astonishment, burst forth, +paused, as if to recall himself from his wandering enthusiasm. Such +moments of excitement were indeed rare with him, except when utterly +alone, and even then, were almost invariably followed by that +depression of spirit by which all over-wrought susceptibility is +succeeded. A change came over his face, like that of a cloud when the +sunbeam which gilded leaves it; and, with a slight sigh and a subdued +tone, he resumed,-- + +"So, my friend, you see what our art can do even for the humblest +professor, when I, a poor, friendless, patronless artist, can thus +indulge myself by forgetting the present. But I have not yet +explained to you the attitude of my principal figure;" and Warner +proceeded once more to detail the particulars of his intended picture. +It must be confessed that he had chosen a fine though an arduous +subject: it was the Trial of Charles the First; and as the painter, +with the enthusiasm of his profession and the eloquence peculiar to +himself, dwelt upon the various expressions of the various forms which +that extraordinary judgment-court afforded, no wonder that Clarence +forgot, with the artist himself, the disadvantages Warner had to +encounter in the inexperience of an unregulated taste and an imperfect +professional education. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + All manners take a tincture from our own, + Or come discoloured through our passions shown.--POPE. + +What! give up liberty, property, and, as the Gazeteer says, lie down +to be saddled with wooden shoes?--Vicar of Wakefield. + +There was something in the melancholy and reflective character of +Warner resembling that of Mordaunt; had they lived in these days +perhaps both the artist and the philosopher had been poets. But (with +regard to the latter) at that time poetry was not the customary vent +for deep thought or passionate feeling. Gray, it is true, though +unjustly condemned as artificial and meretricious in his style, had +infused into the scanty works which he has bequeathed to immortality a +pathos and a richness foreign to the literature of the age; and, +subsequently, Goldsmith, in the affecting yet somewhat enervate +simplicity of his verse, had obtained for Poetry a brief respite from +a school at once declamatory and powerless, and led her forth for a +"Sunshine Holiday" into the village green and under the hawthorn +shade. But, though the softer and meeker feelings had struggled into +a partial and occasional vent, those which partook more of passion and +of thought, the deep, the wild, the fervid, were still without "the +music of a voice." For the after century it was reserved to restore +what we may be permitted to call the spirit of our national +literature; to forsake the clinquant of the French mimickers of +classic gold; to exchange a thrice-adulterated Hippocrene for the pure +well of Shakspeare and of Nature; to clothe philosophy in the gorgeous +and solemn majesty of appropriate music; and to invest passion with a +language as burning as its thought and rapid as its impulse. At that +time reflection found its natural channel in metaphysical inquiry or +political speculation; both valuable, perhaps, but neither profound. +It was a bold, and a free, and an inquisitive age, but not one in +which thought ran over its set and stationary banks, and watered even +the common flowers of verse: not one in which Lucretius could have +embodied the dreams of Epicurus; Shakspeare lavished the mines of a +superhuman wisdom upon his fairy palaces and enchanted isles; or the +Beautifier [Wordsworth] of this common earth have called forth + + "The motion of the spirit that impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought;" + +or Disappointment and Satiety have hallowed their human griefs by a +pathos wrought from whatever is magnificent and grand and lovely in +the unknown universe; or the speculations of a great but visionary +mind [Shelley] have raised, upon subtlety and doubt, a vast and +irregular pile of verse, full of dim-lighted cells, and winding +galleries, in which what treasures lie concealed! That was an age in +which poetry took one path and contemplation another; those who were +addicted to the latter pursued it in its orthodox roads; and many, +whom Nature, perhaps intended for poets, the wizard Custom converted +into speculators or critics. + +It was this which gave to Algernon's studies their peculiar hue; +while, on the other hand, the taste for the fine arts which then +universally prevailed, directed to the creations of painting, rather +than those of poetry, more really congenial to his powers, the intense +imagination and passion for glory which marked and pervaded the +character of the artist. + +But as we have seen that that passion for glory made the great +characteristic difference between Clarence and Warner, so also did +that passion terminate any resemblance which Warner bore to Algernon +Mordaunt. With the former a rank and unwholesome plant, it grew up to +the exclusion of all else; with the latter, subdued and regulated, it +sheltered, not withered, the virtues by which it was surrounded. With +Warner, ambition was a passionate desire to separate himself by fame +from the herd of other men; with Mordaunt, to bind himself by charity +yet closer to his kind: with the one, it produced a disgust to his +species; with the other, a pity and a love: with the one, power was +the badge of distinction; with the other, the means to bless! But our +story lingers. + +It was now the custom of Warner to spend the whole day at his work, +and wander out with Clarence, when the evening darkened, to snatch a +brief respite of exercise and air. Often, along the lighted and +populous streets, would the two young and unfriended competitors for +this world's high places roam with the various crowd, moralizing as +they went or holding dim conjecture upon their destinies to be. And +often would they linger beneath the portico of some house where, +"haunted with great resort," Pleasure and Pomp held their nightly +revels, to listen to the music that, through the open windows, stole +over the rare exotics with which wealth mimics the southern scents, +and floated, mellowing by distance, along the unworthy streets; and +while they stood together, silent and each feeding upon separate +thoughts, the artist's pale lip would curl with scorn, as he heard the +laugh and the sounds of a frivolous and hollow mirth ring from the +crowd within, and startle the air from the silver spell which music +had laid upon it. "These," would he say to Clarence, "these are the +dupes of the same fever as ourselves: like us, they strive and toil +and vex their little lives for a distinction from their race. +Ambition comes to them, as to all: but they throw for a different +prize than we do; theirs is the honour of a day, ours is immortality; +yet they take the same labour and are consumed by the same care. And, +fools that they are, with their gilded names and their gaudy +trappings, they would shrink in disdain from that comparison with us +which we, with a juster fastidiousness, blush at this moment to +acknowledge." + +From these scenes they would rove on, and, both delighting in +contrast, enter some squalid and obscure quarter of the city. There, +one night, quiet observers of their kind, they paused beside a group +congregated together by some common cause of obscene merriment or +unholy fellowship--a group on which low vice had set her sordid and +hideous stamp--to gaze and draw strange humours or a motley moral from +that depth and ferment of human nature into whose sink the thousand +streams of civilization had poured their dregs and offal. + +"You survey these," said the painter, marking each with the curious +eye of his profession: "they are a base horde, it is true; but they +have their thirst of fame, their aspirations even in the abyss of +crime or the loathsomeness of famished want. Down in yon cellar, +where a farthing rushlight glimmers upon haggard cheeks, distorted +with the idiotcy of drink; there, in that foul attic, from whose +casement you see the beggar's rags hang to dry, or rather to crumble +in the reeking and filthy air; farther on, within those walls which, +black and heavy as the hearts they hide, close our miserable +prospect,--there, even there, in the mildewed dungeon, in the felon's +cell, on the very scaffold's self, Ambition hugs her own hope or +scowls upon her own despair. Yes! the inmates of those walls had +their perilous game of honour, their 'hazard of the die,' in which +vice was triumph and infamy success. We do but share their passion, +though we direct it to a better object." + +Pausing for a moment, as his thoughts flowed into a somewhat different +channel of his character, Warner continued, "We have now caught a +glimpse of the two great divisions of mankind; they who riot in +palaces, and they who make mirth hideous in rags and hovels: own that +it is but a poor survey in either. Can we be contemptible with these +or loathsome with those? Or rather have we not a nobler spark within +us, which we have but to fan into a flame that shall burn forever, +when these miserable meteors sink into the corruption from which they +rise?" + +"But," observed Clarence, "these are the two extremes; the pinnacle of +civilization, too worn and bare for any more noble and vigorous fruit, +and the base upon which the cloud descends in rain and storm. Look to +the central portion of society; there the soil is more genial, and its +produce more rich." + +"Is it so, in truth?" answered Warner; "pardon me, I believe not: the +middling classes are as human as the rest. There is the region, the +heart, of Avarice,--systematized, spreading, rotting, the very fungus +and leprosy of social states; suspicion, craft, hypocrisy, servility +to the great, oppression to the low, the waxlike mimicry of courtly +vices, the hardness of flint to humble woes; thought, feeling, the +faculties and impulses of man, all ulcered into one great canker, +Gain,--these make the general character of the middling class, the +unleavened mass of that mediocrity which it has been the wisdom of the +shallow to applaud. Pah! we too are of this class, this potter's +earth, this paltry mixture of mud and stone; but we, my friend, we +will knead gold into our clay." + +"But look," said Clarence, pointing to the group before them, "look, +yon wretched mother, whose voice an instant ago uttered the coarsest +accents of maudlin and intoxicated prostitution, is now fostering her +infant, with a fondness stamped upon her worn cheek and hollow eye, +which might shame the nice maternity of nobles; and there, too, yon +wretch whom, in the reckless effrontery of hardened abandonment, we +ourselves heard a few minutes since boast of his dexterity in theft, +and openly exhibit its token,--look, he is now, with a Samaritan's own +charity, giving the very goods for which his miserable life was risked +to that attenuated and starving stripling! No, Warner, no! even this +mass is not unleavened. The vilest infamy is not too deep for the +Seraph Virtue to descend and illumine its abyss!" + +"Out on the weak fools!" said the artist, bitterly: "it would be +something, if they could be consistent even in crime!" and, placing +his arm in Linden's, he drew him away. + +As the picture grew beneath the painter's hand, Clarence was much +struck with the outline and expression of countenance given to the +regicide Bradshaw. + +"They are but an imperfect copy of the living original from whom I +have borrowed them," said Warner, in answer to Clarence's remark upon +the sternness of the features. "But that original--a relation of +mine, is coming here to-day: you shall see him." + +While Warner was yet speaking, the person in question entered. His +were, indeed, the form and face worthy to be seized by the painter. +The peculiarity of his character made him affect a plainness of dress +unusual to the day, and approaching to the simplicity, but not the +neatness, of Quakerism. His hair--then, with all the better ranks, a +principal object of cultivation--was wild, dishevelled, and, in wiry +flakes of the sablest hue, rose abruptly from a forehead on which +either thought or passion had written its annals with an iron pen; the +lower part of the brow, which overhung the eye, was singularly sharp +and prominent; while the lines, or rather furrows, traced under the +eyes and nostrils, spoke somewhat of exhaustion and internal fatigue. +But this expression was contrasted and contradicted by the firmly +compressed lip; the lighted, steady, stern eye; the resolute and even +stubborn front, joined to proportions strikingly athletic and a +stature of uncommon height. + +"Well, Wolfe," said the young painter to the person we have described, +"it is indeed a kindness to give me a second sitting." + +"Tusk, boy!" answered Wolfe, "all men have their vain points, and I +own that I am not ill pleased that these rugged features should be +assigned, even in fancy, to one of the noblest of those men who judged +the mightiest cause in which a country was ever plaintiff, a tyrant +criminal, and a world witness!" While Wolfe was yet speaking his +countenance, so naturally harsh, took a yet sterner aspect, and the +artist, by a happy touch, succeeded in transferring it to the canvas. + +"But, after all," continued Wolfe, "it shames me to lend aid to an art +frivolous in itself, and almost culpable in times when Freedom wants +the head to design, and perhaps the hand to execute, far other and +nobler works than the blazoning of her past deeds upon perishable +canvas." + +A momentary anger at the slight put upon his art crossed the pale brow +of the artist; but he remembered the character of the man and +continued his work in silence. "You consider then, sir, that these +are times in which liberty is attacked?" said Clarence. + +"Attacked!" repeated Wolfe,--" attacked!" and then suddenly sinking +his voice into a sort of sneer, "why, since the event which this +painting is designed to commemorate, I know not if we have ever had +one solitary gleam of liberty break along the great chaos of jarring +prejudice and barbarous law which we term forsooth a glorious +constitution. Liberty attacked! no, boy; but it is a time when +liberty may be gained." + +Perfectly unacquainted with the excited politics of the day, or the +growing and mighty spirit which then stirred through the minds of men, +Clarence remained silent; but his evident attention flattered the +fierce republican, and he proceeded. + +"Ay," he said slowly, and as if drinking in a deep and stern joy from +his conviction in the truth of the words he uttered,--"ay, I have +wandered over the face of the earth, and I have warmed my soul at the +fires which lay hidden under its quiet surface; I have been in the +city and the desert,--the herded and banded crimes of the Old World, +and the scattered but bold hearts which are found among the savannahs +of the New; and in either I have beheld that seed sown which, from a +mustard grain, too scanty for a bird's beak, shall grow up to be a +shelter and a home for the whole family of man. I have looked upon +the thrones of kings, and lo, the anointed ones were in purple and +festive pomp; and I looked beneath the thrones, and I saw Want and +Hunger, and despairing Wrath gnawing the foundations away. I have +stood in the streets of that great city where Mirth seems to hold an +eternal jubilee, and beheld the noble riot while the peasant starved; +and the priest built altars to Mammon, piled from the earnings of +groaning Labour and cemented with blood and tears. But I looked +farther, and saw, in the rear, chains sharpened into swords, misery +ripening into justice, and famine darkening into revenge; and I +laughed as I beheld, for I knew that the day of the oppressed was at +hand." + +Somewhat awed by the prophetic tone, though revolted by what seemed to +him the novelty and the fierceness of the sentiments of the +republican, Clarence, after a brief pause, said,-- + +"And what of our own country?" + +Wolfe's brow darkened. "The oppression here," said he, "has not been +so weighty, therefore the reaction will be less strong; the parties +are more blended, therefore their separation will be more arduous; the +extortion is less strained, therefore the endurance will be more meek; +but, soon or late, the struggle must come: bloody will it be, if the +strife be even; gentle and lasting, if the people predominate." + +"And if the rulers be the strongest?" said Clarence. + +"The struggle will be renewed," replied Wolfe, doggedly. + +"You still attend those oratorical meetings, cousin, I think?" said +Warner. + +"I do," said Wolfe; "and if you are not so utterly absorbed in your +vain and idle art as to be indifferent to all things nobler, you will +learn yourself to take interest in what concerns--I will not say your +country, but mankind. For you, young man" (and the republican turned +to Clarence), "I would fain hope that life has not already been +diverted from the greatest of human objects; if so, come to-morrow +night to our assembly, and learn from worthier lips than mine the +precepts and the hopes for which good men live or die." + +"I will come at all events to listen, if not to learn," said Clarence, +eagerly, for his curiosity was excited. And the republican, having +now fulfilled the end of his visit, rose and departed. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Bound to suffer persecution + And martyrdom with resolution, + T'oppose himself against the hate + And vengeance of the incensed state.--Hudibras. + +Born of respectable though not wealthy parents, John Wolfe was one of +those fiery and daring spirits which, previous to some mighty +revolution, Fate seems to scatter over various parts of the earth, +even those removed from the predestined explosion,--heralds of the +events in which they are fitted though not fated to be actors. The +period at which he is presented to the reader was one considerably +prior to that French Revolution so much debated and so little +understood. But some such event, though not foreseen by the common, +had been already foreboded by the more enlightened, eye; and Wolfe, +from a protracted residence in France among the most discontented of +its freer spirits, had brought hope to that burning enthusiasm which +had long made the pervading passion of his existence. + +Bold to ferocity, generous in devotion to folly in self-sacrifice, +unflinching in his tenets to a degree which rendered their ardour +ineffectual to all times, because utterly inapplicable to the present, +Wolfe was one of those zealots whose very virtues have the semblance +of vice, and whose very capacities for danger become harmless from the +rashness of their excess. + +It was not among the philosophers and reasoners of France that Wolfe +had drawn strength to his opinions: whatever such companions might +have done to his tenets, they would at least have moderated his +actions. The philosopher may aid or expedite a change; but never does +the philosopher in any age or of any sect countenance a crime. But of +philosophers Wolfe knew little, and probably despised them for their +temperance: it was among fanatics--ignorant, but imaginative--that he +had strengthened the love without comprehending the nature of +republicanism. Like Lucian's painter, whose flattery portrayed the +one-eyed prince in profile, he viewed only that side of the question +in which there was no defect, and gave beauty to the whole by +concealing the half. Thus, though on his return to England herding +with the common class of his reforming brethren, Wolfe possessed many +peculiarities and distinctions of character which, in rendering him +strikingly adapted to the purpose of the novelist, must serve as a +caution to the reader not to judge of the class by the individual. + +With a class of Republicans in England there was a strong tendency to +support their cause by reasoning. With Wolfe, whose mind was little +wedded to logic, all was the offspring of turbulent feelings, which, +in rejecting argument, substituted declamation for syllogism. This +effected a powerful and irreconcilable distinction between Wolfe and +the better part of his comrades; for the habits of cool reasoning, +whether true or false, are little likely to bias the mind towards +those crimes to which Wolfe's unregulated emotions might possibly urge +him, and give to the characters to which they are a sort of common +denominator something of method and much of similarity. But the +feelings--those orators which allow no calculation and baffle the +tameness of comparison--rendered Wolfe alone, unique, eccentric in +opinion or action, whether of vice or virtue. + +Private ties frequently moderate the ardour of our public enthusiasm. +Wolfe had none. His nearest relation was Warner, and it may readily +be supposed that with the pensive and contemplative artist he had very +little in common. He had never married, nor had ever seemed to wander +from his stern and sterile path, in the most transient pursuit of the +pleasures of sense. Inflexibly honest, rigidly austere,--in his moral +character his bitterest enemies could detect no flaw,--poor, even to +indigence, he had invariably refused all overtures of the government; +thrice imprisoned and heavily fined for his doctrines, no fear of a +future, no remembrance of the past punishment could ever silence his +bitter eloquence or moderate the passion of his distempered zeal; +kindly, though rude, his scanty means were ever shared by the less +honest and disinterested followers of his faith; and he had been known +for days to deprive himself of food, and for nights of shelter, for +the purpose of yielding food and shelter to another. + +Such was the man doomed to forsake, through a long and wasted life, +every substantial blessing, in pursuit of a shadowy good; with the +warmest benevolence in his heart, to relinquish private affections, +and to brood even to madness over public offences; to sacrifice +everything in a generous though erring devotion for that freedom whose +cause, instead of promoting, he was calculated to retard; and, while +he believed himself the martyr of a high and uncompromising virtue, to +close his career with the greatest of human crimes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Faith, methinks his humour is good, and his purse will buy good +company.--The Parson's Wedding. + +When Clarence returned home, after the conversation recorded in our +last chapter, he found a note from Talbot, inviting him to meet some +friends of the latter at supper that evening. It was the first time +Clarence had been asked, and he looked forward with some curiosity and +impatience to the hour appointed in the note. + +It is impossible to convey any idea of the jealous rancour felt by Mr. +and Mrs. Copperas on hearing of this distinction,--a distinction which +"the perfect courtier" had never once bestowed upon themselves. + +Mrs. Copperas tossed her head, too indignant for words; and the stock- +jobber, in the bitterness of his soul, affirmed, with a meaning air, +"that he dared say, after all, that the old gentleman was not so rich +as he gave out." + +On entering Talbot's drawing-room, Clarence found about seven or eight +people assembled; their names, in proclaiming the nature of the party, +indicated that the aim of the host was to combine aristocracy and +talent. The literary acquirements and worldly tact of Talbot, joined +to the adventitious circumstances of birth and fortune, enabled him to +effect this object, so desirable in polished society, far better than +we generally find it effected now. The conversation of these guests +was light and various. The last bon mot of Chesterfield, the last +sarcasm of Horace Walpole, Goldsmith's "Traveller," Shenstone's +"Pastorals," and the attempt of Mrs. Montagu to bring Shakspeare into +fashion,--in all these subjects the graceful wit and exquisite taste +of Talbot shone pre-eminent; and he had almost succeeded in convincing +a profound critic that Gray was a poet more likely to live than Mason, +when the servant announced supper. + +That was the age of suppers! Happy age! Meal of ease and mirth; when +Wine and Night lit the lamp of Wit! Oh, what precious things were +said and looked at those banquets of the soul! There epicurism was in +the lip as well as the palate, and one had humour for a hors d'oeuvre +and repartee for an entremet. At dinner there is something too +pompous, too formal, for the true ease of Table Talk. One's +intellectual appetite, like the physical, is coarse but dull. At +dinner one is fit only for eating; after dinner only for politics. +But supper was a glorious relic of the ancients. The bustle of the +day had thoroughly wound up the spirit, and every stroke upon the +dial-plate of wit was true to the genius of the hour. The wallet of +diurnal anecdote was full, and craved unloading. The great meal--that +vulgar first love of the appetite--was over, and one now only +flattered it into coquetting with another. The mind, disengaged and +free, was no longer absorbed in a cutlet or burdened with a joint. +The gourmand carried the nicety of his physical perception to his +moral, and applauded a bon mot instead of a bonne bouche. + +Then, too, one had no necessity to keep a reserve of thought for the +after evening; supper was the final consummation, the glorious funeral +pyre of day. One could be merry till bedtime without an interregnum. +Nay, if in the ardour of convivialism one did,--I merely hint at the +possibility of such an event,--if one did exceed the narrow limits of +strict ebriety, and open the heart with a ruby key, one had nothing to +dread from the cold, or, what is worse, the warm looks of ladies in +the drawing-room; no fear that an imprudent word, in the amatory +fondness of the fermented blood, might expose one to matrimony and +settlements. There was no tame, trite medium of propriety and +suppressed confidence, no bridge from board to bed, over which a false +step (and your wine-cup is a marvellous corrupter of ambulatory +rectitude) might precipitate into an irrecoverable abyss of perilous +communication or unwholesome truth. One's pillow became at once the +legitimate and natural bourne to "the overheated brain;" and the +generous rashness of the coenatorial reveller was not damped by +untimeous caution or ignoble calculation. + +But "we have changed all that now." Sobriety has become the successor +of suppers; the great ocean of moral encroachment has not left us one +little island of refuge. Miserable supper-lovers that we are, like +the native Indians of America, a scattered and daily disappearing +race, we wander among strange customs, and behold the innovating and +invading Dinner spread gradually over the very space of time in which +the majesty of Supper once reigned undisputed and supreme! + + O, ye heavens, be kind, + And feel, thou earth, for this afflicted race.--WORDSWORTH. + +As he was sitting down to the table, Clarence's notice was arrested by +a somewhat suspicious and unpleasing occurrence. The supper room was +on the ground floor, and, owing to the heat of the weather, one of the +windows, facing the small garden, was left open. Through this window +Clarence distinctly saw the face of a man look into the room for one +instant, with a prying and curious gaze, and then as instantly +disappear. As no one else seemed to remark this incident, and the +general attention was somewhat noisily engrossed by the subject of +conversation, Clarence thought it not worth while to mention a +circumstance for which the impertinence of any neighbouring servant or +drunken passer-by might easily account. An apprehension, however, of +a more unpleasant nature shot across him, as his eye fell upon the +costly plate which Talbot rather ostentatiously displayed, and then +glanced to the single and aged servant, who was, besides his master, +the only male inmate of the house. Nor could he help saying to +Talbot, in the course of the evening, that he wondered he was not +afraid of hoarding so many articles of value in a house at once so +lonely and ill guarded. + +"Ill guarded!" said Talbot, rather affronted, "why, I and my servant +always sleep here!" + +To this Clarence thought it neither prudent nor well-bred to offer +further remark. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Meetings or public calls he never missed, + To dictate often, always to assist. + . . . . . + To his experience and his native sense, + He joined a bold, imperious eloquence; + The grave, stern look of men informed and wise, + A full command of feature, heart and eyes, + An awe-compelling frown, and fear-inspiring size.--CRABBE. + +The next evening Clarence, mindful of Wolfe's invitation, inquired +from Warner (who repaid the contempt of the republican for the +painter's calling by a similar feeling for the zealot's) the direction +of the oratorical meeting, and repaired there alone. It was the most +celebrated club (of that description) of the day, and well worth +attending, as a gratification to the curiosity, if not an improvement +to the mind. + +On entering, he found himself in a long room, tolerably well lighted, +and still better filled. The sleepy countenances of the audience, the +whispered conversation carried on at scattered intervals, the listless +attitudes of some, the frequent yawns of others, the eagerness with +which attention was attracted to the opening door, when it admitted +some new object of interest, the desperate resolution with which some +of the more energetic turned themselves towards the orator, and then, +with a faint shake of the head, turned themselves again hopelessly +away,--were all signs that denoted that no very eloquent declaimer was +in possession of the "house." It was, indeed, a singularly dull, +monotonous voice which, arising from the upper end of the room, +dragged itself on towards the middle, and expired with a sighing sound +before it reached the end. The face of the speaker suited his vocal +powers; it was small, mean, and of a round stupidity, without anything +even in fault that could possibly command attention or even the +excitement of disapprobation: the very garments of the orator seemed +dull and heavy, and, like the Melancholy of Milton, had a "leaden +look." Now and then some words, more emphatic than others,--stones +breaking, as it were with a momentary splash, the stagnation of the +heavy stream,--produced from three very quiet, unhappy-looking persons +seated next to the speaker, his immediate friends, three single +isolated "hears!" + + "The force of friendship could no further go." + +At last, the orator having spoken through, suddenly stopped; the whole +meeting seemed as if a weight had been taken from it; there was a +general buzz of awakened energy, each stretched his limbs, and +resettled himself in his place,-- + + "And turning to his neighbour said, + 'Rejoice!'" + +A pause ensued, the chairman looked round, the eyes of the meeting +followed those of the president, with a universal and palpable +impatience, towards an obscure corner of the room: the pause deepened +for one moment, and then was broken; a voice cried "Wolfe!" and at +that signal the whole room shook with the name. The place which +Clarence had taken did not allow him to see the object of these cries, +till he rose from his situation, and, passing two rows of benches, +stood forth in the middle space of the room; then, from one to one +went round the general roar of applause; feet stamped, hands clapped, +umbrellas set their sharp points to the ground, and walking-sticks +thumped themselves out of shape in the universal clamour. Tall, +gaunt, and erect, the speaker possessed, even in the mere proportions +of his frame, that physical power which never fails, in a popular +assembly, to gain attention to mediocrity and to throw dignity over +faults. He looked very slowly round the room, remaining perfectly +still and motionless, till the clamour of applause had entirely +subsided, and every ear, Clarence's no less eagerly than the rest, was +strained, and thirsting to catch the first syllables of his voice. + +It was then with a low, very deep, and somewhat hoarse tone, that he +began; and it was not till he had spoken for several minutes that the +iron expression of his face altered, that the drooping hand was +raised, and that the suppressed, yet powerful, voice began to expand +and vary in its volume. He had then entered upon a new department of +his subject. The question was connected with the English +constitution, and Wolfe was now preparing to put forth, in long and +blackened array, the alleged evils of an aristocratical form of +government. Then it was as if the bile and bitterness of years were +poured forth in a terrible and stormy wrath,--then his action became +vehement, and his eye flashed forth unutterable fire: his voice, +solemn, swelling, and increasing with each tone in its height and +depth, filled, as with something palpable and perceptible, the shaking +walls. The listeners,--a various and unconnected group, bound by no +tie of faith or of party, many attracted by curiosity, many by the +hope of ridicule, some abhorring the tenets expressed, and nearly all +disapproving their principles or doubting their wisdom,--the +listeners, certainly not a group previously formed or moulded into +enthusiasm, became rapt and earnest; their very breath forsook them. + +Linden had never before that night heard a public speaker; but he was +of a thoughtful and rather calculating mind, and his early habits of +decision, and the premature cultivation of his intellect, rendered him +little susceptible, in general, to the impressions of the vulgar: +nevertheless, in spite of himself, he was hurried away by the stream, +and found that the force and rapidity of the speaker did not allow him +even time for the dissent and disapprobation which his republican +maxims and fiery denunciations perpetually excited in a mind +aristocratic both by creed and education. At length after a +peroration of impetuous and magnificent invective, the orator ceased. + +In the midst of the applause that followed, Clarence left the +assembly; he could not endure the thought that any duller or more +commonplace speaker should fritter away the spell which yet bound and +engrossed his spirit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +At the bottom of the staircase was a small door, which gave way before +Nigel, as he precipitated himself upon the scene of action, a cocked +pistol in one hand, etc.--Fortunes of Nigel. + +The night, though not utterly dark, was rendered capricious and dim by +alternate wind and rain; and Clarence was delayed in his return +homeward by seeking occasional shelter from the rapid and heavy +showers which hurried by. It was during one of the temporary +cessations of the rain that he reached Copperas Bower; and, while he +was searching in his pockets for the key which was to admit him, he +observed two men loitering about his neighbour's house. The light was +not sufficient to give him more than a scattered and imperfect view of +their motions. Somewhat alarmed, he stood for several moments at the +door, watching them as well as he was able; nor did he enter the house +till the loiterers had left their suspicious position, and, walking +onwards, were hid entirely from him by the distance and darkness. + +"It really is a dangerous thing for Talbot," thought Clarence, as he +ascended to his apartment, "to keep so many valuables, and only one +servant, and that one as old as himself too. However, as I am by no +means sleepy, and my room is by no means cool, I may as well open my +window, and see if those idle fellows make their re-appearance." +Suiting the action to the thought, Clarence opened his little +casement, and leaned wistfully out. + +He had no light in his room, for none was ever left for him. This +circumstance, however, of course enabled him the better to penetrate +the dimness and haze of the night; and, by the help of the fluttering +lamps, he was enabled to take a general though not minute survey of +the scene below. + +I think I have before said that there was a garden between Talbot's +house and Copperas Bower; this was bounded by a wall, which confined +Talbot's peculiar territory of garden, and this wall, describing a +parallelogram, faced also the road. It contained two entrances,--one +the principal adytus, in the shape of a comely iron gate, the other a +wooden door, which, being a private pass, fronted the intermediate +garden before mentioned and was exactly opposite to Clarence's window. + +Linden had been more than ten minutes at his post, and had just begun +to think his suspicions without foundation and his vigil in vain, when +he observed the same figures he had seen before advance slowly from +the distance and pause by the front gate of Talbot's mansion. + +Alarmed and anxious, he redoubled his attention; he stretched himself, +as far as his safety would permit, out of the window; the lamps, +agitated by the wind, which swept by in occasional gusts, refused to +grant to his straining sight more than an inaccurate and unsatisfying +survey. Presently, a blast, more violent than ordinary, suspended as +it were the falling columns of rain and left Clarence in almost total +darkness; it rolled away, and the momentary calm which ensued enabled +him to see that one of the men was stooping by the gate, and the other +standing apparently on the watch at a little distance. Another gust +shook the lamps and again obscured his view; and when it had passed +onward in its rapid course, the men had left the gate, and were in the +garden beneath his window. They crept cautiously, but swiftly, along +the opposite wall, till they came to the small door we have before +mentioned; here they halted, and one of them appeared to occupy +himself in opening the door. Now, then, fear was changed into +certainty, and it seemed without doubt that the men, having found some +difficulty or danger in forcing the stronger or more public entrance, +had changed their quarter of attack. No more time was to be lost; +Clarence shouted aloud, but the high wind probably prevented the sound +reaching the ears of the burglars, or at least rendered it dubious and +confused. The next moment, and before Clarence could repeat his +alarm, they had opened the door, and were within the neighbouring +garden, beyond his view. Very young men, unless their experience has +outstripped their youth, seldom have much presence of mind; that +quality, which is the opposite to surprise, comes to us in those years +when nothing seems to us strange or unexpected. But a much older man +than Clarence might have well been at a loss to know what conduct to +adopt in the situation in which our hero was placed. The visits of +the watchman to that (then) obscure and ill-inhabited neighborhood +were more regulated by his indolence than his duty; and Clarence knew +that it would be in vain to listen for his cry or tarry for his +assistance. He himself was utterly unarmed, but the stock-jobber had +a pair of horse-pistols, and as this recollection flashed upon him, +the pause of deliberation ceased. + +With a swift step he descended the first flight of stairs, and pausing +at the chamber door of the faithful couple, knocked upon its panels +with a loud and hasty summons. The second repetition of the noise +produced the sentence, uttered in a very trembling voice, of "Who's +there?" + +"It is I, Clarence Linden," replied our hero; "lose no time in opening +the door." + +This answer seemed to reassure the valorous stock-jobber. He slowly +undid the bolt, and turned the key. + +"In Heaven's name, what do you want, Mr. Linden?" said he. + +"Ay," cried a sharp voice from the more internal recesses of the +chamber, "what do you want, sir, disturbing us in the bosom of our +family and at the dead of night?" + +With a rapid voice, Clarence repeated what he had seen, and requested +the broker to accompany him to Talbot's house, or at least to lend him +his pistols. + +"He shall do no such thing," cried Mrs. Copperas. "Come here, Mr. C., +and shut the door directly." + +"Stop, my love," said the stock-jobber, "stop a moment." + +"For God's sake," cried Clarence, "make no delay; the poor old man may +be murdered by this time." + +"It's no business of mine," said the stock-jobber. "If Adolphus had +not broken the rattle I would not have minded the trouble of springing +it; but you are very much mistaken if you think I am going to leave my +warm bed in order to have my throat cut." + +"Then give me your pistols," cried Clarence; "I will go alone." + +"I shall commit no such folly," said the stock-jobber; "if you are +murdered, I may have to answer it to your friends and pay for your +burial. Besides, you owe us for your lodgings: go to your bed, young +man, as I shall to mine." And, so saying, Mr. Copperas proceeded to +close the door. + +But enraged at the brutality of the man and excited by the urgency of +the case, Clarence did not allow him so peaceable a retreat. With a +strong and fierce grasp, he seized the astonished Copperas by the +throat, and shaking him violently, forced his own entrance into the +sacred nuptial chamber. + +"By Heaven," cried Linden, in a savage and stern tone, for his blood +was up. "I will twist your coward's throat, and save the murderer his +labour, if you do not instantly give me up your pistols." + +The stock-jobber was panic-stricken. "Take them," he cried, in the +extremest terror; "there they are on the chimney-piece close by." + +"Are they primed and loaded?" said Linden, not relaxing his gripe. + +"Yes, yes!" said the stock-jobber, "loose my throat, or you will choke +me!" and at that instant, Clarence felt himself clasped by the +invading hands of Mrs. Copperas. + +"Call off your wife," said he, "or I will choke you!" and he tightened +his hold, "and tell her to give me the pistols." + +The next moment Mrs. Copperas extended the debated weapons towards +Clarence. He seized them, flung the poor stock-jobber against the +bedpost, hurried down stairs, opened the back door, which led into the +garden, flew across the intervening space, arrived at the door, and +entering Talbot's garden, paused to consider what was the next step to +be taken. + +A person equally brave as Clarence, but more cautious, would not have +left the house without alarming Mr. de Warens, even in spite of the +failure with his master; but Linden only thought of the pressure of +time and the necessity of expedition, and he would have been a very +unworthy hero of romance had he felt fear for two antagonists, with a +brace of pistols at his command and a high and good action in view. + +After a brief but decisive halt, he proceeded rapidly round the house, +in order to ascertain at which part the ruffians had admitted +themselves, should they (as indeed there was little doubt) have +already effected their entrance. + +He found the shutters of one of the principal rooms on the ground- +floor had been opened, and through the aperture he caught the glimpse +of a moving light, which was suddenly obscured. As he was about to +enter, the light again flashed out: he drew back just in time, +carefully screened himself behind the shutter, and, through one of the +chinks, observed what passed within. Opposite to the window was a +door which conducted to the hall and principal staircase; this door +was open, and in the hall at the foot of the stairs Clarence saw two +men; one carried a dark lantern, from which the light proceeded, and +some tools, of the nature of which Clarence was naturally ignorant: +this was a middle-sized muscular man, dressed in the rudest garb of an +ordinary labourer; the other was much taller and younger, and his +dress was of a rather less ignoble fashion. + +"Hist! hist!" said the taller one, in a low tone, "did you not hear a +noise, Ben?" + +"Not a pin fall; but stow your whids, man!" + +This was all that Clarence heard in a connected form; but as the +wretches paused, in evident doubt how to proceed, he caught two or +three detached words, which his ingenuity readily formed into +sentences. "No, no! sleeps to the left--old man above--plate chest; +we must have the blunt too. Come, track up the dancers, and douse the +glim." And at the last words the light was extinguished, and +Clarence's quick and thirsting ear just caught their first steps on +the stairs; they died away, and all was hushed. + +It had several times occurred to Clarence to rush from his hiding- +place, and fire at the ruffians, and perhaps that measure would have +been the wisest he could have taken; but Clarence had never discharged +a pistol in his life, and he felt, therefore, that his aim must be +uncertain enough to render a favourable position and a short distance +essential requisites. Both these were, at present, denied to him; and +although he saw no weapons about the persons of the villains, yet he +imagined they would not have ventured on so dangerous an expedition +without firearms; and if he failed, as would have been most probable, +in his two shots, he concluded that, though the alarm would be given, +his own fate would be inevitable. + +If this was reasoning upon false premises, for housebreakers seldom or +never carry loaded firearms, and never stay for revenge, when their +safety demands escape, Clarence may be forgiven for not knowing the +customs of housebreakers, and for not making the very best of an +extremely novel and dangerous situation. + +No sooner did he find himself in total darkness than he bitterly +reproached himself for his late backwardness, and, inwardly resolving +not again to miss any opportunity which presented itself, he entered +the window, groped along the room into the hall, and found his way +very slowly and after much circumlocution to the staircase. + +He had just gained the summit, when a loud cry broke upon the +stillness: it came from a distance, and was instantly hushed; but he +caught at brief intervals, the sound of angry and threatening voices. +Clarence bent down anxiously, in the hope that some solitary ray would +escape through the crevice of the door within which the robbers were +engaged. But though the sounds came from the same floor as that on +which he now trod, they seemed far and remote, and not a gleam of +light broke the darkness. + +He continued, however, to feel his way in the direction from which the +sounds proceeded, and soon found himself in a narrow gallery; the +voices seemed more loud and near, as he advanced; at last he +distinctly heard the words-- + +"Will you not confess where it is placed?" + +"Indeed, indeed," replied an eager and earnest voice, which Clarence +recognized as Talbot's, "this is all the money I have in the house,-- +the plate is above,--my servant has the key,--take it,--take all,--but +save his life and mine." + +"None of your gammon," said another and rougher voice than that of the +first speaker: "we know you have more blunt than this,--a paltry sum +of fifty pounds, indeed!" + +"Hold!" cried the other ruffian, "here is a picture set with diamonds, +that will do, Ben. Let go the old man." + +Clarence was now just at hand, and probably from a sudden change in +the position of the dark lantern within, a light abruptly broke from +beneath the door and streamed along the passage. + +"No, no, no!" cried the old man, in a loud yet tremulous voice,--"no, +not that, anything else, but I will defend that with my life." + +"Ben, my lad," said the ruffian, "twist the old fool's neck we have no +more time to lose." + +At that very moment the door was flung violently open, and Clarence +Linden stood within three paces of the reprobates and their prey. The +taller villain had a miniature in his hand, and the old man clung to +his legs with a convulsive but impotent clasp; the other fellow had +already his gripe upon Talbot's neck, and his right hand grasped a +long case-knife. + +With a fierce and flashing eye, and a cheek deadly pale with internal +and resolute excitement, Clarence confronted the robbers. + +"Thank Heaven," cried he, "I am not too late!" And advancing yet +another step towards the shorter ruffian, who struck mute with the +suddenness of the apparition, still retained his grasp of the old man, +he fired his pistol, with a steady and close aim; the ball penetrated +the wretch's brain, and without sound or sigh, he fell down dead, at +the very feet of his just destroyer. The remaining robber had already +meditated, and a second more sufficed to accomplish, his escape. He +sprang towards the door: the ball whizzed beside him, but touched him +not. With a safe and swift step, long inured to darkness, he fled +along the passage; and Linden, satisfied with the vengeance he had +taken upon his comrade, did not harass him with an unavailing pursuit. + +Clarence turned to assist Talbot. The old man was stretched upon the +floor insensible, but his hand grasped the miniature which the +plunderer had dropped in his flight and terror, and his white and +ashen lip was pressed convulsively upon the recovered treasure. + +Linden raised and placed him on his bed, and while employed in +attempting to revive him, the ancient domestic, alarmed by the report +of the pistol, came, poker in hand, to his assistance. By little and +little they recovered the object of their attention. His eyes rolled +wildly round the room, and he muttered,--"Off, off! ye shall not rob +me of my only relic of her,--where is it?--have you got it?--the +picture, the picture!" + +"It is here, sir, it is here," said the old servant; "it is in your +own hand." + +Talbot's eye fell upon it; he gazed at it for some moments, pressed it +to his lips, and then, sitting erect and looking wildly round, he +seemed to awaken to the sense of his late danger and his present +deliverance. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Ah, fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed, + Or the death they bear, + The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove + With the wings of care! + In the battle, in the darkness, in the need, + Shall mine cling to thee! + Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love, + It may bring to thee!--SHELLEY. + +LETTER FROM ALGERNON MORDAUNT TO ISABEL ST. LEGER. + +You told me not to write to you. You know how long, but not how +uselessly I have obeyed you. Did you think, Isabel, that my love was +of that worldly and common order which requires a perpetual aliment to +support it? Did you think that, if you forbade the stream to flow +visibly, its sources would be exhausted, and its channel dried up? +This may be the passion of others; it is not mine. Months have passed +since we parted, and since then you have not seen me; this letter is +the first token you have received from a remembrance which cannot die. +But do you think that I have not watched and tended upon you, and +gladdened my eyes with gazing on your beauty when you have not dreamed +that I was by? Ah, Isabel, your heart should have told you of it; +mine would, had you been so near me! + +You receive no letters from me, it is true: think you that my hand and +heart are therefore idle? No. I write to you a thousand burning +lines: I pour out my soul to you; I tell you of all I suffer; my +thoughts, my actions, my very dreams, are all traced upon the paper. +I send them not to you, but I read them over and over, and when I come +to your name, I pause and shut my eyes, and then "Fancy has her +power," and lo! "you are by my side!" + +Isabel, our love has not been a holiday and joyous sentiment; but I +feel a solemn and unalterable conviction that our union is ordained. + +Others have many objects to distract and occupy the thoughts which are +once forbidden a single direction, but we have none. At least, to me +you are everything. Pleasure, splendour, ambition, all are merged +into one great and eternal thought, and that is you! + +Others have told me, and I believed them, that I was hard and cold and +stern: so perhaps I was before I knew you, but now I am weaker and +softer than a child. There is a stone which is of all the hardest and +the chillest, but when once set on fire it is unquenchable. You smile +at my image, perhaps, and I should smile if I saw it in the writing of +another; for all that I have ridiculed in romance as exaggerated seems +now to me too cool and too commonplace for reality. + +But this is not what I meant to write to you; you are ill, dearest and +noblest Isabel, you are ill! I am the cause, and you conceal it from +me; and you would rather pine away and die than suffer me to lose one +of those worldly advantages which are in my eyes but as dust in the +balance,--it is in vain to deny it. I heard from others of your +impaired health; I have witnessed it myself. Do you remember last +night, when you were in the room with your relations, and they made +you sing,--a song too which you used to sing to me, and when you came +to the second stanza your voice failed you, and you burst into tears, +and they, instead of soothing, reproached and chid you, and you +answered not, but wept on? Isabel, do you remember that a sound was +heard at the window and a groan? Even they were startled, but they +thought it was the wind, for the night was dark and stormy, and they +saw not that it was I: yes, my devoted, my generous love, it was I who +gazed upon you, and from whose heart that voice of anguish was wrung; +and I saw your cheek was pale and thin, and that the canker at the +core had preyed upon the blossom. + +Think you, after this, that I could keep silence or obey your request? +No, dearest, no! Is not my happiness your object? I have the vanity +to believe so; and am I not the best judge how that happiness is to be +secured? I tell you, I say it calmly, coldly, dispassionately,--not +from the imagination, not even from the heart, but solely from the +reason,--that I can bear everything rather than the loss of you; and +that if the evil of my love scathe and destroy you, I shall consider +and curse myself as your murderer! Save me from this extreme of +misery, my--yes, my Isabel! I shall be at the copse where we have so +often met before, to-morrow, at noon. You will meet me; and if I +cannot convince you, I will not ask you to be persuaded. A. M. + +And Isabel read this letter, and placed it at her heart, and felt less +miserable than she had done for months; for, though she wept, there +was sweetness in the tears which the assurance of his love and the +tenderness of his remonstrance had called forth. She met him: how +could she refuse? and the struggle was past. Though not "convinced" +she was "persuaded;" for her heart, which refused his reasonings, +melted at his reproaches and his grief. But she would not consent to +unite her fate with him at once, for the evils of that step to his +interests were immediate and near; she was only persuaded to permit +their correspondence and occasional meetings, in which, however +imprudent they might be for herself, the disadvantages to her lover +were distant and remote. It was of him only that she thought; for him +she trembled; for him she was the coward and the woman; for herself +she had no fears, and no forethought. + +And Algernon was worthy of this devoted love, and returned it as it +was given. Man's love, in general, is a selfish and exacting +sentiment: it demands every sacrifice and refuses all. But the nature +of Mordaunt was essentially high and disinterested, and his honour, +like his love, was not that of the world: it was the ethereal and +spotless honour of a lofty and generous mind, the honour which custom +can neither give nor take away; and, however impatiently he bore the +deferring of a union, in which he deemed that he was the only +sufferer, he would not have uttered a sigh or urged a prayer for that +union, could it, in the minutest or remotest degree, have injured or +degraded her. + +These are the hearts and natures which make life beautiful; these are +the shrines which sanctify love; these are the diviner spirits for +whom there is kindred and commune with everything exalted and holy in +heaven and earth. For them Nature unfolds her hoarded poetry and her +hidden spells; for their steps are the lonely mountains, and the still +woods have a murmur for their ears; for them there is strange music in +the wave, and in the whispers of the light leaves, and rapture in the +voices of the birds: their souls drink, and are saturated with the +mysteries of the Universal Spirit, which the philosophy of old times +believed to be God Himself. They look upon the sky with a gifted +vision, and its dove-like quiet descends and overshadows their hearts; +the Moon and the Night are to them wells of Castalian inspiration and +golden dreams; and it was one of them who, gazing upon the Evening +Star, felt in the inmost sanctuary of his soul its mysterious +harmonies with his most worshipped hope, his most passionate desire, +and dedicated it to--LOVE. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Maria. Here's the brave old man's love, +Bianca. That loves the young man. + The Woman's Prize; or, The Tamer Tamed. + +"No, my dear Clarence, you have placed confidence in me, and it is now +my duty to return it; you have told me your history and origin, and I +will inform you of mine, but not yet. At present we will talk of you. +You have conferred upon me what our universal love of life makes us +regard as the greatest of human obligations; and though I can bear a +large burden of gratitude, yet I must throw off an atom or two in +using my little power in your behalf. Nor is this all: your history +has also given you another tie upon my heart, and, in granting you a +legitimate title to my good offices, removes any scruple you might +otherwise have had in accepting them." + +"I have just received this letter from Lord ----, the minister for +foreign affairs: you will see that he has appointed you to the office +of attache at ----. You will also oblige me by looking over this +other letter at your earliest convenience; the trifling sum which it +contains will be repeated every quarter; it will do very well for an +attache: when you are an ambassador, why, we must equip you by a +mortgage on Scarsdale; and now, my dear Clarence, tell me all about +the Copperases." + +I need not say who was the speaker of the above sentences: sentences +apparently of a very agreeable nature; nevertheless, Clarence seemed +to think otherwise, for the tears gushed into his eyes, and he was +unable for several moments to reply. + +"Come, my young friend," said Talbot, kindly; "I have no near +relations among whom I can choose a son I like better than you, nor +you any at present from whom you might select a more desirable father: +consequently, you must let me look upon you as my own flesh and blood; +and, as I intend to be a very strict and peremptory father, I expect +the most silent and scrupulous obedience to my commands. My first +parental order to you is to put up those papers, and to say nothing +more about them; for I have a great deal to talk to you about upon +other subjects." + +And by these and similar kind-hearted and delicate remonstrances, the +old man gained his point. From that moment Clarence looked upon him +with the grateful and venerating love of a son; and I question very +much, if Talbot had really been the father of our hero, whether he +would have liked so handsome a successor half so well. + +The day after this arrangement, Clarence paid his debt to the +Copperases and removed to Talbot's house. With this event commenced a +new era in his existence: he was no longer an outcast and a wanderer; +out of alien ties he had wrought the link of a close and even paternal +friendship; life, brilliant in its prospects and elevated in its +ascent, opened flatteringly before him; and the fortune and courage +which had so well provided for the present were the best omens and +auguries for the future. + +One evening, when the opening autumn had made its approaches felt, and +Linden and his new parent were seated alone by a blazing fire, and had +come to a full pause in their conversation, Talbot, shading his face +with the friendly pages of the "Whitehall Evening Paper," as if to +protect it from the heat, said,-- + +"I told you, the other day, that I would give you, at some early +opportunity, a brief sketch of my life. This confidence is due to you +in return for yours; and since you will soon leave me, and I am an old +man, whose life no prudent calculation can fix, I may as well choose +the present time to favour you with my confessions." + +Clarence expressed and looked his interest, and the old man thus +commenced,-- + +THE HISTORY OF A VAIN MAN. + +I was the favourite of my parents, for I was quick at my lessons, and +my father said I inherited my genius from him; and comely in my +person, and my mother said that my good looks came from her. So the +honest pair saw in their eldest son the union of their own +attractions, and thought they were making much of themselves when they +lavished their caresses upon me. They had another son, poor Arthur,-- +I think I see him now! He was a shy, quiet, subdued boy, of a very +plain personal appearance. My father and mother were vain, showy, +ambitious people of the world, and they were as ashamed of my brother +as they were proud of myself. However, he afterwards entered the army +and distinguished himself highly. He died in battle, leaving an only +daughter, who married, as you know, a nobleman of high rank. Her +subsequent fate it is now needless to relate. + +Petted and pampered from my childhood, I grew up with a profound +belief in my own excellences, and a feverish and irritating desire to +impress every one who came in my way with the same idea. There is a +sentence in Sir William Temple, which I have often thought of with a +painful conviction of its truth: "A restlessness in men's minds to be +something they are not, and to have something they have not, is the +root of all immorality." [And of all good.--AUTHOR.] At school, I +was confessedly the cleverest boy in my remove; and, what I valued +equally as much, I was the best cricketer of the best eleven. Here, +then, you will say my vanity was satisfied,--no such thing! There was +a boy who shared my room, and was next me in the school; we were, +therefore, always thrown together. He was a great stupid, lubberly +cub, equally ridiculed by the masters and disliked by the boys. Will +you believe that this individual was the express and almost sole +object of my envy? He was more than my rival, he was my superior; and +I hated him with all the unleavened bitterness of my soul. + +I have said he was my superior: it was in one thing. He could balance +a stick, nay, a cricket-bat, a poker, upon his chin, and I could not; +you laugh, and so can I now, but it was no subject of laughter to me +then. This circumstance, trifling as it may appear to you, poisoned +my enjoyment. The boy saw my envy, for I could not conceal it; and as +all fools are malicious, and most fools ostentatious, he took a +particular pride and pleasure in displaying his dexterity and showing +off my discontent. You can form no idea of the extent to which this +petty insolence vexed and disquieted me. Even in my sleep, the clumsy +and grinning features of this tormenting imp haunted me like a +spectre: my visions were nothing but chins and cricket-bats; walking- +sticks, sustaining themselves upon human excrescences, and pokers +dancing a hornpipe upon the tip of a nose. I assure you that I have +spent hours in secret seclusion, practising to rival my hated comrade, +and my face--see how one vanity quarrels with another--was little +better than a mass of bruises and discolorations. + +I actually became so uncomfortable as to write home, and request to +leave the school. I was then about sixteen, and my indulgent father, +in granting my desire, told me that I was too old and too advanced in +my learning to go to any other academic establishment than the +University. The day before I left the school, I gave, as was usually +the custom, a breakfast to all my friends; the circumstance of my +tormentor's sharing my room obliged me to invite him among the rest. +However, I was in high spirits, and being a universal favourite with +my schoolfellows, I succeeded in what was always to me an object of +social ambition, and set the table in a roar; yet, when our festival +was nearly expired, and I began to allude more particularly to my +approaching departure, my vanity was far more gratified, for my +feelings were far more touched, by observing the regret and receiving +the good wishes of all my companions. I still recall that hour as one +of the proudest and happiest of my life; but it had its immediate +reverse. My evil demon put it into my tormentor's head to give me one +last parting pang of jealousy. A large umbrella happened accidentally +to be in my room; Crompton--such was my schoolfellow's name--saw and +seized it. "Look here, Talbot," said he, with his taunting and +hideous sneer, "you can't do this;" and placing the point of the +umbrella upon his forehead, just above the eyebrow, he performed +various antics round the room. + +At that moment I was standing by the fireplace, and conversing with +two boys upon whom, above all others, I wished to leave a favourable +impression. My foolish soreness on this one subject had been often +remarked; and, as I turned in abrupt and awkward discomposure from the +exhibition, I observed my two schoolfellows smile and exchange looks. +I am not naturally passionate, and even at that age I had in ordinary +cases great self-command; but this observation, and the cause which +led to it, threw me off my guard. Whenever we are utterly under the +command of one feeling, we cannot be said to have our reason: at that +instant I literally believe I was beside myself. What! in the very +flush of the last triumph that that scene would ever afford me; amidst +the last regrets of my early friends, to whom I fondly hoped to +bequeath a long and brilliant remembrance, to be thus bearded by a +contemptible rival, and triumphed over by a pitiful yet insulting +superiority; to close my condolences with laughter; to have the final +solemnity of my career thus terminating in mockery; and ridicule +substituted as an ultimate reminiscence in the place of an admiring +regret; all this, too, to be effected by one so long hated, one whom I +was the only being forbidden the comparative happiness of despising? +I could not brook it; the insult, the insulter, were too revolting. +As the unhappy buffoon approached me, thrusting his distorted face +towards mine, I seized and pushed him aside, with a brief curse and a +violent hand. The sharp point of the umbrella slipped; my action gave +it impetus and weight; it penetrated his eye, and--spare me, spare me +the rest. [This instance of vanity, and indeed the whole of Talbot's +history, is literally from facts.] + +The old man bent down, and paused for a few moments before he resumed. + +Crompton lost his eye, but my punishment was as severe as his. People +who are very vain are usually equally susceptible, and they who feel +one thing acutely will so feel another. For years, ay, for many years +afterwards, the recollection of my folly goaded me with the bitterest +and most unceasing remorse. Had I committed murder, my conscience +could scarce have afflicted me more severely. I did not regain my +self-esteem till I had somewhat repaired the injury I had done. Long +after that time Crompton was in prison, in great and overwhelming +distress. I impoverished myself to release him; I sustained him and +his family till fortune rendered my assistance no longer necessary; +and no triumphs were ever more sweet to me than the sacrifice I was +forced to submit to, in order to restore him to prosperity. + +It is natural to hope that this accident had at least the effect of +curing me of my fault; but it requires philosophy in yourself, or your +advisers, to render remorse of future avail. How could I amend my +fault, when I was not even aware of it? Smarting under the effects, I +investigated not the cause, and I attributed to irascibility and +vindictiveness what had a deeper and more dangerous origin. + +At college, in spite of all my advantages of birth, fortune, health, +and intellectual acquirements, I had many things besides the one enemy +of remorse to corrode my tranquillity of mind. I was sure to find +some one to excel me in something, and this was enough to embitter my +peace. Our living Goldsmith is my favourite poet, and I perhaps +insensibly venerate the genius the more because I find something +congenial in the infirmities of the man. I can fully credit the +anecdotes recorded of him. I, too, could once have been jealous of a +puppet handling a spontoon; I, too, could once have been miserable if +two ladies at the theatre were more the objects of attention than +myself! You, Clarence, will not despise me for this confession; those +who knew me less would. Fools! there is no man so great as not to +have some littleness more predominant than all his greatness. Our +virtues are the dupes, and often only the playthings, of our follies! +smile, but it is mournfully, in looking back to that day. Though +rich, high-born, and good-looking, I possessed not one of these three +qualities in that eminence which could alone satisfy my love of +superiority and desire of effect. I knew this somewhat humiliating +truth, for, though vain, I was not conceited. Vanity, indeed, is the +very antidote to conceit; for while the former makes us all nerve to +the opinion of others, the latter is perfectly satisfied with its +opinion of itself. + +I knew this truth, and as Pope, if he could not be the greatest of +poets, resolved to be the most correct, so I strove, since I could not +be the handsomest, the wealthiest, and the noblest of my +contemporaries, to excel them, at least, in the grace and +consummateness of manner; and in this after incredible pains, after +diligent apprenticeship in the world and intense study in the closet, +I at last flattered myself that I had succeeded. Of all success, +while we are yet in the flush of youth and its capacities of +enjoyment, I can imagine none more intoxicating or gratifying than the +success of society, and I had certainly some years of its triumph and +eclat. I was courted, followed, flattered, and sought by the most +envied and fastidious circles in England and even in Paris; for +society, so indifferent to those who disdain it, overwhelms with its +gratitude--profuse though brief--those who devote themselves to its +amusement. The victim to sameness and ennui, it offers, like the +pallid and luxurious Roman, a reward for a new pleasure: and as long +as our industry or talent can afford the pleasure, the reward is ours. +At that time, then, I reaped the full harvest of my exertions: the +disappointment and vexation were of later date. + +I now come to the great era of my life,--Love. Among my acquaintance +was Lady Mary Walden, a widow of high birth, and noble though not +powerful connections. She lived about twenty miles from London in a +beautiful retreat; and, though not rich, her jointure, rendered ample +by economy, enabled her to indulge her love of society. Her house was +always as full as its size would permit, and I was among the most +welcome of its visitors. She had an only daughter: even now, through +the dim mists of years, that beautiful and fairy form rises still and +shining before me, undimmed by sorrow, unfaded by time. Caroline +Walden was the object of general admiration, and her mother, who +attributed the avidity with which her invitations were accepted by all +the wits and fine gentlemen of the day to the charms of her own +conversation, little suspected the face and wit of her daughter to be +the magnet of attraction. I had no idea at that time of marriage, +still less could I have entertained such a notion, unless the step had +greatly exalted my rank and prospects. + +The poor and powerless Caroline Walden was therefore the last person +for whom I had what the jargon of mothers term "serious intentions." +However, I was struck with her exceeding loveliness and amused by the +vivacity of her manners; moreover, my vanity was excited by the hope +of distancing all my competitors for the smiles of the young beauty. +Accordingly I laid myself out to please, and neglected none of those +subtle and almost secret attentions which, of all flatteries, are the +most delicate and successful; and I succeeded. Caroline loved me with +all the earnestness and devotion which characterize the love of woman. +It never occurred to her that I was only trifling with those +affections which it seemed so ardently my intention to win. She knew +that my fortune was large enough to dispense with the necessity of +fortune with my wife, and in birth she would have equalled men of +greater pretensions to myself; added to this, long adulation had made +her sensible though not vain of her attractions, and she listened with +a credulous ear to the insinuated flatteries I was so well accustomed +to instil. + +Never shall I forget--no, though I double my present years--the shock, +the wildness of despair with which she first detected the selfishness +of my homage; with which she saw that I had only mocked her trusting +simplicity; and that while she had been lavishing the richest +treasures of her heart before the burning altars of Love, my idol had +been Vanity and my offerings deceit. She tore herself from the +profanation of my grasp; she shrouded herself from my presence. All +interviews with me were rejected; all my letters returned to me +unopened; and though, in the repentance of my heart, I entreated, I +urged her to accept vows that were no longer insincere, her pride +became her punishment, as well as my own. In a moment of bitter and +desperate feeling; she accepted the offers of another, and made the +marriage bond a fatal and irrevocable barrier to our reconciliation +and union. + +Oh, how I now cursed my infatuation! how passionately I recalled the +past! how coldly I turned from the hollow and false world, to whose +service I had sacrificed my happiness, to muse and madden over the +prospects I had destroyed and the loving and noble heart I had +rejected! Alas! after all, what is so ungrateful as that world for +which we renounce so much? Its votaries resemble the Gymnosophists of +old, and while they profess to make their chief end pleasure, we can +only learn that they expose themselves to every torture and every +pain! + +Lord Merton, the man whom Caroline now called husband, was among the +wealthiest and most dissipated of his order; and two years after our +separation I met once more with the victim of my unworthiness, blazing +in "the full front" of courtly splendour, the leader of its gayeties +and the cynosure of her followers. Intimate with the same society, we +were perpetually cast together, and Caroline was proud of displaying +the indifference towards me, which, if she felt not, she had at least +learnt artfully to assume. This indifference was her ruin. The +depths of my evil passion were again sounded and aroused, and I +resolved yet to humble the pride and conquer the coldness which galled +to the very quick the morbid acuteness of my self-love. I again +attached myself to her train; I bowed myself to the very dust before +her. What to me were her chilling reply and disdainful civilities?--- +only still stronger excitements to persevere. + +I spare you and myself the gradual progress of my schemes. A woman +may recover her first passion, it is true; but then she must replace +it with another. That other was denied to Caroline: she had not even +children to engross her thoughts and to occupy her affections; and the +gay world, which to many becomes an object, was to her only an escape. + +Clarence, my triumph came! Lady Walden (who had never known our +secret) invited me to her house: Caroline was there. In the same spot +where we had so often stood before, and in which her earliest +affections were insensibly breathed away, in that same spot I drew +from her colourless and trembling lips the confession of her weakness, +the restored and pervading power of my remembrance. + +But Caroline was a proud and virtuous woman: even while her heart +betrayed her, her mind resisted; and in the very avowal of her +unconquered attachment, she renounced and discarded me forever. I was +not an ungenerous though a vain man; but my generosity was wayward, +tainted, and imperfect. I could have borne the separation; I could +have severed myself from her; I could have flown to the uttermost +parts of the earth; I could have hoarded there my secret yet +unextinguished love, and never disturbed her quiet by a murmur: but +then the fiat of separation must have come from me! My vanity could +not bear that her lips should reject me, that my part was not to be +the nobility of sacrifice, but the submission of resignation. +However, my better feelings were aroused, and though I could not +stifle I concealed my selfish repinings. We parted: she returned to +town; I buried myself in the country; and, amidst the literary studies +to which, though by fits and starts, I was passionately devoted, I +endeavoured to forget my ominous and guilty love. + +But I was then too closely bound to the world not to be perpetually +reminded of its events. My retreat was thronged with occasional +migrators from London; my books were mingled with the news and scandal +of the day. All spoke to me of Lady Merton; not as I loved to picture +her to myself, pale and sorrowful, and brooding over my image; but +gay, dissipated, the dispenser of smiles, the prototype of joy. I +contrasted this account of her with the melancholy and gloom of my own +feelings, and I resented her seeming happiness as an insult to myself. + +In this angry and fretful mood I returned to London. My empire was +soon resumed; and now, Linden, comes the most sickening part of my +confessions. Vanity is a growing and insatiable disease: what seems +to its desires as wealth to-day, to-morrow it rejects as poverty. I +was at first contented to know that I was beloved; by degrees, slow, +yet sure, I desired that others should know it also. I longed to +display my power over the celebrated and courted Lady Merton; and to +put the last crown to my reputation and importance. The envy of +others is the food of our own self-love. Oh, you know not, you dream +not, of the galling mortifications to which a proud woman, whose love +commands her pride, is subjected! I imposed upon Caroline the most +humiliating, the most painful trials; I would allow her to see none +but those I pleased; to go to no place where I withheld my consent; +and I hesitated not to exert and testify my power over her affections, +in proportion to the publicity of the opportunity. + +Yet, with all this littleness, would you believe that I loved Caroline +with the most ardent and engrossing passion? I have paused behind +her, in order to kiss the ground she trod on; I have stayed whole +nights beneath her window, to catch one glimpse of her passing form, +even though I had spent hours of the daytime in her society; and, +though my love burned and consumed me like a fire, I would not breathe +a single wish against her innocence, or take advantage of my power to +accomplish what I knew from her virtue and pride no atonement could +possibly repay. Such are the inconsistencies of the heart, and such, +while they prevent our perfection, redeem us from the utterness of +vice! Never, even in my wildest days, was I blind to the glory of +virtue, yet never, till my latest years, have I enjoyed the faculty to +avail myself of my perception. I resembled the mole, which by Boyle +is supposed to possess the idea of light, but to be unable to +comprehend the objects on which it shines. + +Among the varieties of my prevailing sin, was a weakness common enough +to worldly men. While I ostentatiously played off the love I had +excited I could not bear to show the love I felt. In our country, and +perhaps, though in a less degree, in all other highly artificial +states, enthusiasm or even feeling of any kind is ridiculous; and I +could not endure the thought that my treasured and secret affections +should be dragged from their retreat to be cavilled and carped at by-- + + "Every beardless, vain comparative." + +This weakness brought on the catastrophe of my love; for, mark me, +Clarence, it is through our weaknesses that our vices are punished! +One night I went to a masquerade; and, while I was sitting in a remote +corner, three of my acquaintances, whom I recognized, though they knew +it not, approached and rallied me upon my romantic attachment to Lady +Merton. One of them was a woman of a malicious and sarcastic wit; the +other two were men whom I disliked, because their pretensions +interfered with mine; they were diners-out and anecdote-mongers. +Stung to the quick by their sarcasms and laughter, I replied in a +train of mingled arrogance and jest; at last I spoke slightingly of +the person in question; and these profane and false lips dared not +only to disown the faintest love to that being who was more to me than +all on earth, but even to speak of herself with ridicule and her +affection with disdain. + +In the midst of this, I turned and beheld, within hearing, a figure +which I knew upon the moment. O Heaven! the burning shame and agony +of that glance! It raised its mask--I saw that blanched cheek, and +that trembling lip! I knew that the iron had indeed entered into her +soul. + +Clarence, I never beheld her again alive. Within a week from that +time she was a corpse. She had borne much, suffered much, and +murmured not; but this shock pressed too hard, came too home, and from +the hand of him for whom she would have sacrificed all! I stood by +her in death; I beheld my work; and I turned away, a wanderer and a +pilgrim upon the face of the earth. Verily, I have had my reward. + +The old man paused, in great emotion; and Clarence, who could offer +him no consolation, did not break the silence. In a few minutes +Talbot continued-- + +From that time the smile of woman was nothing to me: I seemed to grow +old in a single day. Life lost to me all its objects. A dreary and +desert blank stretched itself before me: the sounds of creation had +only in my ears one voice; the past, the future, one image. I left my +country for twenty years, and lived an idle and hopeless man in the +various courts of the Continent. + +At the age of fifty I returned to England; the wounds of the past had +not disappeared, but they were scarred over; and I longed, like the +rest of my species, to have an object in view. At that age, if we +have seen much of mankind and possess the talents to profit by our +knowledge, we must be one of two sects,--a politician or a +philosopher. My time was not yet arrived for the latter, so I +resolved to become the former; but this was denied me, for my vanity +had assumed a different shape. It is true that I cared no longer for +the reputation women can bestow; but I was eager for the applause of +men, and I did not like the long labour necessary to attain it. I +wished to make a short road to my object, and I eagerly followed every +turn but the right one, in the hopes of its leading me sooner to my +goal. + +The great characteristic of a vain man in contradistinction to an +ambitious man, his eternal obstacle to a high and honourable fame, is +this: he requires for any expenditure of trouble too speedy a reward; +he cannot wait for years, and climb, step by step, to a lofty object; +whatever he attempts, he must seize at a single grasp. Added to this, +he is incapable of an exclusive attention to one end; the universality +of his cravings is not contented, unless it devours all; and thus he +is perpetually doomed to fritter away his energies by grasping at the +trifling baubles within his reach, and in gathering the worthless +fruit which a single sun can mature. + +This, then, was my fault, and the cause of my failure. I could not +give myself up to finance, nor puzzle through the intricacies of +commerce: even the common parliamentary drudgeries of constant +attendance and late hours were insupportable to me; and so after two +or three "splendid orations," as my friends termed them, I was +satisfied with the puffs of the pamphleteers and closed my political +career. I was now, then, the wit and the conversationalist. With my +fluency of speech and variety of information, these were easy +distinctions; and the popularity of a dinner-table or the approbation +of a literary coterie consoled me for the more public and more durable +applause I had resigned. + +But even this gratification did not last long. I fell ill; and the +friends who gathered round the wit fled from the valetudinarian. This +disgusted me, and when I was sufficiently recovered I again returned +to the Continent. But I had a fit of misanthropy and solitude upon +me, and so it was not to courts and cities, the scenes of former +gayeties, that I repaired; on the contrary, I hired a house by one of +the most sequestered of the Swiss lakes, and, avoiding the living, I +surrendered myself without interruption or control to commune with the +dead. I surrounded myself with books and pored with a curious and +searching eye into those works which treat particularly upon "man." +My passions were over, my love of pleasure and society was dried up, +and I had now no longer the obstacles which forbid us to be wise; I +unlearned the precepts my manhood had acquired, and in my old age I +commenced philosopher; Religion lent me her aid, and by her holy lamp +my studies were conned and my hermitage illumined. + +There are certain characters which in the world are evil, and in +seclusion are good: Rousseau, whom I knew well, is one of them. These +persons are of a morbid sensitiveness, which is perpetually galled by +collision with others. In short, they are under the dominion of +VANITY; and that vanity, never satisfied and always restless in the +various competitions of society, produces "envy, hatred, malice, and +all uncharitableness!" but, in solitude, the good and benevolent +dispositions with which our self-love no longer interferes have room +to expand and ripen without being cramped by opposing interests: this +will account for many seeming discrepancies in character. There are +also some men in whom old age supplies the place of solitude, and +Rousseau's antagonist and mental antipodes, Voltaire, is of this +order. The pert, the malignant, the arrogant, the lampooning author +in his youth and manhood, has become in his old age the mild, the +benevolent, and the venerable philosopher. Nothing is more absurd +than to receive the characters of great men so implicitly upon the +word of a biographer; and nothing can be less surprising than our +eternal disputes upon individuals: for no man throughout life is the +same being, and each season of our existence contradicts the +characteristics of the last. + +And now in my solitude and my old age, a new spirit entered within me: +the game in which I had engaged so vehemently was over for me; and I +joined to my experience as a player my coolness as a spectator; I no +longer struggled with my species, and I began insensibly to love them. +I established schools and founded charities; and, in secret but active +services to mankind, I employed my exertions and lavished my desires. + +From this amendment I date the peace of mind and elasticity which I +now enjoy; and in my later years the happiness which I pursued in my +youth and maturity so hotly, yet so ineffectually, has flown +unsolicited to my breast. + +About five years ago I came again to England, with the intention of +breathing my last in the country which gave me birth. I retired to my +family home; I endeavoured to divert myself in agricultural +improvements, and my rental was consumed in speculation. This did not +please me long: I sought society,--society in Yorkshire! You may +imagine the result: I was out of my element; the mere distance from +the metropolis, from all genial companionship, sickened me with a +vague feeling of desertion and solitude; for the first time in my life +I felt my age and my celibacy. Once more I returned to town, a +complaint attacked my lungs, the physicians recommended the air of +this neighbourhood, and I chose the residence I now inhabit. Without +being exactly in London, I can command its advantages, and obtain +society as a recreation without buying it by restraint. I am not fond +of new faces nor any longer covetous of show; my old servant therefore +contented me: for the future, I shall, however, to satisfy your fears, +remove to a safer habitation, and obtain a more numerous guard. It +is, at all events, a happiness to me that Fate, in casting me here and +exposing me to something of danger, has raised up in you a friend for +my old age, and selected from this great universe of strangers one +being to convince my heart that it has not outlived affection. My +tale is done; may you profit by its moral! + +When Talbot said that our characters were undergoing a perpetual +change he should have made this reservation,--the one ruling passion +remains to the last; it may be modified, but it never departs; and it +is these modifications which do, for the most part, shape out the +channels of our change; or as Helvetius has beautifully expressed it, +"we resemble those vessels which the waves still carry towards the +south, when the north wind has ceased to blow;" but in our old age, +this passion, having little to feed on, becomes sometimes dormant and +inert, and then our good qualities rise, as it were from an incubus, +and have their sway. + +Yet these cases are not common, and Talbot was a remarkable instance, +for he was a remarkable man. His mind had not slept while the age +advanced, and thus it had swelled as it were from the bondage of its +earlier passions and prejudices. But little did he think, in the +blindness of self-delusion,--though it was so obvious to Clarence, +that he could have smiled if he had not rather inclined to weep at the +frailties of human nature,--little did he think that the vanity which +had cost him so much remained "a monarch still," undeposed alike by +his philosophy, his religion, or his remorse; and that, debarred by +circumstances from all wider and more dangerous fields, it still +lavished itself upon trifles unworthy of his powers and puerilities +dishonouring his age. Folly is a courtesan whom we ourselves seek, +whose favours we solicit at an enormous price, and who, like Lais, +finds philosophers at her door scarcely less frequently than the rest +of mankind! + + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Mrs. Trinket. What d'ye buy, what d'ye lack, gentlemen? Gloves, +ribbons, and essences,--ribbons, gloves, and essences. + ETHEREGE. + +"And so, my love," said Mr. Copperas, one morning at breakfast, to his +wife, his right leg being turned over his left, and his dexter hand +conveying to his mouth a huge morsel of buttered cake,--"and, so my +love, they say that the old fool is going to leave the jackanapes all +his fortune?" + +"They do say so, Mr. C.; for my part I am quite out of patience with +the art of the young man; I dare say he is no better than he should +be; he always had a sharp look, and for aught I know there may be more +in that robbery than you or I dreamed of, Mr. Copperas. It was a +pity," continued Mrs. Copperas, upbraiding her lord with true +matrimonial tenderness and justice, for the consequences of his having +acted from her advice,--"it was a pity, Mr. C., that you should have +refused to lend him the pistols to go to the old fellow's assistance, +for then who knows but--" + +"I might have converted them into pocket pistols," interrupted Mr. C., +"and not have overshot the mark, my dear--ha, ha, ha!" + +"Lord, Mr. Copperas, you are always making a joke of everything." + +"No, my dear, for once I am making a joke of nothing." + +"Well, I declare it's shameful," cried Mrs. Copperas, still following +up her own indignant meditations, "and after taking such notice of +Adolphus, too, and all!" + +"Notice, my dear! mere words," returned Mr. Copperas, "mere words, +like ventilators, which make a great deal of air, but never raise the +wind; but don't put yourself in a stew, my love, for the doctors say +that copperas in a stew is poison!" + +At this moment Mr. de Warens, throwing open the door, announced Mr. +Brown; that gentleman entered, with a sedate but cheerful air. "Well, +Mrs. Copperas, your servant; any table-linen wanted? Mr. Copperas, +how do you do? I can give you a hint about the stocks. Master +Copperas, you are looking bravely; don't you think he wants some new +pinbefores, ma'am? But Mr. Clarence Linden, where is he? Not up yet, +I dare say. Ah, the present generation is a generation of sluggards, +as his worthy aunt, Mrs. Minden, used to say." + +"I am sure," said Mrs. Copperas, with a disdainful toss of the head, +"I know nothing about the young man. He has left us; a very +mysterious piece of business indeed, Mr. Brown; and now I think of it, +I can't help saying that we were by no means pleased with your +introduction: and, by the by, the chairs you bought for us at the sale +were a mere take-in, so slight that Mr. Walruss broke two of them by +only sitting down." + +"Indeed, ma'am?" said Mr. Brown, with expostulating gravity; "but then +Mr. Walruss is so very corpulent. But the young gentleman, what of +him?" continued the broker, artfully turning from the point in +dispute. + +"Lord, Mr. Brown, don't ask me: it was the unluckiest step we ever +made to admit him into the bosom of our family; quite a viper, I +assure you; absolutely robbed poor Adolphus." + +"Lord help us!" said Mr. Brown, with a look which "cast a browner +horror" o'er the room, "who would have thought it? and such a pretty +young man!" + +"Well," said Mr. Copperas, who, occupied in finishing the buttered +cake, had hitherto kept silence, "I must be off. Tom--I mean de +Warens--have you stopped the coach?" + +"Yees, sir." + +And what coach is it?" + +"It be the Swallow, sir." + +"Oh, very well. And now, Mr. Brown, having swallowed in the roll, I +will e'en roll in the Swallow--Ha, ha, ha!--At any rate," thought Mr. +Copperas, as he descended the stairs, "he has not heard that before." + +"Ha, ha!" gravely chuckled Mr. Brown, "what a very facetious, lively +gentleman Mr. Copperas is. But touching this ungrateful young man, +Mr. Linden, ma'am?" + +"Oh, don't tease me, Mr. Brown, I must see after my +domestics: ask Mr. Talbot, the old miser in the next house, the +havarr, as the French say." + +"Well, now," said Mr. Brown, following the good lady down stairs, "how +distressing for me! and to say that he was Mrs. Minden's nephew, too!" + +But Mr. Brown's curiosity was not so easily satisfied, and finding Mr. +de Warens leaning over the "front" gate, and "pursuing with wistful +eyes" the departing "Swallow," he stopped, and, accosting him, soon +possessed himself of the facts that "old Talbot had been robbed and +murdered, but that Mr. Linden had brought him to life again; and that +old Talbot had given him a hundred thousand pounds, and adopted him as +his son; and that how Mr. Linden was going to be sent to foreign +parts, as an ambassador, or governor, or great person; and that how +meester and meeses were quite 'cut up' about it." + +All these particulars having been duly deposited in the mind of Mr. +Brown, they produced an immediate desire to call upon the young +gentleman, who, to say nothing of his being so very nearly related to +his old customer, Mrs. Minden, was always so very great a favourite +with him, Mr. Brown. + +Accordingly, as Clarence was musing over his approaching departure, +which was now very shortly to take place, he was somewhat startled by +the apparition of Mr. Brown--"Charming day, sir,--charming day," said +the friend of Mrs. Minden,--"just called in to congratulate you. I +have a few articles, sir, to present you with,--quite rarities, I +assure you,--quite presents, I may say. I picked them up at a sale of +the late Lady Waddilove's most valuable effects. They are just the +things, sir, for a gentleman going on a foreign mission. A most +curious ivory chest, with an Indian padlock, to hold confidential +letters,--belonged formerly, sir, to the Great Mogul; and a beautiful +diamond snuff-box, sir, with a picture of Louis XIV. on it, +prodigiously fine, and will look so loyal too: and, sir, if you have +any old aunts in the country, to send a farewell present to, I have +some charming fine cambric, a superb Dresden tea set, and a lovely +little 'ape,' stuffed by the late Lady W. herself." + +"My good sir," began Clarence. + +"Oh, no thanks, sir,--none at all,--too happy to serve a relation of +Mrs. Minden,--always proud to keep up family connections. You will be +at home to-morrow, sir, at eleven; I will look in; your most humble +servant, Mr. Linden." And almost upsetting Talbot, who had just +entered, Mr. Brown bowed himself out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + He talked with open heart and tongue, + Affectionate and true; + A pair of friends, though I was young + And Matthew seventy-two.--WORDSWORTH. + +Meanwhile the young artist proceeded rapidly with his picture. +Devoured by his enthusiasm, and utterly engrossed by the sanguine +anticipation of a fame which appeared to him already won, he allowed +himself no momentary interval of relaxation; his food was eaten by +starts, and without stirring from his easel; his sleep was brief and +broken by feverish dreams; he no longer roved with Clarence, when the +evening threw her shade over his labours; all air and exercise he +utterly relinquished; shut up in his narrow chamber, he passed the +hours in a fervid and passionate self-commune, which, even in suspense +from his work, riveted his thoughts the closer to its object. All +companionship, all intrusion, he bore with irritability and +impatience. Even Clarence found himself excluded from the presence of +his friend; even his nearest relation, who doted on the very ground +which he hallowed with his footstep, was banished from the haunted +sanctuary of the painter; from the most placid of human beings, Warner +seemed to have grown the most morose. + +Want of rest, abstinence from food, the impatience of the strained +spirit and jaded nerves, all contributed to waste the health while +they excited the genius of the artist. A crimson spot, never before +seen there, burned in the centre of his pale cheek; his eye glowed +with a brilliant but unnatural fire; his features grew sharp and +attenuated; his bones worked from his whitening and transparent skin; +and the soul and frame, turned from their proper and kindly union, +seemed contesting, with fierce struggles, which should obtain the +mastery and the triumph. + +But neither his new prospects nor the coldness of his friend diverted +the warm heart of Clarence from meditating how he could most +effectually serve the artist before he departed from the country, It +was a peculiar object of desire to Warner that the most celebrated +painter of the day, who was on terms of intimacy with Talbot, and who +with the benevolence of real superiority was known to take a keen +interest in the success of more youthful and inexperienced genius,--it +was a peculiar object of desire to Warner, that Sir Joshua Reynolds +should see his picture before it was completed; and Clarence, aware of +this wish, easily obtained from Talbot a promise that it should be +effected. That was the least service of his zeal touched by the +earnestness of Linden's friendship, anxious to oblige in any way his +preserver, and well pleased himself to be the patron of merit, Talbot +readily engaged to obtain for Warner whatever the attention and favour +of high rank or literary distinction could bestow. "As for his +picture," said Talbot (when, the evening before Clarence's departure, +the latter was renewing the subject), "I shall myself become the +purchaser, and at a price which will enable our friend to afford +leisure and study for the completion of his next attempt; but even at +the risk of offending your friendship, and disappointing your +expectations, I will frankly tell you that I think Warner overrates, +perhaps not his talents, but his powers; not his ability for doing +something great hereafter, but his capacity of doing it at present. +In the pride of his heart, he has shown me many of his designs, and I +am somewhat of a judge: they want experience, cultivation, taste, and, +above all, a deeper study of the Italian masters. They all have the +defects of a feverish colouring, an ambitious desire of effect, a +wavering and imperfect outline, an ostentatious and unnatural strength +of light and shadow; they show, it is true, a genius of no ordinary +stamp, but one ill regulated, inexperienced, and utterly left to its +own suggestions for a model. However, I am glad he wishes for the +opinion of one necessarily the best judge: let him bring the picture +here by Thursday; on that day my friend has promised to visit me; and +now let us talk of you and your departure." + +The intercourse of men of different ages is essentially unequal: it +must always partake more or less of advice on one side and deference +on the other; and although the easy and unpedantic turn of Talbot's +conversation made his remarks rather entertaining than obviously +admonitory, yet they were necessarily tinged by his experience, and +regulated by his interest in the fortunes of his young friend. + +"My dearest Clarence," said he, affectionately, "we are about to bid +each other a long farewell. I will not damp your hopes and +anticipations by insisting on the little chance there is that you +should ever see me again. You are about to enter upon the great +world, and have within you the desire and power of success; let me +flatter myself that you can profit by my experience. Among the +'Colloquia' of Erasmus, there is a very entertaining dialogue between +Apicius and a man who, desirous of giving a feast to a very large and +miscellaneous party, comes to consult the epicure what will be the +best means to give satisfaction to all. Now you shall be this +Spudaeus (so I think he is called), and I will be Apicius; for the +world, after all, is nothing more than a great feast of different +strangers, with different tastes and of different ages, and we must +learn to adapt ourselves to their minds, and our temptations to their +passions, if we wish to fascinate or even to content them. Let me +then call your attention to the hints and maxims which I have in this +paper amused myself with drawing up for your instruction. Write to me +from time to time, and I will, in replying to your letters, give you +the best advice in my power. For the rest, my dear boy, I have only +to request that you will be frank, and I, in my turn, will promise +that when I cannot assist, I will never reprove. And now, Clarence, +as the hour is late and you leave us early tomorrow, I will no longer +detain you. God bless you and keep you. You are going to enjoy +life,--I to anticipate death; so that you can find in me little +congenial to yourself; but as the good Pope said to our Protestant +countryman, 'Whatever the difference between us, I know well that an +old man's blessing is never without its value.'" + +As Clarence clasped his benefactor's hand, the tears gushed from his +eyes. Is there one being, stubborn as the rock to misfortune, whom +kindness does not affect? For my part, kindness seems to me to come +with a double grace and tenderness from the old; it seems in them the +hoarded and long purified benevolence of years; as if it had survived +and conquered the baseness and selfishness of the ordeal it had +passed; as if the winds, which had broken the form, had swept in vain +across the heart, and the frosts which had chilled the blood and +whitened the thin locks had possessed no power over the warm tide of +the affections. It is the triumph of nature over art; it is the voice +of the angel which is yet within us. Nor is this all: the tenderness +of age is twice blessed,--blessed in its trophies over the obduracy of +encrusting and withering years, blessed because it is tinged with the +sanctity of the grave; because it tells us that the heart will blossom +even upon the precincts of the tomb, and flatters us with the +inviolacy and immortality of love. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Cannot I create, + Cannot I form, cannot I fashion forth + Another world, another universe?--KEATS. + +The next morning Clarence, in his way out of town, directed his +carriage (the last and not the least acceptable present from Talbot) +to stop at Warner's door. Although it was scarcely sunrise, the aged +grandmother of the artist was stirring, and opened the door to the +early visitor. Clarence passed her with a brief salutation, hurried +up the narrow stairs, and found himself in the artist's chamber. The +windows were closed, and the air of the room was confined and hot. A +few books, chiefly of history and poetry, stood in confused disorder +upon some shelves opposite the window. Upon a table beneath them lay +a flute, once the cherished recreation of the young painter, but now +long neglected and disused; and, placed exactly opposite to Warner, so +that his eyes might open upon his work, was the high-prized and +already more than half-finished picture. + +Clarence bent over the bed; the cheek of the artist rested upon his +arm in an attitude unconsciously picturesque; the other arm was tossed +over the coverlet, and Clarence was shocked to see how emaciated it +had become. But ever and anon the lips of the sleeper moved +restlessly, and words, low and inarticulate, broke out. Sometimes he +started abruptly, and a bright but evanescent flush darted over his +faded and hollow cheek; and once the fingers of the thin hand which +lay upon the bed expanded and suddenly closed in a firm and almost +painful grasp; it was then that for the first time the words of the +artist became distinct. + +"Ay, ay," he said, "I have thee, I have thee at last. Long, very long +thou hast burnt up my heart like fuel, and mocked me, and laughed at +my idle efforts; but now, now, I have thee. Fame, Honour, +Immortality, whatever thou art called, I have thee, and thou canst not +escape; but it is almost too late!" And, as if wrung by some sudden +pain, the sleeper turned heavily round, groaned audibly, and awoke. + +"My friend," said Clarence, soothingly, and taking his hand, "I have +come to bid you farewell. I am just setting off for the Continent, +but I could not leave England without once more seeing you. I have +good news, too, for you." And Clarence proceeded to repeat Talbot's +wish that Warner should bring the picture to his house on the +following Thursday, that Sir Joshua might inspect it. He added also, +in terms the flattery of which his friendship could not resist +exaggerating, Talbot's desire to become the purchaser of the picture. + +"Yes," said the artist, as his eye glanced delightedly over his +labour; "yes, I believe when it is once seen there will be many +candidates!" + +"No doubt," answered Clarence; "and for that reason you cannot blame +Talbot for wishing to forestall all other competitors for the prize;" +and then, continuing the encouraging nature of the conversation, +Clarence enlarged upon the new hopes of his friend, besought him to +take time, to spare his health, and not to injure both himself and his +performance by over-anxiety and hurry. Clarence concluded by +retailing Talbot's assurance that in all cases and circumstances he +(Talbot) considered himself pledged to be Warner's supporter and +friend. + +With something of impatience, mingled with pleasure, the painter +listened to all these details; nor was it to Linden's zeal nor to +Talbot's generosity, but rather to the excess of his own merit, that +he secretly attributed the brightening prospect offered him. + +The indifference which Warner, though of a disposition naturally kind, +evinced at parting with a friend who had always taken so strong an +interest in his behalf, and whose tears at that moment contrasted +forcibly enough with the apathetic coldness of his own farewell, was a +remarkable instance how acute vividness on a single point will deaden +feeling on all others. Occupied solely and burningly with one intense +thought, which was to him love, friendship, health, peace, wealth, +Warner could not excite feelings, languid and exhausted with many and +fiery conflicts, to objects of minor interest, and perhaps he inwardly +rejoiced that his musings and his study would henceforth be sacred +even from friendship. + +Deeply affected, for his nature was exceedingly unselfish, generous, +and susceptible, Clarence tore himself away, placed in the +grandmother's hand a considerable portion of the sum he had received +from Talbot, hurried into his carriage, and found himself on the high +road to fortune, pleasure, distinction, and the Continent. + +But while Clarence, despite of every advantage before him, hastened to +a court of dissipation and pleasure, with feelings in which regretful +affection for those he had left darkened his worldly hopes and mingled +with the sanguine anticipations of youth, Warner, poor, low-born, +wasted with sickness, destitute of friends, shut out by his +temperament from the pleasures of his age, burned with hopes far less +alloyed than those of Clarence, and found in them, for the sacrifice +of all else, not only a recompense, but a triumph. + +Thursday came. Warner had made one request to Talbot, which had with +difficulty been granted: it was that he himself might unseen be the +auditor of the great painter's criticisms, and that Sir Joshua should +be perfectly unaware of his presence. It had been granted with +difficulty, because Talbot wished to spare Warner the pain of hearing +remarks which he felt would be likely to fall far short of the +sanguine self-elation of the young artist; and it had been granted +because Talbot imagined that, even should this be the case, the pain +would be more than counterbalanced by the salutary effect it might +produce. Alas! vanity calculates but poorly upon the vanity of +others! What a virtue we should distil from frailty; what a world of +pain we should save our brethren, if we would suffer our own weakness +to be the measure of theirs! + +Thursday came: the painting was placed by the artist's own hand in the +most favourable light; a curtain, hung behind it, served as a screen +for Warner, who, retiring to his hiding-place, surrendered his heart +to delicious forebodings of the critic's wonder and golden +anticipations of the future destiny of his darling work. Not a fear +dashed the full and smooth cup of his self-enjoyment. He had lain +awake the whole of the night in restless and joyous impatience for the +morrow. At daybreak he had started from his bed, he had unclosed his +shutters, he had hung over his picture with a fondness greater, if +possible, than he had ever known before! like a mother, he felt as if +his own partiality was but a part of a universal tribute; and, as his +aged relative, turning her dim eyes to the painting, and, in her +innocent idolatry, rather of the artist than his work, praised and +expatiated and foretold, his heart whispered, "If it wring this +worship from ignorance, what will be the homage of science?" + +He who first laid down the now hackneyed maxim that diffidence is the +companion of genius knew very little of the workings of the human +heart. True, there may have been a few such instances, and it is +probable that in this maxim, as in most, the exception made the rule. +But what could ever reconcile genius to its sufferings, its +sacrifices, its fevered inquietudes, the intense labour which can +alone produce what the shallow world deems the giant offspring of a +momentary inspiration: what could ever reconcile it to these but the +haughty and unquenchable consciousness of internal power; the hope +which has the fulness of certainty that in proportion to the toil is +the reward; the sanguine and impetuous anticipation of glory, which +bursts the boundaries of time and space, and ranges immortality with a +prophet's rapture? Rob Genius of its confidence, of its lofty self- +esteem, and you clip the wings of the eagle: you domesticate, it is +true, the wanderer you could not hitherto comprehend, in the narrow +bounds of your household affections; you abase and tame it more to the +level of your ordinary judgments, but you take from it the power to +soar; the hardihood which was content to brave the thundercloud and +build its eyrie on the rock, for the proud triumph of rising above its +kind, and contemplating with a nearer eye the majesty of heaven. + +But if something of presumption is a part of the very essence of +genius, in Warner it was doubly natural, for he was still in the heat +and flush of a design, the defects of which he had not yet had the +leisure to examine; and his talents, self-taught and self-modelled, +had never received either the excitement of emulation or the chill of +discouragement from the study of the masterpieces of his art. + +The painter had not been long alone in his concealment before he heard +steps; his heart beat violently, the door opened, and he saw, through +a small hole which he had purposely made in the curtain, a man with a +benevolent and prepossessing countenance, whom he instantly recognized +as Sir Joshua Reynolds, enter the room, accompanied by Talbot. They +walked up to the picture, the painter examined it closely, and in +perfect silence. "Silence," thought Warner, "is the best homage of +admiration;" but he trembled with impatience to hear the admiration +confirmed by words,--those words came too soon. + +"It is the work of a clever man, certainly," said Sir Joshua; "but" +(terrible monosyllable) "of one utterly unskilled in the grand +principles of his art--look here, and here, and here, for instance;" +and the critic, perfectly unconscious of the torture he inflicted, +proceeded to point out the errors of the work. Oh! the agony, the +withering agony of that moment to the ambitious artist! In vain he +endeavoured to bear up against the judgment,--in vain he endeavoured +to persuade himself that it was the voice of envy which in those cold, +measured, defining accents, fell like drops of poison upon his heart. +He felt at once, and as if by a magical inspiration, the truth of the +verdict; the scales of self-delusion fell from his eyes; by a hideous +mockery, a kind of terrible pantomime, his goddess seemed at a word, a +breath, transformed into a monster: life, which had been so lately +concentrated into a single hope, seemed now, at once and forever, +cramped, curdled, blistered into a single disappointment. + +"But," said Talbot, who had in vain attempted to arrest the criticisms +of the painter (who, very deaf at all times, was, at that time in +particular, engrossed by the self-satisfaction always enjoyed by one +expatiating on his favourite topic),--"but," said Talbot, in a louder +voice, "you own there is great genius in the design?" + +"Certainly, there is genius," replied Sir Joshua, in a tone of calm +and complacent good-nature; "but what is genius without culture? You +say the artist is young, very young; let him take time: I do not say +let him attempt a humbler walk; let him persevere in the lofty one he +has chosen, but let him first retrace every step he has taken; let him +devote days, months, years, to the most diligent study of the immortal +masters of the divine art, before he attempts (to exhibit, at least) +another historical picture. He has mistaken altogether the nature of +invention: a fine invention is nothing more than a fine deviation +from, or enlargement on, a fine model: imitation, if noble and +general, insures the best hope of originality. Above all, let your +young friend, if he can afford it, visit Italy." + +"He shall afford it," said Talbot, kindly, "for he shall have whatever +advantages I can procure him; but you see the picture is only half- +completed: he could alter it!" + +"He had better burn it!" replied the painter, with a gentle smile. + +And Talbot, in benevolent despair, hurried his visitor out of the +room. He soon returned to seek and console the artist, but the artist +was gone; the despised, the fatal picture, the blessing and curse of +so many anxious and wasted hours, had vanished also with its creator. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + What is this soul, then? Whence + Came it?--It does not seem my own, and I + Have no self-passion or identity! + Some fearful end must be-- + . . . . . . + There never lived a mortal man, who bent + His appetite beyond his natural sphere, + But starved and died.--KEATS: Endymion. + +On entering his home, Warner pushed aside, for the first time in his +life with disrespect, his aged and kindly relation, who, as if in +mockery of the unfortunate artist stood prepared to welcome and +congratulate his return. Bearing his picture in his arms, he rushed +upstairs, hurried into his room, and locked the door. Hastily he tore +aside the cloth which had been drawn over the picture; hastily and +tremblingly he placed it upon the frame accustomed to support it, and +then, with a long, long, eager, searching, scrutinizing glance, he +surveyed the once beloved mistress of his worship. Presumption, +vanity, exaggerated self-esteem, are, in their punishment, supposed to +excite ludicrous not sympathetic emotion; but there is an excess of +feeling, produced by whatever cause it may be, into which, in spite of +ourselves, we are forced to enter. Even fear, the most contemptible +of the passions, becomes tragic the moment it becomes an agony. + +"Well, well!" said Warner, at last, speaking very slowly, "it is +over,--it was a pleasant dream,--but it is over,--I ought to be +thankful for the lesson." Then suddenly changing his mood and tone, +he repeated, "Thankful! for what? that I am a wretch,--a wretch more +utterly hopeless and miserable and abandoned than a man who freights +with all his wealth, his children, his wife, the hoarded treasures and +blessings of an existence, one ship, one frail, worthless ship, and, +standing himself on the shore, sees it suddenly go down! Oh, was I +not a fool,--a right noble fool,--a vain fool,--an arrogant fool,--a +very essence and concentration of all things that make a fool, to +believe such delicious marvels of myself! What, man!" (here his eye +saw in the opposite glass his features, livid and haggard with +disease, and the exhausting feelings which preyed within him)--"what, +man! would nothing serve thee but to be a genius,--thee, whom Nature +stamped with her curse! Dwarf-like and distorted, mean in stature and +in lineament, thou wert, indeed, a glorious being to perpetuate grace +and beauty, the majesties and dreams of art! Fame for thee, indeed-- +ha-ha! Glory--ha-ha! a place with Titian, Correggio, Raphael--ha--ha +--ha! O, thrice modest, thrice-reasonable fool! But this vile daub; +this disfigurement of canvas; this loathed and wretched monument of +disgrace; this notable candidate for--ha--ha--immortality! this I +have, at least, in my power." And seizing the picture, he dashed it +to the ground, and trampled it with his feet upon the dusty boards, +till the moist colours presented nothing but one confused and dingy +stain. + +This sight seemed to recall him for a moment. He paused, lifted up +the picture once more, and placed it on the table. "But," he +muttered, "might not this critic be envious? am I sure that he judged +rightly--fairly? The greatest masters have looked askant and jealous +at their pupils' works. And then, how slow, how cold, how damned +cold, how indifferently he spoke; why, the very art should have warmed +him more. Could he have--No, no, no: it was true, it was! I felt the +conviction thrill through me like a searing iron. Burn it--did he +say--ay--burn it: it shall be done this instant." + +And, hastening to the door, he undid the bolt. He staggered back as +he beheld his old and nearest surviving relative, the mother of his +father, seated upon the ground beside the door, terrified by the +exclamations she did not dare to interrupt. She rose slowly, and with +difficulty as she saw him; and, throwing around him the withered arms +which had nursed his infancy, exclaimed, "My child!--my poor--poor +child! what has come to you of late? you, who were so gentle, so mild, +so quiet,--you are no longer the same,--and oh, my son, how ill you +look: your father looked so just before he died!" + +"Ill!" said he, with a sort of fearful gayety, "ill--no: I never was +so well; I have been in a dream till now; but I have woke at last. +Why, it is true that I have been silent and shy, but I will be so no +more. I will laugh, and talk, and walk, and make love, and drink +wine, and be all that other men are. Oh, we will be so merry! But +stay here, while I fetch a light." + +"A light, my child, for what?" + +"For a funeral!" shouted Warner, and, rushing past her, he descended +the stairs, and returned almost in an instant with a light. + +Alarmed and terrified, the poor old woman had remained motionless and +weeping violently. Her tears Warner did not seem to notice; he pushed +her gently into the room, and began deliberately, and without uttering +a syllable, to cut the picture into shreds. + +"What are you about, my child?" cried the old woman "you are mad; it +is your beautiful picture that you are destroying!" + +Warner did not reply, but going to the hearth, piled together, with +nice and scrupulous care, several pieces of paper, and stick, and +matches, into a sort of pyre; then, placing the shreds of the picture +upon it, he applied the light, and the whole was instantly in a blaze. + +"Look, look!" cried he, in an hysterical tone, "how it burns and +crackles and blazes! What master ever equalled it now?--no fault now +in those colours,--no false tints in that light and shade! See how +that flame darts up and soars!--that flame is my spirit! Look--is it +not restless?--does it not aspire bravely?--why, all its brother +flames are grovellers to it!--and now,--why don't you look!--it +falters--fades--droops--and--ha--ha--ha! poor idler, the fuel is +consumed--and--it is darkness." + +As Warner uttered these words his eyes reeled; the room swam before +him; the excitement of his feeble frame had reached its highest pitch; +the disease of many weeks had attained its crisis; and, tottering back +a few paces, he fell upon the floor, the victim of a delirious and +raging fever. + +But it was not thus that the young artist was to die. He was reserved +for a death that, like his real nature, had in it more of gentleness +and poetry. He recovered by slow degrees, and his mind, almost in +spite of himself, returned to that profession from which it was +impossible to divert the thoughts and musings of many years. Not that +he resumed the pencil and the easel: on the contrary, he could not +endure them in his sight; they appeared, to a mind festered and sore, +like a memorial and monument of shame. But he nursed within him a +strong and ardent desire to become a pilgrim to that beautiful land of +which he had so often dreamed, and which the innocent destroyer of his +peace had pointed out as the theatre of inspiration and the nursery of +future fame. + +The physicians who, at Talbot's instigation, attended him, looked at +his hectic cheek and consumptive frame, and readily flattered his +desire; and Talbot, no less interested in Warner's behalf on his own +account than bound by his promise to Clarence, generously extended to +the artist that bounty which is the most precious prerogative of the +rich. Notwithstanding her extreme age, his grandmother insisted upon +attending him: there is in the heart of woman so deep a well of love +that no age can freeze it. They made the voyage: they reached the +shore of the myrtle and the vine, and entered the Imperial City. The +air of Rome seemed at first to operate favourably upon the health of +the English artist. His strength appeared to increase, his spirit to +expand; and though he had relapsed into more than his original silence +and reserve, he resumed, with apparent energy, the labours of the +easel: so that they who looked no deeper than the surface might have +imagined the scar healed, and the real foundation of future excellence +begun. + +But while Warner most humbled himself before the gods of the pictured +world; while the true principles of the mighty art opened in their +fullest glory on his soul; precisely at this very moment shame and +despondency were most bitter at his heart: and while the enthusiasm of +the painter kindled, the ambition of the man despaired. But still he +went on, transfusing into his canvas the grandeur and simplicity of +the Italian school; still, though he felt palpably within him the +creeping advance of the deadliest and surest enemy to fame, he +pursued, with an unwearied ardour, the mechanical completion of his +task; still, the morning found him bending before the easel, and the +night brought to his solitary couch meditation rather than sleep. The +fire, the irritability which he had evinced before his illness had +vanished, and the original sweetness of his temper had returned; he +uttered no complaint, he dwelt upon no anticipation of success; hope +and regret seemed equally dead within him; and it was only when he +caught the fond, glad eyes of his aged attendant that his own filled +with tears, or that the serenity of his brow darkened into sadness. + +This went on for some months; till one evening they found the painter +by his window, seated opposite to an unfinished picture. The pencil +was still in his hand; the quiet of settled thought was still upon his +countenance; the soft breeze of a southern twilight waved the hair +livingly from his forehead; the earliest star of a southern sky lent +to his cheek something of that subdued lustre which, when touched by +enthusiasm, it had been accustomed to wear; but these were only the +mockeries of life: life itself was no more! He had died, reconciled, +perhaps, to the loss of fame, in discovering that Art is to be loved +for itself, and not for the rewards it may bestow upon the artist. + +There are two tombs close to each other in the strangers' burial-place +at Rome: they cover those for whom life, unequally long, terminated in +the same month. The one is of a woman, bowed with the burden of many +years: the other darkens over the dust of the young artist. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Think upon my grief, + And on the justice of my flying hence, + To keep me from a most unholy match.--SHAKSPEARE. + +"But are you quite sure," said General St. Leger, "are you quite sure +that this girl still permits Mordaunt's addresses?" + +"Sure!" cried Miss Diana St. Leger, "sure, General! I saw it with my +own eyes. They were standing together in the copse, when I, who had +long had my suspicions, crept up, and saw them; and Mr. Mordaunt held +her hand, and kissed it every moment. Shocking and indecorous!" + +"I hate that man! as proud as Lucifer," growled the General. "Shall +we lock her up, or starve her?" + +"No, General, something better than that." + +"What, my love? flog her?" + +"She's too old for that, brother; we'll marry her." + +"Marry her!" + +"Yes, to Mr. Glumford; you know that he has asked her several times." + +"But she cannot bear him." + +"We'll make her bear him, General St. Leger." + +"But if she marries, I shall have nobody to nurse me when I have the +gout." + +"Yes, brother: I know of a nice little girl, Martha Richardson, your +second cousin's youngest daughter; you know he has fourteen children, +and you may have them all, one after another, if you like." + +"Very true, Diana; let the jade marry Mr. Glumford." + +"She shall," said the sister; "and I'll go about it this very moment: +meantime I'll take care that she does not see her lover any more." + +About three weeks after this conversation, Mordaunt, who had in vain +endeavoured to see Isabel, who had not even heard from her, whose +letters had been returned to him unopened, and who, consequently, was +in despair, received the following note:-- + +This is the first time I have been able to write to you, at least to +get my letter conveyed: it is a strange messenger that I have +employed, but I happened formerly to make his acquaintance; and +accidentally seeing him to-day, the extremity of the case induced me +to give him a commission which I could trust to no one else. +Algernon, are not the above sentences written with admirable calmness? +are they not very explanatory, very consistent, very cool? and yet do +you know that I firmly believe I am going mad? My brain turns round +and round, and my hand burns so that I almost think that, like our old +nurse's stories of the fiend, it will scorch the paper as I write. +And I see strange faces in my sleep and in my waking, all mocking at +me, and they torture and aunt met and when I look at those faces I see +no human relenting, no! though I weep and throw myself on my knees and +implore them to save me. Algernon, my only hope is in you. You know +that I have always hitherto refused to ruin you, and even now, though +I implore you to deliver me, I will not be so selfish as--as--I know +not what I write, but if I cannot be your wife--I will not be his! +No! if they drag me to church, it shall be to my grave, not my bridal. + ISABEL ST. LEGER. + +When Mordaunt had read this letter, which, in spite of its +incoherence, his fears readily explained, he rose hastily; his eyes +rested upon a sober-looking man, clad in brown. The proud love no +spectators to their emotions. + +"Who are you, sir?" said Algernon, quickly. + +"Morris Brown," replied the stranger, coolly and civilly. "Brought +that letter to you, sir; shall be very happy to serve you with +anything else; just fitted out a young gentleman as ambassador, a +nephew to Mrs. Minden,--very old friend of mine. Beautiful slabs you +have here, sir, but they want a few knick-knacks; shall be most happy +to supply you; got a lovely little ape, sir, stuffed by the late Lady +Waddilove; it would look charming with this old-fashioned carving; +give the room quite the air of a museum." + +"And so," said Mordaunt, for whose ear the eloquence of Mr. Brown +contained only one sentence, "and so you brought this note, and will +take back my answer?" + +"Yes, sir; anything to keep up family connections; I knew a Lady +Morden very well,--very well indeed, sir,--a relation of yours, I +presume, by the similarity of the name; made her very valuable +presents; shall be most happy to do the same to you, when you are +married, sir. You will refurnish the house, I suppose? Let me see; +fine proportions to this room, sir; about thirty-six feet by twenty- +eight; I'll do the thing twenty per cent cheaper than the trade; and +touching the lovely little--" + +"Here," interrupted Mordaunt, "you will take back this note, and be +sure that Miss Isabel St. Leger has it as soon as possible; oblige me +by accepting this trifle,--a trifle indeed compared with my gratitude, +if this note reaches its destination safely." + +"I am sure," said Mr. Brown, looking with surprise at the gift, which +he held with no unwilling hand, "I am sure, sir, that you are very +generous, and strongly remind me of your relation, Lady Morden; and if +you would like the lovely little ape as a present--I mean really a +present--you shall have it, Mr. Mordaunt." + +But Mr. Mordaunt had left the room, and the sober Morris, looking +round, and cooling in his generosity, said to himself, "It is well he +did not hear me, however; but I hope he will marry the nice young +lady, for I love doing a kindness. This house must be refurnished; no +lady will like these old-fashioned chairs." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + Squire and fool are the same thing here--FARQUHAR. + + In such a night + Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew, + And, with an unthrift love, did run from Venice.---SHAKSPEARE. + +The persecutions which Isabel had undergone had indeed preyed upon her +reason as well as her health; and, in her brief intervals of respite +from the rage of the uncle, the insults of the aunt, and, worse than +all, the addresses of the intended bridegroom, her mind, shocked and +unhinged, reverted with such intensity to the sufferings she endured +as to give her musings the character of insanity. It was in one of +these moments that she had written to Mordaunt; and had the contest +continued much longer the reason of the unfortunate and persecuted +girl would have totally deserted her. + +She was a person of acute, and even poignant, sensibilities, and these +the imperfect nature of her education had but little served to guide +or to correct; but as her habits were pure and good, the impulses +which spring from habit were also sinless and exalted, and, if they +erred, "they leaned on virtue's side," and partook rather of a +romantic and excessive generosity than of the weakness of womanhood or +the selfishness of passion. All the misery and debasement of her +equivocal and dependent situation had not been able to drive her into +compliance with Mordaunt's passionate and urgent prayers; and her +heart was proof even to the eloquence of love, when that eloquence +pointed towards the worldly injury and depreciation of her lover: but +this new persecution was utterly unforeseen in its nature and +intolerable from its cause. To marry another; to be torn forever from +one in whom her whole heart was wrapped; to be forced not only to +forego his love, but to feel that the very thought of him was a +crime,--all this, backed by the vehement and galling insults of her +relations, and the sullen and unmoved meanness of her intended +bridegroom, who answered her candour and confession with a stubborn +indifference and renewed overtures, made a load of evil which could +neither be borne with resignation nor contemplated with patience. + +She was sitting, after she had sent her letter, with her two +relations, for they seldom trusted her out of their sight, when Mr. +Glumford was announced. Now, Mr. George Glumford was a country +gentleman of what might be termed a third-rate family in the county: +he possessed about twelve hundred a year, to say nothing of the odd +pounds, shillings, and pence, which, however, did not meet with such +contempt in his memory or estimation; was of a race which could date +as far back as Charles the Second; had been educated at a country +school with sixty others, chiefly inferior to himself in rank; and had +received the last finish at a very small hall at Oxford. In addition +to these advantages, he had been indebted to nature for a person five +feet eight inches high, and stout in proportion; for hair very short, +very straight, and of a red hue, which even through powder cast out a +yellow glow; for an obstinate dogged sort of nose, beginning in snub, +and ending in bottle; for cold, small, gray eyes, a very small mouth, +pinched up and avaricious; and very large, very freckled, yet rather +white hands, the nails of which were punctiliously cut into a point +every other day, with a pair of scissors which Mr. Glumford often +boasted had been in his possession since his eighth year; namely, for +about thirty-two legitimate revolutions of the sun. + +He was one of those persons who are equally close and adventurous; who +love the eclat of a little speculation, but take exceeding good care +that it should be, in their own graceful phrase, "on the safe side of +the hedge." In pursuance of this characteristic of mind, he had +resolved to fall in love with Miss Isabel St. Leger; for she being +very dependent, he could boast to her of his disinterestedness, and +hope that she would be economical through a principle of gratitude; +and being the nearest relation to the opulent General St. Leger and +his unmarried sister there seemed to be every rational probability of +her inheriting the bulk of their fortunes. Upon these hints of +prudence spake Mr. George Glumford. + +Now, when Isabel, partly in her ingenuous frankness, partly from the +passionate promptings of her despair, revealed to him her attachment +to another, and her resolution never, with her own consent, to become +his, it seemed to the slow but not uncalculating mind of Mr. Glumford +not by any means desirable that he should forego his present +intentions, but by all means desirable that he should make this +reluctance of Isabel an excuse for sounding the intentions and +increasing the posthumous liberality of the East Indian and his +sister. + +"The girl is of my nearest blood," said the Major-General, "and if I +don't leave my fortune to her, who the devil should I leave it to, +sir?" and so saying, the speaker, who was in a fell paroxysm of the +gout, looked so fiercely at the hinting wooer that Mr. George +Glumford, who was no Achilles, was somewhat frightened, and thought it +expedient to hint no more. + +"My brother," said Miss Diana, "is so odd; but he is the most generous +of men: besides, the girl has claims upon him." Upon these speeches +Mr. Glumford thought himself secure; and inly resolving to punish the +fool for her sulkiness and bad taste as soon as he lawfully could, he +continued his daily visits and told his sporting acquaintance that his +time was coming. + +Revenons a nos moutons. Forgive this preliminary detail, and let us +return to Mr. Glumford himself, whom we left at the door, pulling and +fumbling at the glove which covered his right hand, in order to +present the naked palm to Miss Diana St. Leger. After this act was +performed, he approached Isabel, and drawing his chair near to her, +proceeded to converse with her as the Ogre did with Puss in Boots; +namely, "as civilly as an Ogre could do." + +This penance had not proceeded far, before the door was again opened, +and Mr. Morris Brown presented himself to the conclave. + +"Your servant, General; your servant, Madam. I took the liberty of +coming back again, Madam, because I forgot to show you some very fine +silks, the most extraordinary bargain in the world,--quite presents; +and I have a Sevres bowl here, a superb article, from the cabinet of +the late Lady Waddilove." + +Now Mr. Brown was a very old acquaintance of Miss Diana St. Leger, for +there is a certain class of old maids with whom our fair readers are +no doubt acquainted, who join to a great love of expense a great love +of bargains, and who never purchase at the regular place if they can +find any irregular vendor. They are great friends of Jews and +itinerants, hand-in-glove with smugglers, Ladies Bountiful to pedlers, +are diligent readers of puffs and advertisements, and eternal haunters +of sales and auctions. Of this class was Miss Diana a most prominent +individual: judge, then, how acceptable to her was the acquaintance of +Mr. Brown. That indefatigable merchant of miscellanies had, indeed, +at a time when brokers were perhaps rather more rare and respectable +than now, a numerous country acquaintance, and thrice a year he +performed a sort of circuit to all his customers and connections; +hence his visit to St. Leger House, and hence Isabel's opportunity of +conveying her epistle. + +"Pray," said Mr. Glumford, who had heard much of Mr. Brown's +"presents" from Miss Diana,--"pray don't you furnish rooms, and things +of that sort?" + +"Certainly, sir, certainly, in the best manner possible." + +"Oh, very well; I shall want some rooms furnished soon,--a bedroom and +a dressing-room, and things of that sort, you know. And so--perhaps +you may have something in your box that will suit me, gloves or +handkerchiefs or shirts or things of that sort." + +"Yes, sir, everything, I sell everything," said Mr. Brown, opening his +box. "I beg pardon, Miss Isabel, I have dropped my handkerchief by +your chair; allow me to stoop," and Mr. Brown, stooping under the +table, managed to effect his purpose; unseen by the rest, a note was +slipped into Isabel's hand, and under pretence of stooping too, she +managed to secure the treasure. Love need well be honest if, even +when it is most true, it leads us into so much that is false! + +Mr. Brown's box was now unfolded before the eyes of the crafty Mr. +Glumford, who, having selected three pair of gloves, offered the exact +half of the sum demanded. + +Mr. Brown lifted up his hands and eyes. + +"You see," said the imperturbable Glumford, "that if you let me have +them for that, and they last me well, and don't come unsewn, and stand +cleaning, you'll have my custom in furnishing the house, and rooms, +and--things of that sort." + +Struck with the grandeur of this opening, Mr. Brown yielded, and the +gloves were bought. + +"The fool!" thought the noble George, laughing in his sleeve, "as if I +should ever furnish the house from his box!" Strange that some men +should be proud of being mean! The moment Isabel escaped to dress for +dinner, she opened her lover's note. It was as follows.-- + +Be in the room, your retreat, at nine this evening. Let the window be +left unclosed. Precisely at that hour I will be with you. I shall +have everything in readiness for your flight. Be sure, dearest +Isabel, that nothing prevents your meeting me there, even if all your +house follow or attend you. I will bear you from all. Oh, Isabel! in +spite of the mystery and wretchedness of your letter, I feel too +happy, too blest at the thought that our fates will be at length +united, and that the union is at hand. Remember nine. + A. M. + +Love is a feeling which has so little to do with the world, a passion +so little regulated by the known laws of our more steady and settled +emotions, that the thoughts which it produces are always more or less +connected with exaggeration and romance. To the secret spirit of +enterprise which, however chilled by his pursuits and habits, still +burned within Mordaunt's breast, there was a wild pleasure in the +thought of bearing off his mistress and his bride from the very home +and hold of her false friends and real foes; while in the +contradictions of the same passion, Isabel, so far from exulting at +her approaching escape, trembled at her danger and blushed for her +temerity; and the fear and the modesty of woman almost triumphed over +her brief energy and fluctuating resolve. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + We haste,-the chosen and the lovely bringing; + Love still goes with her from her place of birth; + Deep, silent joy, within her soul is springing, + Though in her glance the light no more is mirth.--Mrs. HEMANS. + +"Damn it!" said the General. + +"The vile creature!" cried Miss Diana. + +"I don't understand things of that sort," ejaculated the bewildered +Mr. Glumford. + +"She has certainly gone," said the valiant General. + +"Certainly!" grunted Miss Diana. + +"Gone!" echoed the bridegroom not to be. + +And she was gone! Never did more loving and tender heart forsake all, +and cling to a more loyal and generous nature. The skies were +darkened with clouds,-- + + "And the dim stars rushed through them rare and fast;" + +and the winds wailed with a loud and ominous voice; and the moon came +forth, with a faint and sickly smile, from her chamber in the mist, +and then shrank back, and was seen no more; but neither omen nor fear +was upon Mordaunt's breast, as it swelled beneath the dark locks of +Isabel, which were pressed against it. + +As Faith clings the more to the cross of life, while the wastes deepen +around her steps, and the adders creep forth upon her path, so love +clasps that which is its hope and comfort the closer, for the desert +which encompasses and the dangers which harass its way. + +They had fled to London, and Isabel had been placed with a very +distant and very poor, though very high-born, relative of Algernon, +till the necessary preliminaries could be passed and the final bond +knit. Yet still the generous Isabel would have refused, despite the +injury to her own fame, to have ratified a union which filled her with +gloomy presentiments for Mordaunt's fate; and still Mordaunt by little +and little broke down her tender scruples and self-immolating +resolves, and ceased not his eloquence and his suit till the day of +his nuptials was set and come. + +The morning was bright and clear; the autumn was drawing towards its +close, and seemed willing to leave its last remembrance tinged with +the warmth and softness of its parent summer, rather than with the +stern gloom and severity of its chilling successor. + +And they stood beside the altar, and their vows were exchanged. A +slight tremor came over Algernon's frame, a slight shade darkened his +countenance; for even in that bridal hour an icy and thrilling +foreboding curdled to his heart; it passed,--the ceremony was over, +and Mordaunt bore his blushing and weeping bride from the church. His +carriage was in attendance; for, not knowing how long the home of his +ancestors might be his, he was impatient to return to it. The old +Countess d'Arcy, Mordaunt's relation, with whom Isabel had been +staying, called them back to bless them; for, even through the +coldness of old age, she was touched by the singularity of their love +and affected by their nobleness of heart. She laid her wan and +shrivelled hand upon each, as she bade them farewell, and each shrank +back involuntarily, for the cold and light touch seemed like the +fingers of the dead. + +Fearful, indeed, is the vicinity of death and life,--the bridal +chamber and the charnel. That night the old woman died. It appeared +as if Fate had set its seal upon the union it had so long forbidden, +and had woven a dark thread even in the marriage-bond. At least, it +tore from two hearts, over which the cloud and the blast lay couched +in a "grim repose," the last shelter, which, however frail and +distant, seemed left to them upon the inhospitable earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Live while ye may, yet happy pair; enjoy + Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed.--MILTON. + +The autumn and the winter passed away; Mordaunt's relation continued +implacable. Algernon grieved for this, independent of worldly +circumstances; for, though he had seldom seen that relation, yet he +loved him for former kindness--rather promised, to be sure, than yet +shown--with the natural warmth of an affection which has but few +objects. However, the old gentleman (a very short, very fat person; +very short and very fat people, when they are surly, are the devil and +all; for the humours of their mind, like those of their body, have +something corrupt and unpurgeable in them) wrote him one bluff, +contemptuous letter, in a witty strain,--for he was a bit of a +humourist,--disowned his connection, and very shortly afterwards died, +and left all his fortune to the very Mr. Vavasour who was at law with +Mordaunt, and for whom he had always openly expressed the strongest +personal dislike: spite to one relation is a marvellous tie to +another. Meanwhile the lawsuit went on less slowly than lawsuits +usually do, and the final decision was very speedily to be given. + +We said the autumn and the winter were gone; and it was in one of +those latter days in March, when, like a hoyden girl subsiding into +dawning womanhood, the rude weather mellows into a softer and tenderer +month, that, by the side of a stream, overshadowed by many a brake and +tree, sat two persons. + +"I know not, dearest Algernon," said one, who was a female, "if this +is not almost the sweetest month in the year, because it is the month +of Hope." + +"Ay, Isabel; and they did it wrong who called it harsh, and dedicated +it to Mars. I exult even in the fresh winds which hardier frames than +mine shrink from, and I love feeling their wild breath fan my cheek as +I ride against it. I remember," continued Algernon, musingly, "that +on this very day three years ago, I was travelling through Germany, +alone and on horseback, and I paused, not far from Ens, on the banks +of the Danube; the waters of the river were disturbed and fierce, and +the winds came loud and angry against my face, dashing the spray of +the waves upon me, and filling my spirit with a buoyant and glad +delight; and at that time I had been indulging old dreams of poetry, +and had laid my philosophy aside; and, in the inspiration of the +moment, I lifted up my hand towards the quarter whence the winds came, +and questioned them audibly of their birthplace and their bourne; and, +as the enthusiasm increased, I compared them to our human life, which +a moment is, and then is not; and, proceeding from folly to folly, I +asked them, as if they were the interpreters of heaven, for a type and +sign of my future lot." + +"And what said they?" inquired Isabel, smiling, yet smiling timidly. + +"They answered not," replied Mordaunt; "but a voice within me seemed +to say, 'Look above!' and I raised my eyes,--but I did not see thee, +love,--so the Book of Fate lied." + +"Nay, Algernon, what did you see?" asked Isabel, more earnestly than +the question deserved. + +"I saw a thin cloud, alone amidst many dense and dark ones scattered +around; and as I gazed it seemed to take the likeness of a funeral +procession--coffin, bearers, priests, all--as clear in the cloud as I +have seen them on the earth: and I shuddered as I saw; but the winds +blew the vapour onwards, and it mingled with the broader masses of +cloud; and then, Isabel, the sun shone forth for a moment, and I +mistook, love, when I said you were not there, for that sun was you; +but suddenly the winds ceased, and the rain came on fast and heavy: so +my romance cooled, and my fever slacked; I thought on the inn at Ens, +and the blessings of a wood fire, which is lighted in a moment, and I +spurred on my horse accordingly." + +"It is very strange," said Isabel. + +"What, love?" whispered Algernon, kissing her cheek. + +"Nothing, dearest, nothing." + +At that instant, the deer, which lay waving their lordly antlers to +and fro beneath the avenue which sloped upward from the stream to the +house, rose hurriedly and in confusion, and stood gazing, with +watchful eyes, upon a man advancing towards the pair. + +It was one of the servants with a letter. Isabel saw a faint change +(which none else could have seen) in Mordaunt's countenance, as he +recognized the writing and broke the seal. When he had read the +letter, his eyes fell upon the ground, and then, with a slight start, +he lifted them up, and gazed long and eagerly around. Wistfully did +he drink, as it were, into his heart the beautiful and expanded scene +which lay stretched on either side; the noble avenue which his +forefathers had planted as a shelter to their sons, and which now in +its majestic growth and its waving boughs seemed to say, "Lo! ye are +repaid!" and the never silent and silver stream, by which his boyhood +had sat for hours, lulled by its music, and inhaling the fragrance of +the reed and wild flower that decoyed the bee to its glossy banks; and +the deer, to whose melancholy belling be had listened so often in the +gray twilight with a rapt and dreaming ear; and the green fern waving +on the gentle hill, from whose shade his young feet had startled the +hare and the infant fawn; and far and faintly gleaming through the +thick trees, which clasped it as with a girdle, the old Hall, so +associated with vague hopes and musing dreams, and the dim legends of +gone time, and the lofty prejudices of ancestral pride,--all seemed to +sink within him, as he gazed, like the last looks of departing +friends; and when Isabel, who had not dared to break a silence which +partook so strongly of gloom, at length laid her hand upon his arm, +and lifted her dark, deep, tender eyes to his, he said, as he drew her +towards him, and a faint and sickly smile played upon his lips,-- + +"It is past, Isabel: henceforth we have no wealth but in each other. +The cause has been decided--and--and--we are beggars!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +We expose our life to a quotidian ague of frigid impertinences, which +would make a wise man tremble to think of.--COWLEY. + +We must suppose a lapse of four years from the date of those events +which concluded the last chapter; and, to recompence the reader, who I +know has a little penchant for "High Life," even in the last century, +for having hitherto shown him human beings in a state of society not +wholly artificial, I beg him to picture to himself a large room, +brilliantly illuminated, and crowded "with the magnates of the land." +Here, some in saltatory motion, some in sedentary rest, are dispersed +various groups of young ladies and attendant swains, talking upon the +subject of Lord Rochester's celebrated poem,--namely, "Nothing!"--and +lounging around the doors, meditating probably upon the same subject, +stand those unhappy victims of dancing daughters, denominated "Papas." + +The music has ceased; the dancers have broken up; and there is a +general but gentle sweep towards the refreshment-room. In the crowd-- +having just entered--there glided a young man of an air more +distinguished and somewhat more joyous than the rest. + +"How do you do, Mr. Linden?" said a tall and (though somewhat passe) +very handsome woman, blazing with diamonds; "are you just come?" + +And, here, by the way, I cannot resist pausing to observe that a +friend of mine, meditating a novel, submitted a part of the manuscript +to a friendly publisher. "Sir," said the bookseller, "your book is +very clever, but it wants dialogue." + +"Dialogue!" cried my friend: "you mistake; it is all dialogue." + +"Ay, sir, but not what we call dialogue; we want a little conversation +in fashionable life,--a little elegant chit-chat or so: and, as you +must have seen so much of the beau monde, you could do it to the life: +we must have something light and witty and entertaining." + +"Light, witty, and entertaining!" said our poor friend; "and how the +deuce, then, is it to be like conversation in 'fashionable life'? +When the very best conversation one can get is so insufferably dull, +how do you think people will be amused by reading a copy of the very +worst?" + +"They are amused, sir," said the publisher; "and works of this kind +sell!" + +"I am convinced," said my friend; for he was a man of a placid temper: +he took the hint, and his book did sell! + +Now this anecdote rushed into my mind after the penning of the little +address of the lady in diamonds,--"How do you do, Mr. Linden? Are you +just come?"--and it received an additional weight from my utter +inability to put into the mouth of Mr. Linden--notwithstanding my +desire of representing him in the most brilliant colours--any more +happy and eloquent answer than, "Only this instant!" + +However, as this is in the true spirit of elegant dialogue, I trust my +readers find it as light, witty, and entertaining as, according to the +said publisher, the said dialogue is always found by the public. + +While Clarence was engaged in talking with this lady, a very pretty, +lively, animated girl, with laughing blue eyes, which, joined to the +dazzling fairness of her complexion, gave a Hebe-like youth to her +features and expression, was led up to the said lady by a tall young +man, and consigned, with the ceremonious bow of the vieille tour, to +her protection. + +"Ah, Mr. Linden," cried the young lady, "I am very glad to see you,-- +such a beautiful ball!--Everybody here that I most like. Have you had +any refreshments, Mamma? But I need not ask, for I am sure you have +not; do come, Mr. Linden will be our cavalier." + +"Well, Flora, as you please," said the elderly lady, with a proud and +fond look at her beautiful daughter; and they proceeded to the +refreshment-room. + +No sooner were they seated at one of the tables, than they were +accosted by Lord St. George, a nobleman whom Clarence, before he left +England, had met more than once at Mr. Talbot's. + +"London," said his lordship to her of the diamonds, "has not seemed +like the same place since Lady Westborough arrived; your presence +brings out all the other luminaries: and therefore a young +acquaintance of mine--God bless me, there he is, seated by Lady Flora-- +very justly called you the 'evening star.'" + +"Was that Mr. Linden's pretty saying?" said Lady Westborough, smiling. + +"It was," answered Lord St. George; "and, by the by, he is a very +sensible, pleasant person, and greatly improved since he left England +last." + +"What!" said Lady Westborough, in a low tone (for Clarence, though in +earnest conversation with Lady Flora, was within hearing), and making +room for Lord St. George beside her, "what! did you know him before he +went to ----? You can probably tell me, then, who--that is to say-- +what family he is exactly of--the Lindens of Devonshire, or--or--" + +"Why, really," said Lord St. George, a little confused, for no man +likes to be acquainted with persons whose pedigree he cannot explain, +"I don't know what may be his family: I met him at Talbot's four or +five years ago; he was then a mere boy, but he struck me as being very +clever, and Talbot since told me that he was a nephew of his own." + +"Talbot," said Lady Westborough, musingly, "what Talbot?" + +"Oh! the Talbot--the ci-devant jeune homme!" + +"What, that charming, clever, animated old gentleman, who used to +dress so oddly, and had been so celebrated a beau garcon in his day?" + +"Exactly so," said Lord St. George, taking snuff, and delighted to +find he had set his young acquaintance on so honourable a footing. + +"I did not know he was still alive," said Lady Westborough, and then, +turning her eyes towards Clarence and her daughter, she added +carelessly, "Mr. Talbot is very rich, is he not?" + +"Rich as Croesus," replied Lord St. George, with a sigh. + +"And Mr. Linden is his heir, I suppose?" + +"In all probability," answered Lord St. George; "though I believe I +can boast a distant relationship to Talbot. However, I could not make +him fully understand it the other day, though I took particular pains +to explain it." + +While this conversation was going on between the Marchioness of +Westborough and Lord St. George, a dialogue equally interesting to the +parties concerned, and I hope, equally light, witty, and entertaining +to readers in general, was sustained between Clarence and Lady Flora. + +"How long shall you stay in England?" asked the latter, looking down. + +"I have not yet been able to decide," replied Clarence, "for it rests +with the ministers, not me. Directly Lord Aspeden obtains another +appointment, I am promised the office of Secretary of Legation; but +till then, I am-- + + "'A captive in Augusta's towers + To beauty and her train.'" + +"Oh!" cried Lady Flora, laughing, "you mean Mrs. Desborough and her +train: see where they sweep! Pray go and render her homage." + +"It is rendered," said Linden, in a low voice, "without so long a +pilgrimage, but perhaps despised." + +Lady Flora's laugh was hushed; the deepest blushes suffused her +cheeks, and the whole character of that face, before so playful and +joyous, seemed changed, as by a spell, into a grave, subdued, and even +timid look. + +Linden resumed, and his voice scarcely rose above a whisper. A +whisper! O delicate and fairy sound! music that speaketh to the +heart, as if loth to break the spell that binds it while it listens! +Sigh breathed into words, and freighting love in tones languid, like +homeward bees, by the very sweets with which they are charged! "Do +you remember," said he, "that evening at ---- when we last parted? and +the boldness which at that time you were gentle enough to forgive?" + +Lady Flora replied not. + +"And do you remember," continued Clarence, "that I told you that it +was not as an unknown and obscure adventurer that I would claim the +hand of her whose heart as an adventurer I had won?" + +Lady Flora raised her eyes for one moment, and encountering the ardent +gaze of Clarence, as instantly dropped them. + +"The time is not yet come," said Linden, "for the fulfilment of this +promise; but may I--dare I hope, that when it does, I shall not be--" + +"Flora, my love," said Lady Westborough, "let me introduce to you Lord +Borodaile." + +Lady Flora turned: the spell was broken; and the lovers were instantly +transformed into ordinary mortals. But, as Flora, after returning +Lord Borodaile's address, glanced her eye towards Clarence, she was +struck with the sudden and singular change of his countenance; the +flush of youth and passion was fled, his complexion was deadly pale, +and his eyes were fixed with a searching and unaccountable meaning +upon the face of the young nobleman, who was alternately addressing, +with a quiet and somewhat haughty fluency, the beautiful mother, and +the more lovely though less commanding daughter. Directly Linden +perceived that he was observed, he rose, turned away, and was soon +lost among the crowd. + +Lord Borodaile, the son and heir of the powerful Earl of Ulswater, was +about the age of thirty, small, slight, and rather handsome than +otherwise, though his complexion was dark and sallow; and a very +aquiline nose gave a stern and somewhat severe air to his countenance. +He had been for several years abroad, in various parts of the +Continent, and (no other field for an adventurous and fierce spirit +presenting itself) had served with the gallant Earl of Effingham, in +the war between the Turks and Russians, as a volunteer in the armies +of the latter. In this service he had been highly distinguished for +courage and conduct; and, on his return to England about a twelvemonth +since, had obtained the command of a cavalry regiment. Passionately +fond of his profession, he entered into its minutest duties with a +zeal not exceeded by the youngest and poorest subaltern in the army. + +His manners were very cold, haughty, collected, and self-possessed, +and his conversation that of a man who has cultivated his intellect +rather in the world than the closet. I mean, that, perfectly ignorant +of things, he was driven to converse solely upon persons, and, having +imbibed no other philosophy than that which worldly deceits and +disappointments bestow, his remarks, though shrewd, were bitterly +sarcastic, and partook of all the ill-nature for which a very scanty +knowledge of the world gives a sour and malevolent mind so ready an +excuse. + +"How very disagreeable Lord Borodaile is!" said Lady Flora, when the +object of the remark turned away and rejoined some idlers of his +corps. + +"Disagreeable!" said Lady Westborough. "I think him charming: he is +so sensible. How true his remarks on the world are!" + +Thus is it always; the young judge harshly of those who undeceive or +revolt their enthusiasm; and the more advanced in years, who have not +learned by a diviner wisdom to look upon the human follies and errors +by which they have suffered with a pitying and lenient eye, consider +every maxim of severity on those frailties as the proof of a superior +knowledge, and praise that as a profundity of thought which in reality +is but an infirmity of temper. + +Clarence is now engaged in a minuet de la tour with the beautiful +Countess of ----, the best dancer of the day in England. Lady Flora +is flirting with half a dozen beaux, the more violently in proportion +as she observes the animation with which Clarence converses, and the +grace with which his partner moves; and, having thus left our two +principal personages occupied and engaged, let us turn for a moment to +a room which we have not entered. + +This is a forlorn, deserted chamber, destined to cards, which are +never played in this temple of Terpsichore. At the far end of this +room, opposite to the fireplace, are seated four men, engaged in +earnest conversation. + +The tallest of these was Lord Quintown, a nobleman remarkable at that +day for his personal advantages, his good fortune with the beau sexe, +his attempts at parliamentary eloquence, in which he was lamentably +unsuccessful, and his adherence to Lord North. Next to him sat Mr. +St. George, the younger brother of Lord St. George, a gentleman to +whom power and place seemed married without hope of divorce; for, +whatever had been the changes of ministry for the last twelve years, +he, secure in a lucrative though subordinate situation, had "smiled at +the whirlwind and defied the storm," and, while all things shifted and +vanished round him, like clouds and vapours, had remained fixed and +stationary as a star. "Solid St. George," was his appellative by his +friends, and his enemies did not grudge him the title. The third was +the minister for ----; and the fourth was Clarence's friend, Lord +Aspeden. Now this nobleman, blessed with a benevolent, smooth, calm +countenance, valued himself especially upon his diplomatic elegance in +turning a compliment. + +Having a great taste for literature as well as diplomacy, this +respected and respectable peer also possessed a curious felicity for +applying quotation; and nothing rejoiced him so much as when, in the +same phrase, he was enabled to set the two jewels of his courtliness +of flattery and his profundity of erudition. Unhappily enough, his +compliments were seldom as well taken as they were meant; and, whether +from the ingratitude of the persons complimented or the ill fortune of +the noble adulator, seemed sometimes to produce indignation in place +of delight. It has been said that his civilities had cost Lord +Aspeden four duels and one beating; but these reports were probably +the malicious invention of those who had never tasted the delicacies +of his flattery. + +Now these four persons being all members of the Privy Council, and +being thus engaged in close and earnest conference were, you will +suppose, employed in discussing their gravities and secrets of state: +no such thing; that whisper from Lord Quintown, the handsome nobleman, +to Mr. St. George, is no hoarded and valuable information which would +rejoice the heart of the editor of an Opposition paper, no direful +murmur, "perplexing monarchs with the dread of change;" it is only a +recent piece of scandal, touching the virtue of a lady of the court, +which (albeit the sage listener seems to pay so devout an attention to +the news) is far more interesting to the gallant and handsome +informant than to his brother statesman; and that emphatic and +vehement tone with which Lord Aspeden is assuring the minister for +---- of some fact, is merely an angry denunciation of the chicanery +practised at the last Newmarket. + +"By the by, Aspeden," said Lord Quintown, "who is that good-looking +fellow always flirting with Lady Flora Ardenne,--an attache of yours, +is he not?" + +"Oh! Linden, I suppose you mean. A very sensible, clever young +fellow, who has a great genius for business and plays the flute +admirably. I must have him for my secretary, my dear lord, mind +that." + +"With such a recommendation, Lord Aspeden," said the minister, with a +bow, "the state would be a great loser did it not elect your attache, +who plays so admirably on the flute, to the office of your secretary. +Let us join the dancers." + +"I shall go and talk with Count B----," quoth Mr. St. George. + +"And I shall make my court to his beautiful wife," said the minister, +sauntering into the ballroom, to which his fine person and graceful +manners were much better adapted than was his genius to the cabinet or +his eloquence to the senate. + +The morning had long dawned, and Clarence, for whose mind pleasure was +more fatiguing than business, lingered near the door, to catch one +last look of Lady Flora before he retired. He saw her leaning on the +arm of Lord Borodaile, and hastening to join the dancers with her +usual light step and laughing air; for Clarence's short conference +with her had, in spite of his subsequent flirtations, rendered her +happier than she had ever felt before. Again a change passed over +Clarence's countenance,--a change which I find it difficult to express +without borrowing from those celebrated German dramatists who could +portray in such exact colours "a look of mingled joy, sorrow, hope, +passion, rapture, and despair;" for the look was not that of jealousy +alone, although it certainly partook of its nature, but a little also +of interest, and a little of sorrow; and when he turned away, and +slowly descended the stairs, his eyes were full of tears, and his +thoughts far--far away;--whither? + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + Quae fert adolescentia + Ea ne me celet consuefeci filium.--TERENCE. + + ["The things which youth proposes I accustomed + my son that he should never conceal from me."] + +The next morning Clarence was lounging over his breakfast, and +glancing listlessly now at the pages of the newspapers, now at the +various engagements for the week, which lay confusedly upon his table, +when he received a note from Talbot, requesting to see him as soon as +possible. + +"Had it not been for that man," said Clarence to himself, "what should +I have been now? But, at least, I have not disgraced his friendship. +I have already ascended the roughest because the lowest steps on the +hill where Fortune builds her temple. I have already won for the name +I have chosen some 'golden opinions' to gild its obscurity. One year +more may confirm my destiny and ripen hope into success: then--then, I +may perhaps throw off a disguise that, while it befriended, has not +degraded me, and avow myself to her! Yet how much better to dignify +the name I have assumed than to owe respect only to that which I have +not been deemed worthy to inherit! Well, well, these are bitter +thoughts; let me turn to others. How beautiful Flora looked last +night! and, he--he--but enough of this: I must dress, and then to +Talbot." + +Muttering these wayward fancies, Clarence rose, completed his toilet, +sent for his horses, and repaired to a village about seven miles from +London, where Talbot, having yielded to Clarence's fears and +solicitations, and left his former insecure tenement, now resided +under the guard and care of an especial and private watchman. + +It was a pretty, quiet villa, surrounded by a plantation and pleasure- +ground of some extent for a suburban residence, in which the old +philosopher (for though in some respects still frail and prejudiced, +Talbot deserved that name) held his home. The ancient servant, on +whom four years had passed lightly and favouringly, opened the door to +Clarence, with his usual smile of greeting and familiar yet respectful +salutation, and ushered our hero into a room, furnished with the usual +fastidious and rather feminine luxury which characterized Talbot's +tastes. Sitting with his back turned to the light, in a large easy- +chair, Clarence found the wreck of the once gallant, gay Lothario. + +There was not much alteration in his countenance since we last saw +him; the lines, it is true, were a little more decided, and the cheeks +a little more sunken; but the dark eye beamed with all its wonted +vivacity, and the delicate contour of the mouth preserved all its +physiognomical characteristics of the inward man. He rose with +somewhat more difficulty than he was formerly wont to do, and his +limbs had lost much of their symmetrical proportions; yet the kind +clasp of his hand was as firm and warm as when it had pressed that of +the boyish attache four years since; and the voice which expressed his +salutation yet breathed its unconquered suavity and distinctness of +modulation. After the customary greetings and inquiries were given +and returned, the young man drew his chair near to Talbot's, and +said,-- + +"You sent for me, dear sir; have you anything more important than +usual to impart to me?--or--and I hope this is the case--have you at +last thought of any commission, however trifling, in the execution of +which I can be of use?" + +"Yes, Clarence, I wish your judgment to select me some strawberries,-- +you know that I am a great epicure in fruit,--and get me the new work +Dr. Johnson has just published. There, are you contented? And now, +tell me all about your horse; does he step well? Has he the true +English head and shoulder? Are his legs fine, yet strong? Is he full +of spirit and devoid of vice?" + +"He is all this, sir, thanks to you for him." + +"Ah!" cried Talbot,-- + + "'Old as I am, for riding feats unfit, + The shape of horses I remember yet'" + +"And now let us hear how you like Ranelagh; and above all how you liked +the ball last night." + +And the vivacious old man listened with the profoundest appearance of +interest to all the particulars of Clarence's animated detail. His +vanity, which made him wish to be loved, had long since taught him the +surest method of becoming so; and with him, every visitor, old, young, +the man of books, or the disciple of the world, was sure to find the +readiest and even eagerest sympathy in every amusement or occupation. +But for Clarence, this interest lay deeper than in the surface of +courtly breeding. Gratitude had first bound to him his adopted son, +then a tie yet unexplained, and lastly, but not least, the pride of +protection. He was vain of the personal and mental attractions of his +protege, and eager for the success of one whose honours would reflect +credit on himself. + +But there was one part of Clarence's account of the last night to +which the philosopher paid a still deeper attention, and on which he +was more minute in his advice; what this was, I cannot, as yet, reveal +to the reader. + +The conversation then turned on light and general matters,--the +scandal, the literature, the politics, the on dits of the day; and +lastly upon women; thence Talbot dropped into his office of Mentor. + +"A celebrated cardinal said, very wisely, that few ever did anything +among men until women were no longer an object to them. That is the +reason, by the by, why I never succeeded with the former, and why +people seldom acquire any reputation, except for a hat, or a horse, +till they marry. Look round at the various occupations of life. How +few bachelors are eminent in any of them! So you see, Clarence, you +will have my leave to marry Lady Flora as soon as you please." + +Clarence coloured, and rose to depart. Talbot followed him to the +door, and then said, in a careless way, "By the by, I had almost +forgotten to tell you that, as you have now many new expenses, you +will find the yearly sum you have hitherto received doubled. To give +you this information is the chief reason why I sent for you this +morning. God bless you, my dear boy." + +And Talbot shut the door, despite his politeness, in the face and +thanks of his adopted son. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +There is a great difference between seeking to raise a laugh from +everything, and seeking in everything what justly may be laughed at. + LORD SHAFTESBURY. + +Behold our hero, now in the zenith of distinguished dissipations! +Courteous, attentive, and animated, the women did not esteem him the +less for admiring them rather than himself; while, by the gravity of +his demeanour to men,--the eloquent, yet unpretending flow of his +conversation, whenever topics of intellectual interest were discussed, +the plain and solid sense which he threw into his remarks, and the +avidity with which he courted the society of all distinguished for +literary or political eminence,--he was silently but surely +establishing himself in esteem as well as popularity, and laying the +certain foundation of future honour and success. + +Thus, although he had only been four months returned to England, he +was already known and courted in every circle, and universally spoken +of as among "the most rising young gentlemen" whom fortune and the +administration had marked for their own. His history, during the four +years in which we have lost sight of him, is briefly told. + +He soon won his way into the good graces of Lord Aspeden; became his +private secretary and occasionally his confidant. Universally admired +for his attraction of form and manner, and, though aiming at +reputation, not averse to pleasure, he had that position which fashion +confers at the court of ----, when Lady Westborough and her beautiful +daughter, then only seventeen, came to ----, in the progress of a +Continental tour, about a year before his return to England. Clarence +and Lady Flora were naturally brought much together in the restricted +circle of a small court, and intimacy soon ripened into attachment. + +Lord Aspeden being recalled, Clarence accompanied him to England; and +the ex-minister, really liking much one who was so useful to him, had +faithfully promised to procure him the office and honour of secretary +whenever his lordship should be reappointed minister. + +Three intimate acquaintances had Clarence Linden. The one was the +Honourable Henry Trollolop, the second Mr. Callythorpe, and the third +Sir Christopher Findlater. We will sketch them to you in an instant. +Mr. Trollolop was a short, stout gentleman, with a very thoughtful +countenance,-that is to say, he wore spectacles and took snuff. + +Mr. Trollolop--we delight in pronouncing that soft liquid name--was +eminently distinguished by a love of metaphysics,--metaphysics were in +a great measure the order of the day; but Fate had endowed Mr. +Trollolop with a singular and felicitous confusion of idea. Reid, +Berkeley, Cudworth, Hobbes, all lay jumbled together in most edifying +chaos at the bottom of Mr. Trollolop's capacious mind; and whenever he +opened his mouth, the imprisoned enemies came rushing and scrambling +out, overturning and contradicting each other in a manner quite +astounding to the ignorant spectator. Mr. Callythorpe was meagre, +thin, sharp, and yellow. Whether from having a great propensity for +nailing stray acquaintances, or being particularly heavy company, or +from any other cause better known to the wits of the period than to +us, he was occasionally termed by his friends the "yellow hammer." +The peculiar characteristics of this gentleman were his sincerity and +friendship. These qualities led him into saying things the most +disagreeable, with the civilest and coolest manner in the world,-- +always prefacing them with, "You know, my dear so-and-so, I am your +true friend." If this proof of amity was now and then productive of +altercation, Mr. Callythorpe, who was ha great patriot, had another and +a nobler plea,--"Sir," he would say, putting his hand to his heart,-- +"sir, I'm an Englishman: I know not what it is to feign." Of a very +different stamp was Sir Christopher Findlater. Little cared he for +the subtleties of the human mind, and not much more for the +disagreeable duties of "an Englishman." Honest and jovial, red in the +cheeks, empty in the head, born to twelve thousand a year, educated in +the country, and heir to an earldom, Sir Christopher Findlater piqued +himself, notwithstanding his worldly advantages, usually so +destructive to the kindlier affections, on having the best heart in +the world, and this good heart, having a very bad head to regulate and +support it, was the perpetual cause of error to the owner and evil to +the public. + +One evening, when Clarence was alone in his rooms, Mr. Trollolop +entered. + +"My dear Linden," said the visitor, "how are you?" + +"I am, as I hope you are, very well," answered Clarence. + +"The human mind," said Trollolop, taking off his greatcoat,-- + +"Sir Christopher Findlater and Mr. Callythorpe, sir," said the valet. + +"Pshaw! What has Sir Christopher Findlater to do with the human mind?" +muttered Mr. Trollolop. + +Sir Christopher entered with a swagger and a laugh. "Well, old +fellow, how do you do? Deuced cold this evening." + +"Though it is an evening in May," observed Clarence; "but then, this +cursed climate." + +"Climate!" interrupted Mr. Callythorpe, "it is the best climate in the +world: I am an Englishman, and I never abuse my country." + + "'England, with all thy faults, I love thee still!'" + +"As to climate," said Trollolop, "there is no climate, neither here +nor elsewhere: the climate is in your mind, the chair is in your mind, +and the table too, though I dare say you are stupid enough to think +the two latter are in the room; the human mind, my dear Findlater--" + +"Don't mind me, Trollolop," cried the baronet, "I can't bear your +clever heads: give me a good heart; that's worth all the heads in the +world; d--n me if it is not! Eh, Linden?" + +"Your good heart," cried Trollolop, in a passion (for all your self- +called philosophers are a little choleric), "your good heart is all +cant and nonsense: there is no heart at all; we are all mind." + +"I be hanged if I'm all mind," said the baronet. + +"At least," quoth Linden, gravely, "no one ever accused you of it +before." + +"We are all mind," pursued the reasoner; "we are all mind, un moulin a +raisonnement. Our ideas are derived from two sources, sensation or +memory. That neither our thoughts nor passions, nor our ideas formed +by the imagination, exist without the mind, everybody will allow; +[Berkeley, Sect. iii., "Principles of Human Knowledge."] therefore, +you see, the human mind is--in short, there is nothing in the world +but the human mind!" + +"Nothing could be better demonstrated," said Clarence. + +"I don't believe it," quoth the baronet. + +"But you do believe it, and you must believe it," cried Trollolop; +"for 'the Supreme Being has implanted within us the principle of +credulity,' and therefore you do believe it!" + +"But I don't," cried Sir Christopher. + +"You are mistaken," replied the metaphysician, calmly; "because I must +speak truth." + +"Why must you, pray?" said the baronet. + +"Because," answered Trollolop, taking snuff, "there is a principle of +veracity implanted in our nature." + +"I wish I were a metaphysician," said Clarence, with a sigh. + +"I am glad to hear you say so; for you know, my dear Linden," said +Callythorpe, "that I am your true friend, and I must therefore tell +you that you are shamefully ignorant. You are not offended?" + +"Not at all!" said Clarence, trying to smile. + +"And you, my dear Findlater" (turning to the baronet), "you know that +I wish you well; you know that I never flatter; I'm your real friend, +so you must not be angry; but you really are not considered a +Solomon." + +"Mr. Callythorpe!" exclaimed the baronet in a rage (the best-hearted +people can't always bear truth), "what do you mean?" + +"You must not be angry, my good sir; you must not, really. I can't +help telling you of your faults; for I am a true Briton, sir, a true +Briton, and leave lying to slaves and Frenchmen." + +"You are in an error," said Trollolop; "Frenchmen don't lie, at least +not naturally, for in the human mind, as I before said, the Divine +Author has implanted a principle of veracity which--" + +"My dear sir," interrupted Callythorpe, very affectionately, "you +remind me of what people say of you." + +"Memory may be reduced to sensation, since it is only a weaker +sensation," quoth Trollolop; "but proceed." + +"You know, Trollolop," said Callythorpe, in a singularly endearing +intonation of voice, "you know that I never flatter; flattery is +unbecoming a true friend,--nay, more, it is unbecoming a native of our +happy isles, and people do say of you that you know nothing +whatsoever, no, not an iota, of all that nonsensical, worthless +philosophy of which you are always talking. Lord St. George said the +other day 'that you were very conceited.'--'No, not conceited,' +replied Dr. ----, 'only ignorant;' so if I were you, Trollolop, I +would cut metaphysics; you're not offended?" + +"By no means," cried Trollolop, foaming at the mouth. + +"For my part," said the good-hearted Sir Christopher, whose wrath had +now subsided, rubbing his hands,--"for my part, I see no good in any +of those things: I never read--never--and I don't see how I'm a bit +the worse for it. A good man, Linden, in my opinion, only wants to do +his duty, and that is very easily done." + +"A good man; and what is good?" cried the metaphysician, triumphantly. +"Is it implanted within us? Hobbes, according to Reid, who is our +last, and consequently best, philosopher, endeavours to demonstrate +that there is no difference between right and wrong." + +"I have no idea of what you mean," cried Sir Christopher. + +"Idea!" exclaimed the pious philosopher. "Sir, give me leave to tell +you that no solid proof has ever been advanced of the existence of +ideas: they are a mere fiction and hypothesis. Nay, sir, 'hence +arises that scepticism which disgraces our philosophy of the mind.' +Ideas!--Findlater, you are a sceptic and an idealist." + +"I?" cried the affrighted baronet; "upon my honour I am no such thing. +Everybody knows that I am a Christian, and--" + +"Ah!" interrupted Callythorpe, with a solemn look, "everybody knows +that you are not one of those horrid persons,--those atrocious deists +and atheists and sceptics, from whom the Church and freedom of old +England have suffered such danger. I am a true Briton of the good old +school; and I confess, Mr. Trollolop, that I do not like to hear any +opinions but the right ones." + +"Right ones being only those which Mr. Callythorpe professes," said +Clarence. + +"Exactly so!" rejoined Mr. Callythorpe. + +"The human mind," commenced Mr. Trollolop, stirring the fire; when +Clarence, who began to be somewhat tired of this conversation, rose. +"You will excuse me," said he, "but I am particularly engaged, and it +is time to dress. Harrison will get you tea or whatever else you are +inclined for." + +"The human mind," renewed Trollolop, not heeding the interruption; and +Clarence forthwith left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +You blame Marcius for being proud.--Coriolanus. +Here is another fellow, a marvellous pretty hand at fashioning a +compliment.-The Tanner of Tyburn. + +There was a brilliant ball at Lady T----'s, a personage who, every one +knows, did in the year 17-- give the best balls, and have the best- +dressed people at them, in London. It was about half-past twelve, +when Clarence, released from his three friends, arrived at the +countess's. When he entered, the first thing which struck him was +Lord Borodaile in close conversation with Lady Flora. + +Clarence paused for a few moments, and then, sauntering towards them, +caught Flora's eye,--coloured, and advanced. Now, if there was a +haughty man in Europe, it was Lord Borodaile. He was not proud of his +birth, nor fortune, but he was proud of himself; and, next to that +pride, he was proud of being a gentleman. He had an exceeding horror +of all common people; a Claverhouse sort of supreme contempt to +"puddle blood;" his lip seemed to wear scorn as a garment; a lofty and +stern self-admiration, rather than self-love, sat upon his forehead as +on a throne. He had, as it were, an awe of himself; his thoughts were +so many mirrors of Viscount Borodaile dressed en dieu. His mind was a +little Versailles, in which self sat like Louis XIV., and saw nothing +but pictures of its self, sometimes as Jupiter and sometimes as Apollo. +What marvel then, that Lord Borodaile was a very unpleasant companion? +for every human being he had "something of contempt." His eye was +always eloquent in disdaining; to the plebeian it said, "You are not a +gentleman;" to the prince, "You are not Lord Borodaile." + +Yet, with all this, he had his good points. He was brave as a lion; +strictly honourable; and though very ignorant, and very self- +sufficient, had that sort of dogged good sense which one very often +finds in men of stern hearts, who, if they have many prejudices, have +little feeling, to overcome. + +Very stiffly and very haughtily did Lord Borodaile draw up, when +Clarence approached and addressed Lady Flora; much more stiffly and +much more haughtily did he return, though with old-fashioned precision +of courtesy, Clarence's bow, when Lady Westborough introduced them to +each other. Not that this hauteur was intended as a particular +affront: it was only the agreeability of his lordship's general +manner. + +"Are you engaged?" said Clarence to Flora. + +"I am, at present, to Lord Borodaile." + +"After him, may I hope?" + +Lady Flora nodded assent, and disappeared with Lord Borodaile. + +His Royal Highness the Duke of ---- came up to Lady Westborough; and +Clarence, with a smiling countenance and an absent heart, plunged into +the crowd. There he met Lord Aspeden, in conversation with the Earl +of Holdenworth, one of the administration. + +"Ah, Linden," said the diplomatist, "let me introduce you to Lord +Holdenworth,--a clever young man, my dear lord, and plays the flute +beautifully." With this eulogium, Lord Aspeden glided away; and Lord +Holdenworth, after some conversation with Linden, honoured him by an +invitation to dinner the next day. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + 'T is true his nature may with faults abound; + But who will cavil when the heart is sound?--STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + + Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currant.-HORACE. + ["The foolish while avoiding vice run into the opposite + extremes."] + +The next day Sir Christopher Findlater called on Clarence. "Let us +lounge in the park," said he. + +"With pleasure," replied Clarence; and into the park they lounged. + +By the way they met a crowd, who were hurrying a man to prison. The +good-hearted Sir Christopher stopped: "Who is that poor fellow?" said +he. + +"It is the celebrated" (in England all criminals are celebrated. +Thurtell was a hero, Thistlewood a patriot, and Fauntleroy was +discovered to be exactly like Buonaparte!) "it is the celebrated +robber, John Jefferies, who broke into Mrs. Wilson's house, and cut +the throats of herself and her husband, wounded the maid-servant, and +split the child's skull with the poker." Clarence pressed forward: "I +have seen that man before," thought he. He looked again, and +recognized the face of the robber who had escaped from Talbot's house +on the eventful night which had made Clarence's fortune. It was a +strongly-marked and rather handsome countenance, which would not be +easily forgotten; and a single circumstance of excitement will stamp +features on the memory as deeply as the commonplace intercourse of +years. + +"John Jefferies!" exclaimed the baronet; "let us come away." + +"Linden," continued Sir Christopher, "that fellow was my servant once. +He robbed me to some considerable extent. I caught him. He appealed +to my heart; and you know, my dear fellow, that was irresistible, so I +let him off. Who could have thought he would have turned out so?" +And the baronet proceeded to eulogize his own good-nature, by which it +is just necessary to remark that one miscreant had been saved for a +few years from transportation, in order to rob and murder ad libitum, +and, having fulfilled the office of a common pest, to suffer on the +gallows at last. What a fine thing it is to have a good heart! Both +our gentlemen now sank into a revery, from which they were awakened, +at the entrance of the park, by a young man in rags who, with a +piteous tone, supplicated charity. Clarence, who, to his honour be it +spoken, spent an allotted and considerable part of his income in +judicious and laborious benevolence, had read a little of political +morals, then beginning to be understood, and walked on. The good- +hearted baronet put his hand in his pocket, and gave the beggar half a +guinea, by which a young, strong man, who had only just commenced the +trade, was confirmed in his imposition for the rest of his life; and, +instead of the useful support, became the pernicious incumbrance of +society. + +Sir Christopher had now recovered his spirits. "What's like a good +action?" said he to Clarence, with a swelling breast. + +The park was crowded to excess; our loungers were joined by Lord St. +George. His lordship was a stanch Tory. He could not endure Wilkes, +liberty, or general education. He launched out against the +enlightenment of domestics. [The ancestors of our present footmen, if +we may believe Sir William Temple, seem to have been to the full as +intellectual as their descendants. "I have had," observes the +philosophic statesman, "several servants far gone in divinity, others +in poetry; have known, in the families of some friends; a keeper deep +in the Rosicrucian mysteries and a laundress firm in those of +Epicurus."] + +"What has made you so bitter?" said Sir Christopher. + +"My valet," cried Lord St. George,--"he has invented a new toasting- +fork, is going to take out a patent, make his fortune, and leave me; +that's what I call ingratitude, Sir Christopher; for I ordered his +wages to be raised five pounds but last year." + +"It was very ungrateful," said the ironical Clarence. + +"Very!" reiterated the good-hearted Sir Christopher. + +"You cannot recommend me a valet, Findlater," renewed his lordship, "a +good, honest, sensible fellow, who can neither read nor write?" + +"N-o-o,--that is to say, yes! I can; my old servant Collard is out of +place, and is as ignorant as--as--" + +"I--or you are?" said Lord St. George, with a laugh. + +"Precisely," replied the baronet. + +"Well, then, I take your recommendation: send him to me to-morrow at +twelve." + +"I will," said Sir Christopher. + +"My dear Findlater," cried Clarence, when Lord St. George was gone, +"did you not tell me, some time ago, that Collard was a great rascal, +and very intimate with Jefferies? and now you recommend him to Lord +St. George!" + +"Hush, hush, hush!" said the baronet; "he was a great rogue to be +sure: but, poor fellow, he came to me yesterday with tears in his +eyes, and said he should starve if I would not give him a character; +so what could I do?" + +"At least, tell Lord St. George the truth," observed Clarence. + +"But then Lord St. George would not take him!" rejoined the good- +hearted Sir Christopher, with forcible naivete. "No, no, Linden, we +must not be so hard-hearted; we must forgive and forget;" and so +saying, the baronet threw out his chest, with the conscious exultation +of a man who has uttered a noble sentiment. The moral of this little +history is that Lord St. George, having been pillaged "through thick +and thin," as the proverb has it, for two years, at last missed a gold +watch, and Monsieur Collard finished his career as his exemplary +tutor, Mr. John Jefferies, had done before him. Ah! what a fine thing +it is to have a good heart! + +But to return. Just as our wanderers had arrived at the farther end +of the park, Lady Westborough and her daughter passed them. Clarence, +excusing himself to his friend, hastened towards them, and was soon +occupied in saying the prettiest things in the world to the prettiest +person, at least in his eyes; while Sir Christopher, having done as +much mischief as a good heart well can do in a walk of an hour, +returned home to write a long letter to his mother, against "learning +and all such nonsense, which only served to blunt the affections and +harden the heart." + +"Admirable young man!" cried the mother, with tears in her eyes. "A +good heart is better than all the heads in the world." + +Amen! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +"Make way, Sir Geoffrey Peveril, or you will compel me to do that I +may be sorry for!" + +"You shall make no way here but at your peril," said Sir Geoffrey;" +this is my ground."--Peveril of the Peak. + + +One night on returning home from a party at Lady Westborough's in +Hanover Square, Clarence observed a man before him walking with an +uneven and agitated step. His right hand was clenched, and he +frequently raised it as with a sudden impulse, and struck fiercely as +if at some imagined enemy. + +The stranger slackened his pace. Clarence passed him, and, turning +round to satisfy the idle curiosity which the man's eccentric gestures +had provoked, his eye met a dark, lowering, iron countenance, which, +despite the lapse of four years, he recognized on the moment: it was +Wolfe, the republican. + +Clarence moved, involuntarily, with a quicker step; but in a few +minutes, Wolfe, who was vehemently talking to himself, once more +passed him; the direction he took was also Clarence's way homeward, +and he therefore followed the republican, though at some slight +distance, and on the opposite side of the way. A gentleman on foot, +apparently returning from a party, met Wolfe, and, with an air half +haughty, half unconscious, took the wall; though, according to old- +fashioned rules of street courtesy, he was on the wrong side for +asserting the claim. The stern republican started, drew himself up to +his full height, and sturdily and doggedly placed himself directly in +the way of the unjust claimant. Clarence was now nearly opposite to +the two, and saw all that was going on. + +With a motion a little rude and very contemptuous, the passenger +attempted to put Wolfe aside, and win his path. Little did he know of +the unyielding nature he had to do with; the next instant the +republican, with a strong hand, forced him from the pavement into the +very kennel, and silently and coldly continued his way. + +The wrath of the discomfited passenger was vehemently kindled. + +"Insolent dog!" cried he, in a loud and arrogant tone, "your baseness +is your protection." Wolfe turned rapidly, and made but two strides +before he was once more by the side of his defeated opponent. + +"What did you say?" he asked, in his low, deep, hoarse voice. + +Clarence stopped. "There will be mischief done here," thought he, as +he called to mind the stern temper of the republican. + +"Merely," said the other, struggling with his rage, "that it is not +for men of my rank to avenge the insults offered us by those of +yours!" + +"Your rank!" said Wolfe, bitterly retorting the contempt of the +stranger, in a tone of the loftiest disdain; "your rank! poor +changeling! And what are you, that you should lord it over me? Are +your limbs stronger? your muscles firmer? your proportions juster? +your mind acuter? your conscience clearer? Fool! fool! go home and +measure yourself with lackeys!" + +The republican ceased, and pushing the stranger aside, turned slowly +away. But this last insult enraged the passenger beyond all prudence. +Before Wolfe had proceeded two paces, he muttered a desperate but +brief oath, and struck the reformer with a strength so much beyond +what his figure (which was small and slight) appeared to possess, that +the powerful and gaunt frame of Wolfe recoiled backward several steps, +and, had it not been for the iron railing of the neighbouring area, +would have fallen to the ground. + +Clarence pressed forward: the face of the rash aggressor was turned +towards him; the features were Lord Borodaile's. He had scarcely time +to make this discovery, before Wolfe had recovered himself. With a +wild and savage cry, rather than exclamation, he threw himself upon +his antagonist, twined his sinewy arms round the frame of the +struggling but powerless nobleman, raised him in the air with the easy +strength of a man lifting a child, held him aloft for one moment with +a bitter and scornful laugh of wrathful derision, and then dashed him +to the ground, and planting his foot upon Borodaile's breast said,-- + +"So shall it be with all of you: there shall be but one instant +between your last offence and your first but final debasement. Lie +there! it is your proper place! By the only law which you yourself +acknowledge, the law which gives the right divine to the strongest; if +you stir limb or muscle, I will crush the breath from your body." + +But Clarence was now by the side of Wolfe, a new and more powerful +opponent. + +"Look you," said he: "you have received an insult, and you have done +justice yourself. I condemn the offence, and quarrel not with you for +the punishment; but that punishment is now past: remove your foot, or--" + +"What?" shouted Wolfe, fiercely, his lurid and vindictive eye flashing +with the released fire of long-pent and cherished passions. + +"Or," answered Clarence, calmly, "I will hinder you from committing +murder." + +At that instant the watchman's voice was heard, and the night's +guardian himself was seen hastening from the far end of the street +towards the place of contest. Whether this circumstance, or Clarence's +answer, somewhat changed the current of the republican's thoughts, or +whether his anger, suddenly raised, was now as suddenly subsiding, it +is not easy to decide; but he slowly and deliberately moved his foot +from the breast of his baffled foe, and bending down seemed +endeavouring to ascertain the mischief he had done. Lord Borodaile +was perfectly insensible. + +"You have killed him!" cried Clarence in a voice of horror, "but you +shall not escape;" and he placed a desperate and nervous hand on the +republican. + +"Stand off," said Wolfe, "my blood is up! I would not do more +violence to-night than I have done. Stand off! the man moves; see!" + +And Lord Borodaile, uttering a long sigh, and attempting to rise, +Clarence released his hold of the republican, and bent down to assist +the fallen nobleman. Meanwhile, Wolfe, muttering to himself, turned +from the spot, and strode haughtily away. + +The watchman now came up, and, with his aid, Clarence raised Lord +Borodaile. Bruised, stunned, half insensible as he was, that +personage lost none of his characteristic stateliness; he shook off +the watchman's arm, as if there was contamination in the touch; and +his countenance, still menacing and defying in its expression, turned +abruptly towards Clarence, as if he yet expected to meet and struggle +with a foe. + +"How are you, my lord?" said Linden; "not severely hurt, I trust?" + +"Well, quite well," cried Borodaile. "Mr. Linden, I think?--I thank +you cordially for your assistance; but the dog, the rascal, where is +he?" + +"Gone," said Clarence. + +"Gone! Where--where?" cried Borodaile; "that living man should insult +me, and yet escape!" + +"Which way did the fellow go?" said the watchman, anticipative of +half-a-crown. "I will run after him in a trice, your honour: I +warrant I nab him." + +"No--no--" said Borodaile, haughtily, "I leave my quarrels to no man; +if I could not master him myself, no one else shall do it for me. Mr. +Linden, excuse me, but I am perfectly recovered, and can walk very +well without your polite assistance. Mr. Watchman, I am obliged to +you: there is a guinea to reward your trouble." + +With these words, intended as a farewell, the proud patrician, +smothering his pain, bowed with extreme courtesy to Clarence, again +thanked him, and walked on unaided and alone. + +"He is a game blood," said the watchman, pocketing the guinea. + +"He is worthy his name," thought Clarence; "though he was in the +wrong, my heart yearns to him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +Things wear a vizard which I think to like not.--Tanner of Tyburn. + +Clarence, from that night, appeared to have formed a sudden attachment +to Lord Borodaile. He took every opportunity of cultivating his +intimacy, and invariably treated him with a degree of consideration +which his knowledge of the world told him was well calculated to gain +the good will of his haughty and arrogant acquaintance; but all this +was in effectual in conquering Borodaile's coldness and reserve. To +have been once seen in a humiliating and degrading situation is quite +sufficient to make a proud man hate the spectator, and, with the +confusion of all prejudiced minds, to transfer the sore remembrance of +the event to the association of the witness. Lord Borodaile, though +always ceremoniously civil, was immovably distant; and avoided as well +as he was able Clarence's insinuating approaches and address. To add +to his indisposition to increase his acquaintance with Linden, a +friend of his, a captain in the Guards, once asked him who that Mr. +Linden was? and, on his lordship's replying that he did not know, Mr. +Percy Bobus, the son of a wine-merchant, though the nephew of a duke, +rejoined, "Nobody does know." + +"Insolent intruder!" thought Lord Borodaile: "a man whom nobody knows +to make such advances to me!" + +A still greater cause of dislike to Clarence arose from jealousy. +Ever since the first night of his acquaintance with Lady Flora, Lord +Borodaile had paid her unceasing attention. In good earnest, he was +greatly struck by her beauty, and had for the last year meditated the +necessity of presenting the world with a Lady Borodaile. Now, though +his lordship did look upon himself in as favourable a light as a man +well can do, yet he could not but own that Clarence was very handsome, +had a devilish gentlemanlike air, talked with a better grace than the +generality of young men, and danced to perfection. "I detest that +fellow!" said Lord Borodaile, involuntarily and aloud, as these +unwilling truths forced themselves upon his mind. + +"Whom do you detest?" asked Mr. Percy Bobus, who was lying on the sofa +in Lord Borodaile's drawing-room, and admiring a pair of red-heeled +shoes which decorated his feet. + +"That puppy Linden!" said Lord Borodaile, adjusting his cravat. + +"He is a deuced puppy, certainly!" rejoined Mr. Percy Bobus, turning +round in order to contemplate more exactly the shape of his right +shoe. "I can't bear conceit, Borodaile." + +"Nor I: I abhor it; it is so d--d disgusting!" replied Lord Borodaile, +leaning his chin upon his two hands, and looking full into the glass. +"Do you use MacNeile's divine pomatum?" + +"No, it's too hard; I get mine from Paris: shall I send you some?" + +"Do," said Lord Borodaile. + +"Mr. Linden, my lord," said the servant, throwing open the door; and +Clarence entered. + +"I am very fortunate," said he, with that smile which so few ever +resisted, "to find you at home, Lord Borodaile; but as the day was wet, +I thought I should have some chance of that pleasure; I therefore +wrapped myself up in my roquelaure, and here I am." + +Now, nothing could be more diplomatic than the compliment of choosing +a wet day for a visit, and exposing one's self to "the pitiless +shower," for the greater probability of finding the person visited at +home. Not so thought Lord Borodaile; he drew himself up, bowed very +solemnly, and said, with cold gravity,-- + +"You are very obliging, Mr. Linden." + +Clarence coloured, and bit his lip as he seated himself. Mr. Percy +Bobus, with true insular breeding, took up the newspaper. + +"I think I saw you at Lady C.'s last night," said Clarence; "did you +stay there long?" + +"No, indeed," answered Borodaile; "I hate her parties." + +"One does meet such odd people there," observed Mr. Percy Bobus; +"creatures one never sees anywhere else:" + +"I hear," said Clarence, who never abused any one, even the givers of +stupid parties, if he could help it, and therefore thought it best to +change the conversation,--"I hear, Lord Borodaile, that some hunters +of yours are to be sold. I purpose being a bidder for Thunderbolt." + +"I have a horse to sell you, Mr. Linden," cried Mr. Percy Bobus, +springing from the sofa into civility; "a superb creature." + +"Thank you," said Clarence, laughing; "but I can only afford to buy +one, and I have taken a great fancy to Thunderbolt." + +Lord Borodaile, whose manners were very antiquated in their +affability, bowed. Mr. Bobus sank back into his sofa, and resumed the +paper. + +A pause ensued. Clarence was chilled in spite of himself. Lord +Borodaile played with a paper-cutter. + +"Have you been to Lady Westborough's lately?" said Clarence, breaking +silence. + +"I was there last night," replied Lord Borodaile. + +"Indeed!" cried Clarence. "I wonder I did not see you there, for I +dined with them." + +Lord Borodaile's hair curled of itself. "He dined there, and I only +asked in the evening!" thought he; but his sarcastic temper suggested +a very different reply. + +"Ah," said he, elevating his eyebrows, "Lady Westborough told me she +had had some people to dinner whom she had been obliged to ask. +Bobus, is that the 'Public Advertiser'? See whether that d--d fellow +Junius has been writing any more of his venomous letters." + +Clarence was not a man apt to take offence, but he felt his bile rise. +"It will not do to show it," thought he; so he made some further +remark in a jesting vein; and, after a very ill-sustained conversation +of some minutes longer, rose, apparently in the best humour possible, +and departed, with a solemn intention never again to enter the house. +Thence he went to Lady Westborough's. + +The marchioness was in her boudoir: Clarence was as usual admitted; +for Lady Westborough loved amusement above all things in the world, +and Clarence had the art of affording it better than any young man of +her acquaintance. On entering, he saw Lady Flora hastily retreating +through an opposite door. She turned her face towards him for one +moment: that moment was sufficient to freeze his blood: the large +tears were rolling down her cheeks, which were as white as death, and +the expression of those features, usually so laughing and joyous, was +that of utter and ineffable despair. + +Lady Westborough was as lively, as bland, and as agreeable as ever: +but Clarence thought he detected something restrained and embarrassed +lurking beneath all the graces of her exterior manner; and the single +glance he had caught of the pale and altered face of Lady Flora was +not calculated to reassure his mind or animate his spirits. His visit +was short; when he left the room, he lingered for a few moments in the +ante-chamber in the hope of again seeing Lady Flora. While thus +loitering, his ear caught the sound of Lady Westborough's voice: "When +Mr. Linden calls again, you have my orders never to admit him into +this room; he will be shown into the drawing-room." + +With a hasty step and a burning cheek Clarence quitted the house, and +hurried, first to his solitary apartments, and thence, impatient of +loneliness, to the peaceful retreat of his benefactor. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + A maiden's thoughts do check my trembling hand.--DRAYTON. + +There is something very delightful in turning from the unquietness and +agitation, the fever, the ambition, the harsh and worldly realities of +man's character to the gentle and deep recesses of woman's more secret +heart. Within her musings is a realm of haunted and fairy thought, to +which the things of this turbid and troubled life have no entrance. +What to her are the changes of state, the rivalries and contentions +which form the staple of our existence? For her there is an intense +and fond philosophy, before whose eye substances flit and fade like +shadows, and shadows grow glowingly into truth. Her soul's creations +are not as the moving and mortal images seen in the common day: they +are things, like spirits steeped in the dim moonlight, heard when all +else are still, and busy when earth's labourers are at rest! They are + + "Such stuff + As dreams are made of, and their little life + Is rounded by a sleep." + +Hers is the real and uncentred poetry of being, which pervades and +surrounds her as with an air, which peoples her visions and animates +her love, which shrinks from earth into itself, and finds marvel and +meditation in all that it beholds within, and which spreads even over +the heaven in whose faith she so ardently believes the mystery and the +tenderness of romance. + + +LETTER I. + +FROM LADY FLORA ARDENNE TO MISS ELEANOR TREVANION. + +You say that I have not written to you so punctually of late as I used +to do before I came to London, and you impute my negligence to the +gayeties and pleasures by which I am surrounded. Eh bien! my dear +Eleanor, could you have thought of a better excuse for me? You know +how fond we--ay, dearest, you as well as I--used to be of dancing, and +how earnestly we were wont to anticipate those children's balls at my +uncle's, which were the only ones we were ever permitted to attend. I +found a stick the other day, on which I had cut seven notches, +significant of seven days more to the next ball; we reckoned time by +balls then, and danced chronologically. Well, my dear Eleanor, here I +am now, brought out, tolerably well-behaved, only not dignified +enough, according to Mamma,--as fond of laughing, talking, and dancing +as ever; and yet, do you know, a ball, though still very delightful, +is far from being the most important event in creation; its +anticipation does not keep me awake of a night: and what is more to +the purpose, its recollection does not make me lock up my writing- +desk, burn my portefeuille, and forget you, all of which you seem to +imagine it has been able to effect. + +No, dearest Eleanor, you are mistaken; for, were she twice as giddy +and ten times as volatile as she is, your own Flora could never, never +forget you, nor the happy hours we have spent together, nor the pretty +goldfinches we had in common, nor the little Scotch duets we used to +sing together, nor our longings to change them into Italian, nor our +disappointment when we did so, nor our laughter at Signor Shrikalini, +nor our tears when poor darling Bijou died. And do you remember, +dearest, the charming green lawn where we used to play together, and +plan tricks for your governess? She was very, very cross, though, I +think, we were a little to blame too. However, I was much the worst! +And pray, Eleanor, don't you remember how we used to like being called +pretty, and told of the conquests we should make? Do you like all +that now? For my part, I am tired of it, at least from the generality +of one's flatterers. + +Ah! Eleanor, or "heigho!" as the young ladies in novels write, do you +remember how jealous I was of you at ----, and how spiteful I was, and +how you were an angel, and bore with me, and kissed me, and told me +that--that I had nothing to fear? Well, Clar--I mean Mr. Linden, is +now in town and so popular, and so admired! I wish we were at ---- +again, for there we saw him every day, and now we don't meet more than +three times a week; and though I like hearing him praised above all +things, yet I feel very uncomfortable when that praise comes from +very, very pretty women. I wish we were at ---- again! Mamma, who is +looking more beautiful than ever, is, very kind! she says nothing to +be sure, but she must see how--that is to say--she must know that-- +that I--I mean that Clarence is very attentive to me, and that I blush +and look exceedingly silly whenever he is; and therefore I suppose +that whenever Clarence thinks fit to ask me, I shall not be under the +necessity of getting up at six o'clock, and travelling to Gretna +Green, through that odious North Road, up the Highgate Hill, and over +Finchley Common. + +"But when will he ask you?" My dearest Eleanor, that is more than I +can say. To tell you the truth, there is something about Linden which +I cannot thoroughly understand. They say he is nephew and heir to the +Mr. Talbot whom you may have heard Papa talk of; but if so, why the +hints, the insinuations, of not being what he seems, which Clarence +perpetually throws out, and which only excite my interest without +gratifying my curiosity? 'It is not,' he has said, more than once, +'as an obscure adventurer that I will claim your love;' and if I +venture, which is very seldom (for I am a little afraid of him), to +question his meaning, he either sinks into utter silence, for which, +if I had loved according to book, and not so naturally, I should be +very angry with him, or twists his words into another signification, +such as that he would not claim me till he had become something higher +and nobler than he is now. Alas, my dear Eleanor, it takes a long +time to make an ambassador out of an attache. + +See now if you reproached me justly with scanty correspondences. If I +write a line more, I must begin a new sheet, and that will be beyond +the power of a frank,--a thing which would, I know, break the heart of +your dear, good, generous, but a little too prudent aunt, and +irrevocably ruin me in her esteem. So God bless you, dearest Eleanor, +and believe me most affectionately yours, FLORA ARDENNE. + +LETTER II. + +FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. + +Pray, dearest Eleanor, does that good aunt of yours--now don't frown, +I am not going to speak disrespectfully of her--ever take a liking to +young gentlemen whom you detest, and insist upon the fallacy of your +opinion and the unerring rectitude of hers? If so, you can pity and +comprehend my grief. Mamma has formed quite an attachment to a very +disagreeable person! He is Lord Borodaile, the eldest, and I believe, +the only son of Lord Ulswater. Perhaps you may have met him abroad, +for he has been a great traveller: his family is among the most +ancient in England, and his father's estate covers half a county. All +this Mamma tells me, with the most earnest air in the world, whenever +I declaim upon his impertinence or disagreeability (is there such a +word? there ought to be). "Well," said I to-day, "what's that to me?" +"It may be a great deal to you," replied Mamma, significantly, and the +blood rushed from my face to my heart. She could not, Eleanor, she +could not mean, after all her kindness to Clarence, and in spite of +all her penetration into my heart,--oh, no, no,--she could not. How +terribly suspicious this love makes one! + +But if I disliked Lord Borodaile at first, I have hated him of late; +for, somehow or other, he is always in the way. If I see Clarence +hastening through the crowd to ask me to dance, at that very instant +up steps Lord Borodaile with his cold, changeless face, and his +haughty old-fashioned bow, and his abominable dark complexion; and +Mamma smiles; and he hopes he finds me disengaged; and I am hurried +off; and poor Clarence looks so disappointed and so wretched! You +have no idea how ill-tempered this makes me. I could not help asking +Lord Borodaile yesterday if he was never going abroad again, and the +hateful creature played with his cravat, and answered "Never!" I was +in hopes that my sullenness would drive his lordship away: tout au +contraire; "Nothing," said he to me the other day, when he was in full +pout, "nothing is so plebeian as good-humour!" + +I wish, then, Eleanor, that he could see your governess: she must be +majesty itself in his eyes! + +Ah, dearest, how we belie ourselves! At this moment, when you might +think, from the idle, rattling, silly flow of my letter, that my heart +was as light and free as it was when we used to play on the green +lawn, and under the sunny trees, in the merry days of our childhood, +the tears are running down my cheeks; see where they have fallen on +the page, and my head throbs as if my thoughts were too full and heavy +for it to contain. It is past one! I am alone, and in my own room. +Mamma is gone to a rout at H---- House, but I knew I should not meet +Clarence there, and so said I was ill, and remained at home. I have +done so often of late, whenever I have learned from him that he was +not going to the same place as Mamma. Indeed, I love much better to +sit alone and think over his words and looks; and I have drawn, after +repeated attempts, a profile likeness of him; and oh, Eleanor, I +cannot tell you how dear it is to me; and yet there is not a line, not +a look of his countenance which I have not learned by heart, without +such useless aids to my memory. But I am ashamed of telling you all +this, and my eyes ache so, that I can write no more. + +Ever, as ever, dearest Eleanor, your affectionate friend. F. A. + +LETTER III. + +FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. + +Eleanor, I am undone! My mother--my mother has been so cruel; but she +cannot, she cannot intend it, or she knows very little of my heart. +With some ties may be as easily broken as formed; with others they are +twined around life itself. + +Clarence dined with us yesterday, and was unusually animated and +agreeable. He was engaged on business with Lord Aspeden afterwards, +and left us early. We had a few people in the evening, Lord Borodaile +among the rest; and my mother spoke of Clarence, and his relationship +to and expectations from Mr. Talbot. Lord Borodaile sneered; "You are +mistaken," said he, sarcastically; "Mr. Linden may feel it convenient +to give out that he is related to so old a family as the Talbots; and +since Heaven only knows who or what he is, he may as well claim +alliance with one person as another; but he is certainly not the +nephew of Mr. Talbot of Scarsdale Park, for that gentleman had no +sisters and but one brother, who left an only daughter; that daughter +had also but one child, certainly no relation to Mr. Linden. I can +vouch for the truth of this statement; for the Talbots are related to, +or at least nearly connected with, myself; and I thank Heaven that I +have a pedigree, even in its collateral branches, worth learning by +heart." And then Lord Borodaile--I little thought, when I railed +against him, what serious cause I should have to hate him--turned to +me and harassed me with his tedious attentions the whole of the +evening. + +This morning Mamma sent for me into her boudoir. "I have observed," +said she, with the greatest indifference, "that Mr. Linden has, of +late, been much too particular in his manner towards you: your foolish +and undue familiarity with every one has perhaps given him +encouragement. After the gross imposition which Lord Borodaile +exposed to us last night, I cannot but consider the young man as a +mere adventurer, and must not only insist on your putting a total +termination to civilities which we must henceforth consider +presumption, but I myself shall consider it incumbent upon me greatly +to limit the advances he has thought proper to make towards my +acquaintance." + +You may guess how thunderstruck I was by this speech. I could not +answer; my tongue literally clove to my mouth, and I was only relieved +by a sudden and violent burst of tears. Mamma looked exceedingly +displeased, and was just going to speak, when the servant threw open +the door and announced Mr. Linden. I rose hastily, and had only just +time to escape, as he entered; but when I heard that dear, dear voice, +I could not resist turning for one moment. He saw me; and was struck +mute, for the agony of my soul was stamped visibly on my countenance. +That moment was over: with a violent effort I tore myself away. + +Eleanor, I can now write no more. God bless you! and me too; for I am +very, very unhappy. F. A. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +What a charming character is a kind old man.--STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + +"Cheer up, my dear boy," said Talbot, kindly, "we must never despair. +What though Lady Westborough has forbidden you the boudoir, a boudoir +is a very different thing from a daughter, and you have no right to +suppose that the veto extends to both. But now that we are on this +subject, do let me reason with you seriously. Have you not already +tasted all the pleasures, and been sufficiently annoyed by some of the +pains, of acting the 'Incognito'? Be ruled by me: resume your proper +name; it is at least one which the proudest might acknowledge; and its +discovery will remove the greatest obstacle to the success which you +so ardently desire." + +Clarence, who was labouring under strong excitement, paused for some +moments, as if to collect himself, before he replied: "I have been +thrust from my father's home; I have been made the victim of another's +crime; I have been denied the rights and name of son; perhaps (and I +say this bitterly) justly denied them, despite of my own innocence. +What would you have me do? Resume a name never conceded to me,-- +perhaps not righteously mine,--thrust myself upon the unwilling and +shrinking hands which disowned and rejected me; blazon my virtues by +pretensions which I myself have promised to forego, and foist myself +on the notice of strangers by the very claims which my nearest +relations dispute? Never! never! never! With the simple name I have +assumed; the friend I myself have won,--you, my generous benefactor, +my real father, who never forsook nor insulted me for my misfortunes,-- +with these I have gained some steps in the ladder; with these, and +those gifts of nature, a stout heart and a willing hand, of which none +can rob me, I will either ascend the rest, even to the summit, or fall +to the dust, unknown, but not contemned; unlamented, but not +despised." + +"Well, well," said Talbot, brushing away a tear which he could not +deny to the feeling, even while he disputed the judgment, of the young +adventurer,--"well, this is all very fine and very foolish; but you +shall never want friend or father while I live, or when I have ceased +to live; but come,--sit down, share my dinner, which is not very good, +and my dessert, which is: help me to entertain two or three guests who +are coming to me in the evening, to talk on literature, sup, and +sleep; and to-morrow you shall return home, and see Lady Flora in the +drawing-room if you cannot in the boudoir." + +And Clarence was easily persuaded to accept the invitation. Talbot +was not one of those men who are forced to exert themselves to be +entertaining. He had the pleasant and easy way of imparting his great +general and curious information, that a man, partly humourist, partly +philosopher, who values himself on being a man of letters, and is in +spite of himself a man of the world, always ought to possess. +Clarence was soon beguiled from the remembrance of his mortifications, +and, by little and little, entirely yielded to the airy and happy flow +of Talbot's conversation. + +In the evening, three or four men of literary eminence (as many as +Talbot's small Tusculum would accommodate with beds) arrived, and in a +conversation, free alike from the jargon of pedants and the +insipidities of fashion, the night fled away swiftly and happily, even +to the lover. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +We are here (in the country) among the vast and noble scenes of +Nature; we are there (in the town) among the pitiful shifts of policy. +We walk here in the light and open ways of the divine bounty,--we +grope therein the dark and confused labyrinths of human malice; our +senses are here feasted with all the clear and genuine taste of their +objects, which are all sophisticated there, and for the most part +overwhelmed with their contraries: here pleasure, methinks, looks like +a beautiful, constant, and modest wife; it is there an impudent, +fickle, and painted harlot.--COWLEY. + +Draw up the curtain! The scene is the Opera. + +The pit is crowded; the connoisseurs in the front row are in a very +ill humour. It must be confessed that extreme heat is a little trying +to the temper of a critic. + +The Opera then was not what it is now, nor even what it had been in a +former time. It is somewhat amusing to find Goldsmith questioning, in +one of his essays, whether the Opera could ever become popular in +England. But on the night--on which the reader is summoned to that +"theatre of sweet sounds" a celebrated singer from the Continent made +his first appearance in London, and all the world thronged to "that +odious Opera-house" to hear, or to say they had heard, the famous +Sopraniello. + +With a nervous step, Clarence proceeded to Lady Westborough's box; and +it was many minutes that he lingered by the door before he summoned +courage to obtain admission. + +He entered; the box was crowded; but Lady Flora was not there. Lord +Borodaile was sitting next to Lady Westborough. As Clarence entered, +Lord Borodaile raised his eyebrows, and Lady Westborough her glass. +However disposed a great person may be to drop a lesser one, no one of +real birth or breeding ever cuts another. Lady Westborough, +therefore, though much colder, was no less civil than usual; and Lord +Borodaile bowed lower than ever to Mr. Linden, as he punctiliously +called him. But Clarence's quick eye discovered instantly that he was +no welcome intruder, and that his day with the beautiful marchioness +was over. His visit, consequently, was short and embarrassed. When +he left the box, he heard Lord Borodaile's short, slow, sneering +laugh, followed by Lady Westborough's "hush" of reproof. + +His blood boiled. He hurried along the passage, with his eyes fixed +upon the ground and his hand clenched. + +"What ho! Linden, my good fellow; why, you look as if all the ferocity +of the great Figg were in your veins," cried a good-humoured voice. +Clarence started, and saw the young and high-spirited Duke of +Haverfield. + +"Are you going behind the scenes?" said his grace. "I have just come +thence; and you had much better drop into La Meronville's box with me. +You sup with her to-night, do you not? + +"No, indeed!" replied Clarence; "I scarcely know her, except by +sight." + +"Well, and what think you of her?" + +"That she is the prettiest Frenchwoman I ever saw." + +"Commend me to secret sympathies!" cried the duke. "She has asked me +three times who you were, and told me three times you were the +handsomest man in London and had quite a foreign air; the latter +recommendation being of course far greater than the former. So, after +this, you cannot refuse to accompany me to her box and make her +acquaintance." + +"Nay," answered Clarence, "I shall be too happy to profit by the taste +of so discerning a person; but it is cruel in you, Duke, not to feign +a little jealousy,--a little reluctance to introduce so formidable a +rival." + +"Oh, as to me," said the duke, "I only like her for her mental, not +her personal, attractions. She is very agreeable, and a little witty; +sufficient attractions for one in her situation." + +"But do tell me a little of her history," said Clarence, "for, in +spite of her renown, I only know her as La belle Meronville. Is she +not living en ami with some one of our acquaintance?" + +"To be sure," replied the duke, "with Lord Borodaile. She is +prodigiously extravagant; and Borodaile affects to be prodigiously +fond: but as there is only a certain fund of affection in the human +heart, and all Lord Borodaile's is centred in Lord Borodaile, that +cannot really be the case." + +"Is he jealous of her?" said Clarence. + +"Not in the least! nor indeed, does she give him any cause. She is +very gay, very talkative, gives excellent suppers, and always has her +box at the Opera crowded with admirers; but that is all. She +encourages many, and favours but one. Happy Borodaile! My lot is +less fortunate! You know, I suppose, that Julia has deserted me?" + +"You astonish me,--and for what?" + +"Oh, she told me, with a vehement burst of tears, that she was +convinced I did not love her, and that a hundred pounds a month was +not sufficient to maintain a milliner's apprentice. I answered the +first assertion by an assurance that I adored her: but I preserved a +total silence with regard to the latter; and so I found Trevanion +tete-a-tete with her the next day." + +"What did you?" said Clarence. + +"Sent my valet to Trevanion with an old coat of mine, my compliments, +and my hopes that, as Mr. Trevanion was so fond of my cast-off +conveniences, he would honour me by accepting the accompanying +trifle." + +"He challenged you, without doubt?" + +"Challenged me! No: he tells all his friends that I am the wittiest +man in Europe." + +"A fool can speak the truth, you see," said Clarence, laughing. + +"Thank you, Linden; you shall have my good word with La Meronville for +that: mais allons." + +Mademoiselle de la Meronville, as she pointedly entitled herself, was +one of those charming adventuresses, who, making the most of a good +education and a prepossessing person, a delicate turn for letter- +writing, and a lively vein of conversation, came to England for a year +or two, as Spaniards were wont to go to Mexico, and who return to +their native country with a profound contempt for the barbarians whom +they have so egregiously despoiled. Mademoiselle de la Meronville was +small, beautifully formed, had the prettiest hands and feet in the +world, and laughed musically. By the by, how difficult it is to +laugh, or even to smile, at once naturally and gracefully! It is one +of Steele's finest touches of character, where he says of Will +Honeycombe, "He can smile when one speaks to him, and laughs easily." + +In a word, the pretty Frenchwoman was precisely formed to turn the +head of a man like Lord Borodaile, who loved to be courted and who +required to be amused. Mademoiselle de la Meronville received +Clarence with a great deal of grace, and a little reserve, the first +chiefly natural, the last wholly artificial. + +"Well," said the duke (in French), "you have not told me who are to be +of your party this evening,--Borodaile, I suppose, of course?" + +"No, he cannot come to-night." + +"Ah, quel malheur! then the hock will not be iced enough: Borodaile's +looks are the best wine-coolers in the world." + +"Fie!" cried La Meronville, glancing towards Clarence, "I cannot +endure your malevolence; wit makes you very bitter." + +"And that is exactly the reason why La belle Meronville loves me so: +nothing is so sweet to one person as bitterness upon another; it is +human nature and French nature (which is a very different thing) into +the bargain." + +"Bah! my Lord Duke, you judge of others by yourself." + +"To be sure I do," cried the duke; "and that is the best way of +forming a right judgment. Ah! what a foot, that little figurante has; +you don't admire her, Linden?" + +"No, Duke; my admiration is like the bird in the cage,--chained here, +and cannot fly away!" answered Clarence, with a smile at the frippery +of his compliment. + +"Ah, Monsieur," cried the pretty Frenchwoman, leaning back, "you have +been at Paris, I see: one does not learn those graces of language in +England. I have been five months in your country; brought over the +prettiest dresses imaginable, and have only received three +compliments, and (pity me!) two out of the three were upon my +pronunciation of 'How do you do?'" + +"Well," said Clarence, "I should have imagined that in England, above +all other countries, your vanity would have been gratified, for you +know we pique ourselves on our sincerity, and say all we think." + +"Yes? then you always think very unpleasantly. What an alternative! +which is the best, to speak ill or to think ill of one?" + +"Pour l'amour de Dieu," cried the duke, "don't ask such puzzling +questions; "you are always getting into those moral subtleties, which +I suppose you learn from Borodaile. He is a wonderful metaphysician, +I hear; I can answer for his chemical powers: the moment he enters a +room the very walls grow damp; as for me, I dissolve; I should flow +into a fountain, like Arethusa, if happily his lordship did not freeze +one again into substance as fast as he dampens one into thaw." + +"Fi donc!" cried La Meronville. "I should be very angry had you not +taught me to be very indifferent-" + +"To him!" said the duke, dryly. "I'm glad to hear it. He is not +worth une grande passion, believe me; but tell me, ma belle, who else +sups with you?" + +"D'abord, Monsieur Linden, I trust," answered La Meronville, with a +look of invitation, to which Clarence bowed and smiled his assent, +"Milord D----, and Monsieur Trevanion, Mademoiselle Caumartin, and Le +Prince Pietro del Ordino." + +"Nothing can be better arranged," said the duke. "But see, they are +just going to drop the curtain. Let me call your carriage." + +"You are too good, milord," replied La Meronville, with a bow which +said, "of course;" and the duke, who would not have stirred three +paces for the first princess of the blood, hurried out of the box +(despite of Clarence's offer to undertake the commission) to inquire +after the carriage of the most notorious adventuress of the day. + +Clarence was alone in the box with the beautiful Frenchwoman. To say +truth, Linden was far too much in love with Lady Flora, and too +occupied, as to his other thoughts, with the projects of ambition, to +be easily led into any disreputable or criminal liaison; he therefore +conversed with his usual ease, though with rather more than his usual +gallantry, without feeling the least touched by the charms of La +Meronville or the least desirous of supplanting Lord Borodaile in her +favour. + +The duke reappeared, and announced the carriage. As, with La +Meronville leaning on his arm, Clarence hurried out, he accidentally +looked up, and saw on the head of the stairs Lady Westborough with her +party (Lord Borodaile among the rest) in waiting for her carriage. +For almost the first time in his life, Clarence felt ashamed of +himself; his cheek burned like fire, and he involuntarily let go the +fair hand which was leaning upon his arm. However, the weaker our +course the better face we should put upon it, and Clarence, recovering +his presence of mind, and vainly hoping he had not been perceived, +buried his face as well as he was able in the fur collar of his cloak, +and hurried on. + +"You saw Lord Borodaile?" said the duke to La Meronville, as he handed +her into her carriage. + +"Yes, I accidentally looked back after we had passed him, and then I +saw him." + +"Looked back!" said the duke; "I wonder he did not turn you into a +pillar of salt." + +"Fi donc!" cried La belle Meronville, tapping his grace playfully on +the arm, in order to do which she was forced to lean a little harder +upon Clarence's, which she had not yet relinquished--" Fi donc! +Francois, chez moi!" + +"My carriage is just behind," said the duke. "You will go with me to +La Meronville's, of course?" + +"Really, my dear duke," said Clarence, "I wish I could excuse myself +from this party. I have another engagement." + +"Excuse yourself? and leave me to the mercy of Mademoiselle Caumartin, +who has the face of an ostrich, and talks me out of breath! Never, my +dear Linden, never! Besides, I want you to see how well I shall +behave to Trevanion. Here is the carriage. Entrez, mon cher." + +And Clarence, weakly and foolishly (but he was very young and very +unhappy, and so, longing for an escape from his own thoughts) entered +the carriage, and drove to the supper party, in order to prevent the +Duke of Haverfield being talked out of breath by Mademoiselle +Caumartin, who had the face of an ostrich. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + Yet truth is keenly sought for, and the wind + Charged with rich words, poured out in thought's defence; + Whether the Church inspire that eloquence, + Or a Platonic piety, confined + To the sole temple of the inward mind; + And one there is who builds immortal lays, + Though doomed to tread in solitary ways; + Darkness before, and danger's voice behind! + Yet not alone-- WORDSWORTH. + +London, thou Niobe, who sittest in stone, amidst thy stricken and +fated children; nurse of the desolate, that hidest in thy bosom the +shame, the sorrows, the sins of many sons; in whose arms the fallen +and the outcast shroud their distresses, and shelter from the proud +man's contumely; Epitome and Focus of the disparities and maddening +contrasts of this wrong world, that assemblest together in one great +heap the woes, the joys, the elevations, the debasements of the +various tribes of man; mightiest of levellers, confounding in thy +whirlpool all ranks, all minds, the graven labours of knowledge, the +straws of the maniac, purple and rags, the regalities and the +loathsomeness of earth,--palace and lazar-house combined! Grave of +the living, where, mingled and massed together, we couch, but rest +not,--"for in that sleep of life what dreams do come,"--each vexed +with a separate vision,--"shadows" which "grieve the heart," unreal in +their substance, but faithful in their warnings, flitting from the +eye, but graving unfleeting memories on the mind, which reproduce new +dreams over and over, until the phantasm ceases, and the pall of a +heavier torpor falls upon the brain, and all is still and dark and +hushed! "From the stir of thy great Babel," and the fixed tinsel +glare in which sits pleasure like a star, "which shines, but warms not +with its powerless rays," we turn to thy deeper and more secret +haunts. Thy wilderness is all before us--where to choose our place of +rest; and, to our eyes, thy hidden recesses are revealed. + +The clock of St. Paul's had tolled the second hour of morning. Within +a small and humble apartment in the very heart of the city, there sat +a writer, whose lucubrations, then obscure and unknown, were destined, +years afterwards, to excite the vague admiration of the crowd and the +deeper homage of the wise. They were of that nature which is slow in +winning its way to popular esteem; the result of the hived and hoarded +knowledge of years; the produce of deep thought and sublime +aspirations, influencing, in its bearings, the interests of the many, +yet only capable of analysis by the judgment of the few. But the +stream broke forth at last from the cavern to the daylight, although +the source was never traced; or, to change the image,--albeit none +know the hand which executed and the head which designed, the monument +of a mighty intellect has been at length dug up, as it were, from the +envious earth, the brighter for its past obscurity, and the more +certain of immortality from the temporary neglect it has sustained. + +The room was, as we before said, very small, and meanly furnished; yet +were there a few articles of costliness and luxury scattered about, +which told that the tastes of its owner had not been quite humbled to +the level of his fortunes. One side of the narrow chamber was covered +with shelves, which supported books in various languages, and though +chiefly on scientific subjects, not utterly confined to them. Among +the doctrines of the philosopher, and the golden rules of the +moralist, were also seen the pleasant dreams of poets, the legends of +Spenser, the refining moralities of Pope, the lofty errors of +Lucretius, and the sublime relics of our "dead kings of melody." +[Shakspeare and Milton] And over the hearth was a picture, taken in +more prosperous days, of one who had been and was yet to the tenant of +that abode, better than fretted roofs and glittering banquets, the +objects of ambition, or even the immortality of fame. It was the face +of one very young and beautiful, and the deep, tender eyes looked +down, as with a watchful fondness, upon the lucubrator and his +labours. While beneath the window, which was left unclosed, for it +was scarcely June, were simple yet not inelegant vases, filled with +flowers,-- + + "Those lovely leaves, where we + May read how soon things have + Their end, though ne'er so brave." [Herrick] + +The writer was alone, and had just paused from his employment; he was +leaning his face upon one hand, in a thoughtful and earnest mood, and +the air which came chill, but gentle, from the window, slightly +stirred the locks from the broad and marked brow, over which they fell +in thin but graceful waves. Partly owing perhaps to the waning light +of the single lamp and the lateness of the hour, his cheek seemed very +pale, and the complete though contemplative rest of the features +partook greatly of the quiet of habitual sadness, and a little of the +languor of shaken health; yet the expression, despite the proud cast +of the brow and profile, was rather benevolent than stern or dark in +its pensiveness, and the lines spoke more of the wear and harrow of +deep thought than the inroads of ill-regulated passion. + +There was a slight tap at the door; the latch was raised, and the +original of the picture I have described entered the apartment. + +Time had not been idle with her since that portrait had been taken: +the round elastic figure had lost much of its youth and freshness; the +step, though light, was languid, and in the centre of the fair, smooth +cheek, which was a little sunken, burned one deep bright spot,--fatal +sign to those who have watched the progress of the most deadly and +deceitful of our national maladies; yet still the form and countenance +were eminently interesting and lovely; and though the bloom was gone +forever, the beauty, which not even death could wholly have despoiled, +remained to triumph over debility, misfortune, and disease. + +She approached the student, and laid her hand upon his shoulder. + +"Dearest!" said he, tenderly yet reproachfully, "yet up, and the hour +so late and yourself so weak? Fie, I must learn to scold you." + +"And how," answered the intruder, "how could I sleep or rest while you +are consuming your very life in those thankless labours?" + +"By which," interrupted the writer, with a faint smile, "we glean our +scanty subsistence." + +"Yes," said the wife (for she held that relation to the student), and +the tears stood in her eyes, "I know well that every morsel of bread, +every drop of water, is wrung from your very heart's blood, and I--I +am the cause of all; but surely you exert yourself too much, more than +can be requisite? These night damps, this sickly and chilling air, +heavy with the rank vapours of the coming morning, are not suited to +thoughts and toils which are alone sufficient to sear your mind and +exhaust your strength. Come, my own love, to bed; and yet first come +and look upon our child, how sound she sleeps! I have leaned over her +for the last hour, and tried to fancy it was you whom I watched, for +she has learned already your smile and has it even when she sleeps." + +"She has cause to smile," said the husband, bitterly. + +"She has, for she is yours! and even in poetry and humble hopes, that +is an inheritance which may well teach her pride and joy. Come, love, +the air is keen, and the damp rises to your forehead,--yet stay, till +I have kissed it away." + +"Mine own love," said the student, as he rose and wound his arm round +the slender waist of his wife, "wrap your shawl closer over your +bosom, and let us look for one instant upon the night. I cannot sleep +till I have slaked the fever of my blood: the air has nothing of +coldness in its breath for me." + +And they walked to the window and looked forth. All was hushed and +still in the narrow street; the cold gray clouds were hurrying fast +along the sky; and the stars, weak and waning in their light, gleamed +forth at rare intervals upon the mute city, like expiring watch-lamps +of the dead. + +They leaned out and spoke not; but when they looked above upon the +melancholy heavens, they drew nearer to each other, as if it were +their natural instinct to do so whenever the world without seemed +discouraging and sad. + +At length the student broke the silence; but his thoughts, which were +wandering and disjointed, were breathed less to her than vaguely and +unconsciously to himself. "Morn breaks,--another and another!--day +upon day!--while we drag on our load like the blind beast which knows +not when the burden shall be cast off and the hour of rest be come." + +The woman pressed her hand to her bosom, but made no rejoinder--she +knew his mood--and the student continued,--"And so life frets itself +away! Four years have passed over our seclusion--four years! a great +segment in the little circle of our mortality; and of those years what +day has pleasure won from labour, or what night has sleep snatched +wholly from the lamp? Weaker than the miser, the insatiable and +restless mind traverses from east to west; and from the nooks, and +corners, and crevices of earth collects, fragment by fragment, grain +by grain, atom by atom, the riches which it gathers to its coffers-- +for what?--to starve amidst the plenty! The fantasies of the +imagination bring a ready and substantial return: not so the treasures +of thought. Better that I had renounced the soul's labour for that of +its hardier frame--better that I had 'sweated in the eye of Phoebus,' +than 'eat my heart with crosses and with cares,'--seeking truth and +wanting bread--adding to the indigence of poverty its humiliation; +wroth with the arrogance of men, who weigh in the shallow scales of +their meagre knowledge the product of lavish thought, and of the hard +hours for which health, and sleep, and spirit have been exchanged;-- +sharing the lot of those who would enchant the old serpent of evil, +which refuses the voice of the charmer!--struggling against the +prejudice and bigoted delusion of the bandaged and fettered herd to +whom, in our fond hopes and aspirations, we trusted to give light and +freedom; seeing the slavish judgments we would have redeemed from +error clashing their chains at us in ire;--made criminal by our very +benevolence;--the martyrs whose zeal is rewarded with persecution, +whose prophecies are crowned with contempt!--Better, oh, better that I +had not listened to the vanity of a heated brain--better that I had +made my home with the lark and the wild bee, among the fields and the +quiet hills, where life, if obscurer, is less debased, and hope, if +less eagerly indulged, is less bitterly disappointed. The frame, it +is true, might have been bowed to a harsher labour, but the heart +would at least have had its rest from anxiety, and the mind its +relaxation from thought." + +The wife's tears fell upon the hand she clasped. The student turned, +and his heart smote him for the selfishness of his complaint. He drew +her closer and closer to his bosom; and gazing fondly upon those eyes +which years of indigence and care might have robbed of their young +lustre, but not of their undying tenderness, he kissed away her tears, +and addressed her in a voice which never failed to charm her grief +into forgetfulness. + +"Dearest and kindest," he said, "was I not to blame for accusing those +privations or regrets which have only made us love each other the +more? Trust me, mine own treasure, that it is only in the peevishness +of an inconstant and fretful humour that I have murmured against my +fortune. For, in the midst of all, I look upon you, my angel, my +comforter, my young dream of love, which God, in His mercy, breathed +into waking life--I look upon you, and am blessed and grateful. Nor +in my juster moments do I accuse even the nature of these studies, +though they bring us so scanty a reward. Have I not hours of secret +and overflowing delight, the triumphs of gratified research--flashes +of sudden light, which reward the darkness of thought, and light up my +solitude as a revel?--These feelings of rapture, which nought but +Science can afford, amply repay her disciples for worse evils and +severer handships than it has been my destiny to endure. Look along +the sky, how the vapours struggle with the still yet feeble stars: +even so have the mists of error been pierced, though not scattered, by +the dim but holy lights of past wisdom, and now the morning is at +hand, and in that hope we journey on, doubtful, but not utterly in +darkness. Nor is this all my hope; there is a loftier and more steady +comfort than that which mere philosophy can bestow. If the certainty +of future fame bore Milton rejoicing through his blindness, or cheered +Galileo in his dungeon, what stronger and holier support shall not be +given to him who has loved mankind as his brothers, and devoted his +labours to their cause?--who has not sought, but relinquished, his own +renown?---who has braved the present censures of men for their future +benefit, and trampled upon glory in the energy of benevolence? Will +there not be for him something more powerful than fame to comfort his +sufferings and to sustain his hopes? If the wish of mere posthumous +honour be a feeling rather vain than exalted, the love of our race +affords us a more rational and noble desire of remembrance. Come what +will, that love, if it animates our toils and directs our studies, +shall when we are dust make our relics of value, our efforts of avail, +and consecrate the desire of fame, which were else a passion selfish +and impure, by connecting it with the welfare of ages and the eternal +interests of the world and its Creator! Come, we will to bed." + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +A man may be formed by nature for an admirable citizen, and yet, from +the purest motives, be a dangerous one to the State in which the +accident of birth has placed him.--STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + +The night again closed., and the student once more resumed his +labours. The spirit of his hope and comforter of his toils sat by +him, ever and anon lifting her fond eyes from her work to gaze upon +his countenance, to sigh, and to return sadly and quietly to her +employment. + +A heavy step ascended the stairs, the door opened, and the tall figure +of Wolfe, the republican, presented itself. The female rose, pushed a +chair towards him with a smile and grace suited to better fortunes, +and, retiring from the table, reseated herself silent and apart. + +"It is a fine night," said the student, when the mutual greetings were +over. "Whence come you?" + +"From contemplating human misery and worse than human degradation," +replied Wolfe, slowly seating himself. + +"Those words specify no place: they apply universally," said the +student, with a sigh. + +"Ay, Glendower, for misgovernment is universal," rejoined Wolfe. + +Glendower made no answer. + +"Oh!" said Wolfe, in the low, suppressed tone of intense passion which +was customary to him, "it maddens me to look upon the willingness with +which men hug their trappings of slavery,--bears, proud of the rags +which deck and the monkeys which ride them. But it frets me yet more +when some lordling sweeps along, lifting his dull eyes above the fools +whose only crime and debasement are--what?--their subjection to him! +Such a one I encountered a few nights since; and he will remember the +meeting longer than I shall. I taught that 'god to tremble.'" + +The female rose, glanced towards her husband, and silently withdrew. + +Wolfe paused for a few moments, looked curiously and pryingly round, +and then rising went forth into the passage to see that no loiterer or +listener was near; returned, and drawing his chair close to Glendower, +fixed his dark eye upon him, and said,-- + +"You are poor, and your spirit rises against your lot, you are just, +and your heart swells against the general oppression you behold: can +you not dare to remedy your ills and those of mankind?" + +"I can dare," said Glendower, calmly, though haughtily, all things but +crime." + +"And which is crime?--the rising against, or the submission to, evil +government? Which is crime, I ask you?" + +"That which is the most imprudent," answered Glendower. + +"We may sport in ordinary cases with our own safeties, but only in +rare cases with the safety of others." + +Wolfe rose, and paced the narrow room impatiently to and fro. He +paused by the window and threw it open. "Come here," he cried,--"come +and look out." + +Glendower did so; all was still and quiet. + +"Why did you call me?" said he; "I see nothing." + +"Nothing!" exclaimed Wolfe; "look again; look on yon sordid and +squalid huts; look at yon court, that from this wretched street leads +to abodes to which these are as palaces; look at yon victims of vice +and famine, plying beneath the midnight skies their filthy and +infectious trade. Wherever you turn your eyes, what see you? Misery, +loathsomeness, sin! Are you a man, and call you these nothing? And +now lean forth still more; see afar off, by yonder lamp, the mansion +of ill-gotten and griping wealth. He who owns those buildings, what +did he that he should riot while we starve? He wrung from the negro's +tears and bloody sweat the luxuries of a pampered and vitiated taste; +he pandered to the excesses of the rich; he heaped their tables with +the product of a nation's groans. Lo!--his reward! He is rich, +prosperous, honoured! He sits in the legislative assembly; he +declaims against immorality; he contends for the safety of property +and the equilibrium of ranks. Transport yourself from this spot for +an instant; imagine that you survey the gorgeous homes of aristocracy +and power, the palaces of the west. What see you there?--the few +sucking, draining, exhausting the blood, the treasure, the very +existence of the many. Are we, who are of the many, wise to suffer +it?" + +"Are we of the many?" said Glendower. + +"We could be," said Wolfe, hastily. + +"I doubt it;" replied Glendower. + +"Listen," said the republican, laying his hand upon Glendower's +shoulder, "listen to me. There are in this country men whose spirits +not years of delayed hope, wearisome persecution, and, bitterer than +all, misrepresentation from some and contempt from others, have yet +quelled and tamed. We watch our opportunity; the growing distress of +the country, the increasing severity and misrule of the +administration, will soon afford it us. Your talents, your +benevolence, render you worthy to join us. Do so, and--" + +"Hush!" interrupted the student; "you know not what you say: you weigh +not the folly, the madness of your design! I am a man more fallen, +more sunken, more disappointed than you. I, too, have had at my heart +the burning and lonely hope which, through years of misfortune and +want, has comforted me with the thought of serving and enlightening +mankind,--I, too, have devoted to the fulfilment of that hope, days +and nights, in which the brain grew dizzy and the heart heavy and +clogged with the intensity of my pursuits. Were the dungeon and the +scaffold my reward Heaven knows that I would not flinch eye or hand or +abate a jot of heart and hope in the thankless prosecution of my +toils. Know me, then, as one of fortunes more desperate than your +own; of an ambition more unquenchable; of a philanthropy no less +ardent; and, I will add, of a courage no less firm: and behold the +utter hopelessness of your projects with others, when to me they only +appear the visions of an enthusiast." + +Wolfe sank down in the chair. + +"Is it even so?" said he, slowly and musingly. "Are my hopes but +delusions? Has my life been but one idle, though convulsive dream? +Is the goddess of our religion banished from this great and populous +earth to the seared and barren hearts of a few solitary worshippers, +whom all else despise as madmen or persecute as idolaters? And if so, +shall we adore her the less?---No! though we perish in her cause, it +is around her altar that our corpses shall be found!" + +"My friend," said Glendower, kindly, for he was touched by the +sincerity though opposed to the opinions of the republican, "the night +is yet early: we will sit down to discuss our several doctrines calmly +and in the spirit of truth and investigation." + +"Away!" cried Wolfe, rising and slouching his hat over his bent and +lowering brows; "away! I will not listen to you: I dread your +reasonings; I would not have a particle of my faith shaken. If I err, +I have erred from my birth,--erred with Brutus and Tell, Hampden and +Milton, and all whom the thousand tribes and parties of earth +consecrate with their common gratitude and eternal reverence. In that +error I will die! If our party can struggle not with hosts, there may +yet arise some minister with the ambition of Caesar, if not his +genius,--of whom a single dagger can rid the earth!" + +"And if not?" said Glendower. + +"I have the same dagger for myself!" replied Wolfe, as he closed the +door. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +Bolingbroke has said that "Man is his own sharper and his own bubble;" +and certainly he who is acutest in duping others is ever the most +ingenious in outwitting himself. The criminal is always a sophist; +and finds in his own reason a special pleader to twist laws human and +divine into a sanction of his crime. The rogue is so much in the +habit of cheating, that he packs the cards even when playing at +Patience with himself.--STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + +The only two acquaintances in this populous city whom Glendower +possessed who were aware that in a former time he had known a better +fortune were Wolfe and a person of far higher worldly estimation, of +the name of Crauford. With the former the student had become +acquainted by the favour of chance, which had for a short time made +them lodgers in the same house. Of the particulars of Glendower's +earliest history Wolfe was utterly ignorant; but the addresses upon +some old letters, which he had accidentally seen, had informed him +that Glendower had formerly borne another name; and it was easy to +glean from the student's conversation that something of greater +distinction and prosperity than he now enjoyed was coupled with the +appellation he had renounced. Proud, melancholy, austere,--brooding +upon thoughts whose very loftiness received somewhat of additional +grandeur from the gloom which encircled it,--Glendower found, in the +ruined hopes and the solitary lot of the republican, that congeniality +which neither Wolfe's habits nor the excess of his political fervour +might have afforded to a nature which philosophy had rendered moderate +and early circumstances refined. Crauford was far better acquainted +than Wolfe with the reverses Glendower had undergone. Many years ago +he had known and indeed travelled with him upon the Continent; since +then they had not met till about six months prior to the time in which +Glendower is presented to the reader. It was in an obscure street of +the city that Crauford had then encountered Glendower, whose haunts +were so little frequented by the higher orders of society that +Crauford was the first, and the only one of his former acquaintance +with whom for years he had been brought into contact. That person +recognized him at once, accosted him, followed him home, and three +days afterwards surprised him with a visit. Of manners which, in +their dissimulation, extended far beyond the ordinary ease and +breeding of the world, Crauford readily appeared not to notice the +altered circumstances of his old acquaintance; and, by a tone of +conversation artfully respectful, he endeavoured to remove from +Glendower's mind that soreness which his knowledge of human nature +told him his visit was calculated to create. + +There is a certain species of pride which contradicts the ordinary +symptoms of the feeling, and appears most elevated when it would be +reasonable to expect it should be most depressed. Of this sort was +Glendower's. When he received the guest who had known him in his +former prosperity, some natural sentiment of emotion called, it is +true, to his pale cheek a momentary flush, as he looked round his +humble apartment, and the evident signs of poverty it contained; but +his address was calm and self-possessed, and whatever mortification he +might have felt, no intonation of his voice, no tell-tale +embarrassment of manner, revealed it. Encouraged by this air, even +while he was secretly vexed by it, and perfectly unable to do justice +to the dignity of mind which gave something of majesty rather than +humiliation to misfortune, Crauford resolved to repeat his visit, and +by intervals, gradually lessening, renewed it, till acquaintance +seemed, though little tinctured, at least on Glendower's side, by +friendship, to assume the semblance of intimacy. It was true, +however, that he had something to struggle against in Glendower's +manner, which certainly grew colder in proportion to the repetition of +the visits; and at length Glendower said, with an ease and quiet which +abashed for a moment an effrontery of mind and manner which was almost +parallel, "Believe me, Mr. Crauford, I feel fully sensible of your +attentions; but as circumstances at present are such as to render an +intercourse between us little congenial to the habits and sentiments +of either, you will probably understand and forgive my motives in +wishing no longer to receive civilities which, however I may feel +them, I am unable to return." + +Crauford coloured and hesitated before he replied. "Forgive me then," +said he, "for my fault. I did venture to hope that no circumstances +would break off an acquaintance to me so valuable. Forgive me if I +did imagine that an intercourse between mind and mind could be equally +carried on, whether the mere body were lodged in a palace or a hovel;" +and then suddenly changing his tone into that of affectionate warmth, +Crauford continued, "My dear Glendower, my dear friend, I would say, +if I durst, is not your pride rather to blame here? Believe me, in my +turn, I fully comprehend and bow to it; but it wounds me beyond +expression. Were you in your proper station, a station much higher +than my own, I would come to you at once, and proffer my friendship: +as it is, I cannot; but your pride wrongs me, Glendower,--indeed it +does." + +And Crauford turned away, apparently in the bitterness of wounded +feeling. + +Glendower was touched: and his nature, as kind as it was proud, +immediately smote him for conduct certainly ungracious and perhaps +ungrateful. He held out his hand to Crauford; with the most +respectful warmth that personage seized and pressed it: and from that +time Crauford's visits appeared to receive a license which, if not +perfectly welcome, was at least never again questioned. + +"I shall have this man now," muttered Crauford, between his ground +teeth, as he left the house, and took his way to his counting-house. +There, cool, bland, fawning, and weaving in his close and dark mind +various speculations of guilt and craft, he sat among his bills and +gold, like the very gnome and personification of that Mammon of gain +to which he was the most supple though concealed adherent. + +Richard Crauford was of a new but not unimportant family. His father +had entered into commerce, and left a flourishing firm and a name of +great respectability in his profession to his son. That son was a man +whom many and opposite qualities rendered a character of very singular +and uncommon stamp. Fond of the laborious acquisition of money, he +was equally attached to the ostentatious pageantries of expense. +Profoundly skilled in the calculating business of his profession, he +was devoted equally to the luxuries of pleasure; but the pleasure was +suited well to the mind which pursued it. The divine intoxication of +that love where the delicacies and purities of affection consecrate +the humanity of passion was to him a thing of which not even his +youngest imagination had ever dreamed. The social concomitants of the +wine-cup (which have for the lenient an excuse, for the austere a +temptation), the generous expanding of the heart, the increased +yearning to kindly affection, the lavish spirit throwing off its +exuberance in the thousand lights and emanations of wit,--these, which +have rendered the molten grape, despite of its excesses, not unworthy +of the praises of immortal hymns, and taken harshness from the +judgment of those averse to its enjoyment,--these never presented an +inducement to the stony temperament and dormant heart of Richard +Crauford. + +He looked upon the essences of things internal as the common eye upon +outward nature, and loved the many shapes of evil as the latter does +the varieties of earth, not for their graces, but their utility. His +loves, coarse and low, fed their rank fires from an unmingled and +gross depravity. His devotion to wine was either solitary and unseen-- +for he loved safety better than mirth--or in company with those whose +station flattered his vanity, not whose fellowship ripened his crude +and nipped affections. Even the recklessness of vice in him had the +character of prudence; and in the most rapid and turbulent stream of +his excesses, one might detect the rocky and unmoved heart of the +calculator at the bottom. + +Cool, sagacious, profound in dissimulation, and not only observant of, +but deducing sage consequences from, those human inconsistencies and +frailties by which it was his aim to profit, he cloaked his deeper +vices with a masterly hypocrisy; and for those too dear to forego and +too difficult to conceal he obtained pardon by the intercession of +virtues it cost him nothing to assume. Regular in his attendance at +worship; professing rigidness of faith beyond the tenets of the +orthodox church; subscribing to the public charities, where the common +eye knoweth what the private hand giveth; methodically constant to the +forms of business; primitively scrupulous in the proprieties of +speech; hospitable, at least to his superiors, and, being naturally +smooth, both of temper and address, popular with his inferiors,--it +was no marvel that one part of the world forgave to a man rich and +young the irregularities of dissipation, that another forgot real +immorality in favour of affected religion, or that the remainder +allowed the most unexceptionable excellence of words to atone for the +unobtrusive errors of a conduct which did not prejudice them. + +"It is true," said his friends, "that he loves women too much: but he +is young; he will marry and amend." + +Mr. Crauford did marry; and, strange as it may seem, for love,--at +least for that brute-like love, of which alone he was capable. After +a few years of ill-usage on his side, and endurance on his wife's, +they parted. Tired of her person, and profiting by her gentleness of +temper, he sent her to an obscure corner of the country, to starve +upon the miserable pittance which was all he allowed her from his +superfluities. Even then--such is the effect of the showy proprieties +of form and word--Mr. Crauford sank not in the estimation of the +world. + +"It was easy to see," said the spectators of his domestic drama, "that +a man in temper so mild, in his business so honourable, so civil of +speech, so attentive to the stocks and the sermon, could not have been +the party to blame. One never knew the rights of matrimonial +disagreements, nor could sufficiently estimate the provoking +disparities of temper. Certainly Mrs. Crauford never did look in good +humour, and had not the open countenance of her husband; and certainly +the very excesses of Mr. Crauford betokened a generous warmth of +heart, which the sullenness of his conjugal partner might easily chill +and revolt." + +And thus, unquestioned and unblamed, Mr. Crauford walked onward in his +beaten way; and, secretly laughing at the toleration of the crowd, +continued at his luxurious villa the orgies of a passionless yet +brutal sensuality. + +So far might the character of Richard Crauford find parallels in +hypocrisy and its success. Dive we now deeper into his soul. +Possessed of talents which, though of a secondary rank, were in that +rank consummate, Mr. Crauford could not be a villain by intuition or +the irregular bias of his nature: he was a villain upon a grander +scale; he was a villain upon system. Having little learning and less +knowledge, out of his profession his reflection expended itself upon +apparently obvious deductions from the great and mysterious book of +life. He saw vice prosperous in externals, and from this sight his +conclusion was drawn. "Vice," said he, "is not an obstacle to +success; and if so, it is at least a pleasanter road to it than your +narrow and thorny ways of virtue." But there are certain vices which +require the mask of virtue, and Crauford thought it easier to wear the +mask than to school his soul to the reality. So to the villain he +added the hypocrite. He found the success equalled his hopes, for he +had both craft and genius; nor was he naturally without the minor +amiabilities, which to the ignorance of the herd seem more valuable +than coin of a more important amount. Blinded as we are by prejudice, +we not only mistake but prefer decencies to moralities; and, like the +inhabitants of Cos, when offered the choice of two statues of the same +goddess, we choose, not that which is the most beautiful, but that +which is the most dressed. + +Accustomed easily to dupe mankind, Crauford soon grew to despise them; +and from justifying roguery by his own interest, he now justified it +by the folly of others; and as no wretch is so unredeemed as to be +without excuse to himself, Crauford actually persuaded his reason that +he was vicious upon principle, and a rascal on a system of morality. +But why the desire of this man, so consummately worldly and heartless, +for an intimacy with the impoverished and powerless student? This +question is easily answered. In the first place, during Crauford's +acquaintance with Glendower abroad, the latter had often, though +innocently, galled the vanity and self-pride of the parvenu affecting +the aristocrat, and in poverty the parvenu was anxious to retaliate. +But this desire would probably have passed away after he had satisfied +his curiosity, or gloated his spite, by one or two insights into +Glendower's home,--for Crauford, though at times a malicious, was not +a vindictive, man,--had it not been for a much more powerful object +which afterwards occurred to him. In an extensive scheme of fraud, +which for many years this man had carried on and which for secrecy and +boldness was almost unequalled, it had of late become necessary to his +safety to have a partner, or rather tool. A man of education, talent, +and courage was indispensable, and Crauford had resolved that +Glendower should be that man. With the supreme confidence in his own +powers which long success had given him; with a sovereign contempt +for, or rather disbelief in, human integrity; and with a thorough +conviction that the bribe to him was the bribe with all, and that none +would on any account be poor if they had the offer to be rich,-- +Crauford did not bestow a moment's consideration upon the difficulty +of his task, or conceive that in the nature and mind of Glendower +there could exist any obstacle to his design. + +Men addicted to calculation are accustomed to suppose those employed +in the same mental pursuit arrive, or ought to arrive, at the same +final conclusion. Now, looking upon Glendower as a philosopher, +Crauford looked upon him as a man who, however he might conceal his +real opinions, secretly laughed, like Crauford's self, not only at the +established customs, but at the established moralities of the world. +Ill-acquainted with books, the worthy Richard was, like all men +similarly situated, somewhat infected by the very prejudices he +affected to despise; and he shared the vulgar disposition to doubt the +hearts of those who cultivate the head. Glendower himself had +confirmed this opinion by lauding, though he did not entirely +subscribe to, those moralists who have made an enlightened self- +interest the proper measure of all human conduct; and Crauford, +utterly unable to comprehend this system in its grand, naturally +interpreted it in a partial, sense. Espousing self-interest as his +own code, he deemed that in reality Glendower's principles did not +differ greatly from his; and, as there is no pleasure to a hypocrite +like that of finding a fit opportunity to unburden some of his real +sentiments, Crauford was occasionally wont to hold some conference and +argument with the student, in which his opinions were not utterly +cloaked in their usual disguise; but cautious even in his candour, he +always forbore stating such opinions as his own: he merely mentioned +them as those which a man beholding the villanies and follies of his +kind, might be tempted to form; and thus Glendower, though not greatly +esteeming his acquaintance, looked upon him as one ignorant in his +opinions, but not likely to err in his conduct. + +These conversations did, however, it is true, increase Crauford's +estimate of Glendower's integrity, but they by no means diminished his +confidence of subduing it. Honour, a deep and pure sense of the +divinity of good, the steady desire of rectitude, and the supporting +aid of a sincere religion,--these he did not deny to his intended +tool: he rather rejoiced that he possessed them. With the profound +arrogance, the sense of immeasurable superiority, which men of no +principle invariably feel for those who have it, Crauford said to +himself, "Those very virtues will be my best dupes; they cannot resist +the temptations I shall offer; but they can resist any offer to betray +me afterwards; for no man can resist hunger: but your fine feelings, +your nice honour, your precise religion,--he! he! he!--these can teach +a man very well to resist a common inducement; they cannot make him +submit to be his own executioner; but they can prevent his turning +king's evidence and being executioner to another. No, no: it is not +to your common rogues that I may dare trust my secret,--my secret, +which is my life! It is precisely of such a fine, Athenian, moral +rogue as I shall make my proud friend that I am in want. But he has +some silly scruples; we must beat them away: we must not be too rash; +and above all, we must leave the best argument to poverty. Want is +your finest orator; a starving wife, a famished brat,--he! he!--these +are your true tempters,--your true fathers of crime, and fillers of +jails and gibbets. Let me see: he has no money, I know, but what he +gets from that bookseller. What bookseller, by the by? Ah, rare +thought! I'll find out, and cut off that supply. My lady wife's +cheek will look somewhat thinner next month, I fancy--he! he! But 't +is a pity, for she is a glorious creature! Who knows but I may serve +two purposes? However, one at present! business first, and pleasure +afterwards; and, faith, the business is damnably like that of life and +death." + +Muttering such thoughts as these, Crauford took his way one evening to +Glendower's house. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +Iago.--Virtue; a fig!--'t is in ourselves that we are thus and thus.-- +Othello. + +"So, so, my little one, don't let me disturb you. Madam, dare I +venture to hope your acceptance of this fruit? I chose it myself, and +I am somewhat of a judge. Oh! Glendower, here is the pamphlet you +wished to see." + +With this salutation, Crauford drew his chair to the table by which +Glendower sat, and entered into conversation with his purposed victim. +A comely and a pleasing countenance had Richard Crauford! the lonely +light of the room fell upon a face which, though forty years of guile +had gone over it, was as fair and unwrinkled as a boy's. Small, well- +cut features; a blooming complexion; eyes of the lightest blue; a +forehead high, though narrow; and a mouth from which the smile was +never absent,--these, joined to a manner at once soft and confident, +and an elegant though unaffected study of dress, gave to Crauford a +personal appearance well suited to aid the effect of his hypocritical +and dissembling mind. + +"Well, my friend," said he, "always at your books, eh? Ah! it is a +happy taste; would that I had cultivated it more; but we who are +condemned to business have little leisure to follow our own +inclinations. It is only on Sundays that I have time to read; and +then (to say truth) I am an old-fashioned man, whom the gayer part of +the world laughs at, and then I am too occupied with the Book of Books +to think of any less important study." + +Not deeming that a peculiar reply was required to this pious speech, +Glendower did not take that advantage of Crauford's pause which it was +evidently intended that he should. With a glance towards the +student's wife, our mercantile friend continued: "I did once--once in +my young dreams--intend that whenever I married I would relinquish a +profession for which, after all, I am but little calculated. I +pictured to myself a country retreat, well stored with books; and +having concentrated in one home all the attractions which would have +tempted my thoughts abroad, I had designed to surrender myself solely +to those studies which, I lament to say, were but ill attended to in +my earlier education. But--but" (here Mr. Crauford sighed deeply, and +averted his face) "fate willed it otherwise!" + +Whatever reply of sympathetic admiration or condolence Glendower might +have made was interrupted by one of those sudden and overpowering +attacks of faintness which had of late seized the delicate and +declining health of his wife. He rose, and leaned over her with a +fondness and alarm which curled the lip of his visitor. + +"Thus it is," said Crauford to himself, "with weak minds, under the +influence of habit. The love of lust becomes the love of custom, and +the last is as strong as the first." + +When--she had recovered, she rose, and (with her child) retired to +rest, the only restorative she ever found effectual for her complaint. +Glendower went with her, and, after having seen her eyes, which swam +with tears of gratitude at his love, close in the seeming slumber she +affected in order to release him from his watch, he returned to +Crauford. He found that gentleman leaning against the chimney-piece +with folded arms, and apparently immersed in thought. A very good +opportunity had Glendower's absence afforded to a man whose boast it +was never to lose one. Looking over the papers on the table, he had +seen and possessed himself of the address of the bookseller the +student dealt with. "So much for business, now for philanthropy," +said Mr. Crauford, in his favorite antithetical phrase, throwing +himself in his attitude against the chimney-piece. + +As Glendower entered, Crauford started from his revery, and with a +melancholy air and pensive voice said,-- + +"Alas, my friend, when I look upon this humble apartment, the weak +health of your unequalled wife, your obscurity, your misfortunes; when +I look upon these, and contrast them with your mind, your talents, and +all that you were born and fitted for, I cannot but feel tempted to +believe with those who imagine the pursuit of virtue a chimera, and +who justify their own worldly policy by the example of all their +kind." + +"Virtue," said Glendower, "would indeed be a chimera, did it require +support from those whom you have cited." + +"True,--most true," answered Crauford, somewhat disconcerted in +reality, though not in appearance; "and yet, strange as it may seem, I +have known some of those persons very good, admirably good men. They +were extremely moral and religious: they only played the great game +for worldly advantage upon the same terms as the other players; nay, +they never made a move in it without most fervently and sincerely +praying for divine assistance." + +"I readily believe you," said Glendower, who always, if possible, +avoided a controversy: "the easiest person to deceive is one's own +self." + +"Admirably said," answered Crauford, who thought it nevertheless one +of the most foolish observations he had ever heard, "admirably said! +and yet my heart does grieve bitterly for the trials and distresses it +surveys. One must make excuses for poor human frailty; and one is +often placed in such circumstances as to render it scarcely possible +without the grace of God" (here Crauford lifted up his eyes) "not to +be urged, as it were, into the reasonings and actions of the world." + +Not exactly comprehending this observation, and not very closely +attending to it, Glendower merely bowed, as in assent, and Crauford +continued,-- + +"I remember a remarkable instance of this truth. One of my partner's +clerks had, through misfortune or imprudence, fallen into the greatest +distress. His wife, his children (he had a numerous family), were on +the literal and absolute verge of starvation. Another clerk, taking +advantage of these circumstances, communicated to the distressed man a +plan for defrauding his employer. The poor fellow yielded to the +temptation, and was at last discovered. I spoke to him myself, for I +was interested in his fate, and had always esteemed him. 'What,' said +I, 'was your motive for this fraud?' 'My duty!' answered the man, +fervently; 'my duty! Was I to suffer my wife, my children, to starve +before my face, when I could save them at a little personal risk? No: +my duty forbade it!' and in truth, Glendower, there was something very +plausible in this manner of putting the question." + +"You might, in answering it," said Glendower, "have put the point in a +manner equally plausible and more true: was he to commit a great crime +against the millions connected by social order, for the sake of +serving a single family, and that his own?" + +"Quite right," answered Crauford: "that was just the point of view in +which I did put it; but the man, who was something of a reasoner, +replied, 'Public law is instituted for public happiness. Now if mine +and my children's happiness is infinitely and immeasurably more served +by this comparatively petty fraud than my employer's is advanced by my +abstaining from, or injured by my committing it, why, the origin of +law itself allows me to do it.' What say you to that, Glendower? It +is something in your Utilitarian, or, as you term it, Epicurean [See +the article on Mr. Moore's "Epicurean" in the "Westminster Review." +Though the strictures on that work are harsh and unjust, yet the part +relating to the real philosophy of Epicurus is one of the most +masterly things in criticism.] principle; is it not?" and Crauford, +shading his eyes, as if from the light, watched narrowly Glendower's +countenance, while he concealed his own. + +"Poor fool!" said Glendower; "the man was ignorant of the first lesson +in his moral primer. Did he not know that no rule is to be applied to +a peculiar instance, but extended to its most general bearings? Is it +necessary even to observe that the particular consequence of fraud in +this man might, it is true, be but the ridding his employer of +superfluities, scarcely missed, for the relief of most urgent want in +two or three individuals; but the general consequences of fraud and +treachery would be the disorganization of all society? Do not think, +therefore, that this man was a disciple of my, or of any, system of +morality." + +"It is very just, very," said Mr. Crauford, with a benevolent sigh; +"but you will own that want seldom allows great nicety in moral +distinctions, and that when those whom you love most in the world are +starving, you may be pitied, if not forgiven, for losing sight of the +after laws of Nature and recurring to her first ordinance, self- +preservation." + +"We should be harsh, indeed," answered Glendower, "if we did not pity; +or, even while the law condemned, if the individual did not forgive." + +"So I said, so I said," cried Crauford; "and in interceding for the +poor fellow, whose pardon I am happy to say I procured, I could not +help declaring that, if I were placed in the same circumstances, I am +not sure that my crime would not have been the same." + +"No man could feel sure!" said Glendower, dejectedly. Delighted and +surprised with this confession, Crauford continued: "I believe,--I +fear not; thank God, our virtue can never be so tried: but even you, +Glendower, even you, philosopher, moralist as you are,--just, good, +wise, religious,--even you might be tempted, if you saw your angel +wife dying for want of the aid, the very sustenance, necessary to +existence, and your innocent and beautiful daughter stretch her little +hands to you and cry in the accents of famine for bread." + +The student made no reply for a few moments, but averted his +countenance, and then in a slow tone said, "Let us drop this subject: +none know their strength till they are tried; self-confidence should +accompany virtue, but not precede it." + +A momentary flash broke from the usually calm, cold eye of Richard +Crauford. "He is mine," thought he: "the very name of want abases his +pride: what will the reality do? O human nature, how I know and mock +thee!" + +"You are right," said Crauford, aloud; "let us talk of the pamphlet." + +And after a short conversation upon indifferent subjects, the visitor +departed. Early the next morning was Mr. Crauford seen on foot, +taking his way to the bookseller whose address he had learnt. The +bookseller was known as a man of a strongly evangelical bias. "We +must insinuate a lie or two," said Crauford, inly, "about Glendower's +principles. He! he! it will be a fine stroke of genius to make the +upright tradesman suffer Glendower to starve out of a principle of +religion. But who would have thought my prey had been so easily +snared? why, if I had proposed the matter last night, I verily think +he would have agreed to it." + +Amusing himself with these thoughts, Crauford arrived at the +bookseller's. There he found Fate had saved him from one crime at +least. The whole house was in confusion: the bookseller had that +morning died of an apoplectic fit. + +"Good God! how shocking!" said Crauford to the foreman; but he was a +most worthy man, and Providence could no longer spare him. The ways +of Heaven are inscrutable! Oblige me with three copies of that +precious tract termed the 'Divine Call.' I should like to be allowed +permission to attend the funeral of so excellent a man. Good morning, +sir. Alas! alas!" and, shaking his head piteously, Mr. Crauford left +the shop. + +"Hurra!" said he, almost audibly, when he was once more in the street, +"hurra! my victim is made; my game is won: death or the devil fights +for me. But, hold: there are other booksellers in this monstrous +city!--ay, but not above two or three in our philosopher's way. I +must forestall him there,--so, so,--that is soon settled. Now, then, +I must leave him a little while, undisturbed, to his fate. Perhaps my +next visit may be to him in jail: your debtor's side of the Fleet is +almost as good a pleader as an empty stomach,--he! he! He!--but the +stroke must be made soon, for time presses, and this d--d business +spreads so fast that if I don't have a speedy help, it will be too +much for my hands, griping as they are. However, if it holds on a +year longer, I will change my seat in the Lower House for one in the +Upper; twenty thousand pounds to the minister may make a merchant a +very pretty peer. O brave Richard Crauford, wise Richard Crauford, +fortunate Richard Crauford, noble Richard Crauford! Why, if thou art +ever hanged, it will be by a jury of peers. 'Gad, the rope would then +have a dignity in it, instead of disgrace. But stay, here comes the +Dean of ----; not orthodox, it is said,--rigid Calvinist! out with the +'Divine Call'!" + +When Mr. Richard Crauford repaired next to Glendower, what was his +astonishment and dismay at hearing he had left his home, none knew +whither nor could give the inquirer the slightest clew. + +"How long has he left?" said Crauford to the landlady. + +"Five days, sir." + +"And will he not return to settle any little debts he may have +incurred?" said Crauford. + +"Oh, no, sir: he paid them all before he went. Poor gentleman,--for +though he was poor, he was the finest and most thorough gentleman I +ever saw!--my heart bled for him. They parted with all their +valuables to discharge their debts: the books and instruments and +busts,--all went; and what I saw, though he spoke so indifferently +about it, hurt him the most,--he sold even the lady's picture. 'Mrs. +Croftson,' said he, 'Mr. ----, the painter, will send for that picture +the day after I leave you. See that he has it, and that the greatest +care is taken of it in delivery.'" + +"And you cannot even guess where he has gone to?" + +"No, sir; a single porter was sufficient to convey his remaining +goods, and he took him from some distant part of the town." + +"Ten thousand devils!" muttered Crauford, as he turned away; "I should +have foreseen this! He is lost now. Of course he will again change +his name; and in the d--d holes and corners of this gigantic puzzle of +houses, how shall I ever find him out? and time presses too! Well, +well, well! there is a fine prize for being cleverer, or, as fools +would say, more rascally than others; but there is a world of trouble +in winning it. But come; I will go home, lock myself up, and get +drunk! I am as melancholy as a cat in love, and about as stupid; and, +faith, one must get spirits in order to hit on a new invention. But +if there be consistency in fortune, or success in perseverance, or wit +in Richard Crauford, that man shall yet be my victim--and preserver!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + + Revenge is now the cud + That I do chew.--I'll challenge him. + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + +We return to "the world of fashion," as the admirers of the polite +novel of would say. The noon-day sun broke hot and sultry through +half-closed curtains of roseate silk, playing in broken beams upon +rare and fragrant exotics, which cast the perfumes of southern summers +over a chamber, moderate, indeed, as to its dimensions, but decorated +with a splendour rather gaudy than graceful, and indicating much more +a passion for luxury than a refinement of taste. + +At a small writing-table sat the beautiful La Meronville. She had +just finished a note, written (how Jean Jacques would have been +enchanted) upon paper couleur de rose, with a mother-of-pearl pen, +formed as one of Cupid's darts, dipped into an ink-stand of the same +material, which was shaped as a quiver, and placed at the back of a +little Love, exquisitely wrought. She was folding this billet when a +page, fantastically dressed, entered, and, announcing Lord Borodaile, +was immediately followed by that nobleman. Eagerly and almost +blushingly did La Meronville thrust the note into her bosom, and +hasten to greet and to embrace her adorer. Lord Borodaile flung +himself on one of the sofas with a listless and discontented air. The +experienced Frenchwoman saw that there was a cloud on his brow. + +"My dear friend," said she, in her own tongue, "you seem vexed: has +anything annoyed you?" + +"No, Cecile, no. By the by, who supped with you last night?" + +"Oh! the Duke of Haverfield, your friend." + +"My friend!" interrupted Borodaile, haughtily: "he's no friend of +mine; a vulgar, talkative fellow; my friend, indeed!" + +"Well, I beg your pardon: then there was Mademoiselle Caumartin, and +the Prince Pietro del Orbino, and Mr. Trevanion, and Mr. Lin--Lin-- +Linten, or Linden." + +"And pray, will you allow me to ask how you became acquainted with Mr. +Lin--Lin--Linten, or Linden?" + +"Assuredly; through the Duke of Haverfield." + +"Humph! Cecile, my love, that young man is not fit to be the +acquaintance of my friend: allow me to strike him from your list." + +"Certainly, certainly!" said La Meronville, hastily; and stooping as +if to pick up a fallen glove, though, in reality, to hide her face +from Lord Borodaile's searching eye, the letter she had written fell +from her bosom. Lord Borodaile's glance detected the superscription, +and before La Meronville could regain the note he had possessed +himself of it. + +"A Monsieur, Monsieur Linden!" said he, coldly, reading the address; +"and, pray, how long have you corresponded with that gentleman?" + +Now La Meronville's situation at that moment was by no means +agreeable. She saw at one glance that no falsehood or artifice could +avail her; for Lord Borodaile might deem himself fully justified in +reading the note, which would contradict any glossing statement she +might make. She saw this. She was a woman of independence; cared not +a straw for Lord Borodaile at present, though she had had a caprice +for him; knew that she might choose her bon ami out of all London, and +replied,-- + +"That is the first letter I ever wrote to him; but I own that it will +not be the last." + +Lord Borodaile turned pale. + +"And will you suffer me to read it?" said he; for even in these cases +he was punctiliously honourable. + +La Meronville hesitated. She did not know him. "If I do not +consent," thought she, "he will do it without the consent: better +submit with a good grace.--Certainly!" she answered, with an air of +indifference. + +Borodaile opened and read the note; it was as follows:-- + +You have inspired me with a feeling for you which astonishes myself. +Ah, why should that love be the strongest which is the swiftest in its +growth? I used to love Lord Borodaile: I now only esteem him; the +love has flown to you. If I judge rightly from your words and your +eyes, this avowal will not be unwelcome to you. Come and assure me, +in person, of a persuasion so dear to my heart. C. L. M. + +"A very pretty effusion!" said Lord Borodaile, sarcastically, and only +showing his inward rage by the increasing paleness of his complexion +and a slight compression of his lip. "I thank you for your confidence +in me. All I ask is that you will not send this note till to-morrow. +Allow me to take my leave of you first, and to find in Mr. Linden a +successor rather than a rival." + +"Your request, my friend," said La Meronville, adjusting her hair, "is +but reasonable. I see that you understand these arrangements; and, +for my part, I think that the end of love should always be the +beginning of friendship: let it be so with us!" + +"You do me too much honour," said Borodaile, bowing profoundly. +"Meanwhile I depend upon your promise, and bid you, as a lover, +farewell forever." + +With his usual slow step Lord Borodaile descended the stairs, and +walked towards the central quartier of town. His meditations were of +no soothing nature. "To be seen by that man in a ridiculous and +degrading situation; to be pestered with his d--d civility; to be +rivalled by him with Lady Flora; to be duped and outdone by him with +my mistress! Ay, all this have I been; but vengeance shall come yet. +As for La Meronville, the loss is a gain; and, thank Heaven, I did not +betray myself by venting my passion and making a scene. But it was I. +who ought to have discarded her, not the reverse; and--death and +confusion--for that upstart, above all men! And she talked in her +letter about his eyes and words. Insolent coxcomb, to dare to have +eyes and words for one who belonged to me. Well, well, he shall smart +for this. But let me consider: I must not play the jealous fool, must +not fight for a ----, must not show the world that a man, nobody knows +who, could really outwit and outdo me,--me,--Francis Borodaile! No, +no: I must throw the insult upon him, must myself be the aggressor and +the challenged; then, too, I shall have the choice of weapons,-- +pistols of course. Where shall I hit him, by the by? I wish I shot +as well as I used to do at Naples. I was in full practice then. +Cursed place, where there was nothing else to do but to practise!" + +Immersed in these or somewhat similar reflections did Lord Borodaile +enter Pall Mall. + +"Ah, Borodaile!" said Lord St. George, suddenly emerging from a shop. +"This is really fortunate: you are going my way exactly; allow me to +join you." + +Now Lord Borodaile, to say nothing of his happening at that time to be +in a mood more than usually unsocial, could never at any time bear the +thought of being made an instrument of convenience, pleasure, or good +fortune to another. He therefore, with a little resentment at Lord +St. George's familiarity, coldly replied, "I am sorry that I cannot +avail myself of your offer. I am sure my way is not the same as +yours." + +"Then," replied Lord St. George, who was a good-natured, indolent man, +who imagined everybody was as averse to walking alone as he was, "then +I will make mine the same as yours." + +Borodaile coloured: though always uncivil, he did not like to be +excelled in good manners; and therefore replied, that nothing but +extreme business at White's could have induced him to prefer his own +way to that of Lord St. George. + +The good-natured peer took Lord Borodaile's arm. It was a natural +incident, but it vexed the punctilious viscount that any man should +take, not offer, the support. + +"So, they say," observed Lord St. George, "that young Linden is to +marry Lady Flora Ardenne." + +"Les on-dits font la gazette des fous," rejoined Borodaile with a +sneer. "I believe that Lady Flora is little likely to contract such a +misalliance." + +"Misalliance!" replied Lord St. George. "I thought Linden was of a +very old family; which you know the Westboroughs are not, and he has +great expectations--" + +"Which are never to be realized," interrupted Borodaile, laughing +scornfully. + +"Ah, indeed!" said Lord St. George, seriously. "Well, at all events +he is a very agreeable, unaffected young man: and, by the by, +Borodaile, you will meet him chez moi to-day; you know you dine with +me?" + +"Meet Mr. Linden! I shall be proud to have that honour," said +Borodaile, with sparkling eyes; "will Lady Westborough be also of the +party?" + +"No, poor Lady St. George is very ill, and I have taken the +opportunity to ask only men." + +"You have done wisely, my lord," said Borodaile, secum multa +revolvens; "and I assure you I wanted no hint to remind me of your +invitation." + +Here the Duke of Haverfield joined them. The duke never bowed to any +one of the male sex; he therefore nodded to Borodaile, who, with a +very supercilious formality, took off his hat in returning the +salutation. The viscount had at least this merit in his pride,--that +if it was reserved to the humble, it was contemptuous to the high: his +inferiors he wished to remain where they were; his equals he longed to +lower. + +"So I dine with you, Lord St. George, to-day," said the duke; "whom +shall I meet?" + +"Lord Borodaile, for one," answered St. George; "my brother, Aspeden, +Findlater, Orbino, and Linden." + +"Linden!" cried the duke; "I'm very glad to hear it, c'est un homme +fait expres pour moi. He is very clever, and not above playing the +fool; has humour without setting up for a wit, and is a good fellow +without being a bad man. I like him excessively." + +"Lord St. George;" said Borodaile, who seemed that day to be the very +martyr of the unconscious Clarence, "I wish you good morning. I have +only just remembered an engagement which I must keep before I go to +White's." + +And with a bow to the duke, and a remonstrance from Lord St. George, +Borodaile effected his escape. His complexion was, insensibly to +himself, more raised than usual, his step more stately; his mind, for +the first time for years, was fully excited and engrossed. Ah, what a +delightful thing it is for an idle man, who has been dying of ennui, +to find an enemy! + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + + You must challenge him + There's no avoiding; one or both must drop. + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + +"Ha! ha! ha! bravo, Linden!" cried Lord St. George, from the head of +his splendid board, in approbation of some witticism of Clarence's; +and ha! ha! ha! or he! he! he! according to the cachinnatory +intonations of the guests rang around. + +"Your lordship seems unwell," said Lord Aspeden to Borodaile; "allow +me to take wine with you." + +Lord Borodaile bowed his assent. + +"Pray," said Mr. St. George to Clarence, "have you seen my friend +Talbot lately?" + +"This very morning," replied Linden: "indeed, I generally visit him +three or four times a week; he often asks after you." + +"Indeed!" said Mr. St. George, rather flattered; "he does me much +honour; but he is a distant connection of mine, and I suppose I must +attribute his recollection of me to that cause. He is a near relation +of yours, too, I think: is he not?" + +"I am related to him," answered Clarence, colouring. + +Lord Borodaile leaned forward, and his lip curled. Though, in some +respects, a very unamiable man, he had, as we have said, his good +points. He hated a lie as much as Achilles did; and he believed in +his heart of hearts that Clarence had just uttered one. + +"Why," observed Lord Aspeden, "why, Lord Borodaile, the Talbots of +Scarsdale are branches of your genealogical tree; therefore your +lordship must be related to Linden; "you are two cherries on one +stalk'!" + +"We are by no means related," said Lord Borodaile, with a distinct and +clear voice, intended expressly for Clarence; "that is an honour which +I must beg leave most positively to disclaim." + +There was a dead silence; the eyes of all who heard a remark so +intentionally rude were turned immediately towards Clarence. His +cheek burned like fire; he hesitated a moment, and then said, in the +same key, though with a little trembling in his intonation,-- + +"Lord Borodaile cannot be more anxious to disclaim it than I am." + +"And yet," returned the viscount, stung to the soul, "they who advance +false pretensions ought at least to support them!" + +"I do not understand you, my lord," said Clarence. + +"Possibly not," answered Borodaile, carelessly: "there is a maxim +which says that people not accustomed to speak truth cannot comprehend +it in others." + +Unlike the generality of modern heroes, who are always in a passion,-- +off-hand, dashing fellows, in whom irascibility is a virtue,--Clarence +was peculiarly sweet-tempered by nature, and had, by habit, acquired a +command over all his passions to a degree very uncommon in so young a +man. He made no reply to the inexcusable affront he had received. +His lip quivered a little, and the flush of his countenance was +succeeded by an extreme paleness; this was all: he did not even leave +the room immediately, but waited till the silence was broken by some +well-bred member of the party; and then, pleading an early engagement +as an excuse for his retiring so soon, he rose and departed. + +There was throughout the room a universal feeling of sympathy with the +affront and indignation against the offender; for, to say nothing of +Clarence's popularity and the extreme dislike in which Lord Borodaile +was held, there could be no doubt as to the wantonness of the outrage +or the moderation of the aggrieved party. Lord Borodaile already felt +the punishment of his offence: his very pride, while it rendered him +indifferent to the spirit, had hitherto kept him scrupulous as to the +formalities of social politeness; and he could not but see the +grossness with which he had suffered himself to violate them and the +light in which his conduct was regarded. However, this internal +discomfort only rendered him the more embittered against Clarence and +the more confirmed in his revenge. Resuming, by a strong effort, all +the external indifference habitual to his manner, he attempted to +enter into a conversation with those of the party who were next to him +but his remarks produced answers brief and cold; even Lord Aspeden +forgot his diplomacy and his smile; Lord St. George replied to his +observations by a monosyllable; and the Duke of Haverfield, for the +first time in his life, asserted the prerogative which his rank gave +him of setting the example,--his grace did not reply to Lord Borodaile +at all. In truth, every one present was seriously displeased. All +civilized societies have a paramount interest in repressing the rude. +Nevertheless, Lord Borodaile bore the brunt of his unpopularity with a +steadiness and unembarrassed composure worthy of a better cause; and +finding, at last, a companion disposed to be loquacious in the person +of Sir Christopher Findlater (whose good heart, though its first +impulse resented more violently than that of any heart present the +discourtesy of the viscount, yet soon warmed to the desagremens of his +situation, and hastened to adopt its favourite maxim of forgive and +forget), Lord Borodaile sat the meeting out; and if he did not leave +the latest, he was at least not the first to follow Clarence: +"L'orgueil ou donne le courage, ou il y supplee." ["Pride either +gives courage or supplies the place of it."] + +Meanwhile Linden had returned to his solitary home. He hastened to +his room, locked the door, flung himself on his sofa, and burst into a +violent and almost feminine paroxysm of tears. This fit lasted for +more than an hour; and when Clarence at length stilled the indignant +swellings of his heart, and rose from his supine position, he started, +as his eye fell upon the opposite mirror, so haggard and exhausted +seemed the forced and fearful calmness of his countenance. With a +hurried step; with arms now folded on his bosom, now wildly tossed +from him; and the hand so firmly clenched that the very bones seemed +working through the skin; with a brow now fierce, now only dejected; +and a complexion which one while burnt as with the crimson flush of a +fever, and at another was wan and colourless, like his whose cheek a +spectre has blanched,--Clarence paced his apartment, the victim not +only of shame,--the bitterest of tortures to a young and high mind,-- +but of other contending feelings, which alternately exasperated and +palsied his wrath, and gave to his resolves at one moment an almost +savage ferocity and at the next an almost cowardly vacillation. + +The clock had just struck the hour of twelve when a knock at the door +announced a visitor. Steps were heard on the stairs and presently a +tap at Clarence's room-door. He unlocked it and the Duke of +Haverfield entered. "I am charmed to find you at home," cried the +duke, with his usual half kind, half careless address. "I was +determined to call upon you, and be the first to offer my services in +this unpleasant affair." + +Clarence pressed the duke's hand, but made no answer. + +"Nothing could be so unhandsome as Lord Borodaile's conduct," +continued the duke. "I hope you both fence and shoot well. I shall +never forgive you, if you do not put an end to that piece of +rigidity." + +Clarence continued to walk about the room in great agitation; the duke +looked at him with some surprise. At last Linden paused by the +window, and said, half unconsciously, "It must be so: I cannot avoid +fighting!" + +"Avoid fighting!" cried his grace, in undisguised astonishment. "No, +indeed: but that is the least part of the matter; you must kill as +well as fight him." + +"Kill him!" cried Clarence, wildly, "whom?" and then sinking into a +chair, he covered his face with his hands for a few moments, and +seemed to struggle with his emotions. + +"Well," thought the duke, "I never was more mistaken in my life. I +could have bet my black horse against Trevanion's Julia, which is +certainly the most worthless thing I know, that Linden had been a +brave fellow: but these English heroes almost go into fits at a duel; +one manages such things, as Sterne says, better in France." + +Clarence now rose, calm and collected. He sat down; wrote a brief +note to Borodaile, demanding the fullest apology, or the earliest +meeting; put it into the duke's hands, and said with a faint smile, +"My dear duke, dare I ask you to be a second to a man who has been so +grievously affronted and whose genealogy has been so disputed?" + +"My dear Linden," said the duke, warmly, "I have always been grateful +to my station in life for this advantage,--the freedom with which it +has enabled me to select my own acquaintance and to follow my own +pursuits. I am now more grateful to it than ever, because it has +given me a better opportunity than I should otherwise have had of +serving one whom I have always esteemed. In entering into your +quarrel I shall at least show the world that there are some men not +inferior in pretensions to Lord Borodaile who despise arrogance and +resent overbearance even to others. Your cause I consider the common +cause of society; but I shall take it up, if you will allow me, with +the distinguishing zeal of a friend." + +Clarence, who was much affected by the kindness of this speech, +replied in a similar vein; and the duke, having read and approved the +letter, rose. "There is, in my opinion," said he, "no time to be +lost. I will go to Borodaile this very evening: adieu, mon cher! you +shall kill the Argus, and then carry off the Io. I feel in a double +passion with that ambulating poker, who is only malleable when he is +red-hot, when I think how honourably scrupulous you were with La +Meronville last night, notwithstanding all her advances; but I go to +bury Caesar, not to scold him. Au revoir." + + + + +Chapter XLV. + +Conon.--You're well met, Crates. +Crates.--If we part so, Conon.-Queen of Corinth. + +It was as might be expected from the character of the aggressor. Lord +Borodaile refused all apology, and agreed with avidity to a speedy +rendezvous. He chose pistols (choice, then, was not merely nominal), +and selected Mr. Percy Bobus for his second, a gentleman who was much +fonder of acting in that capacity than in the more honourable one of a +principal. The author of "Lacon" says "that if all seconds were as +averse to duels as their principals, there would be very little blood +spilt in that way;" and it was certainly astonishing to compare the +zeal with which Mr. Bobus busied himself about this "affair" with that +testified by him on another occasion when he himself was more +immediately concerned. + +The morning came. Mr. Bobus breakfasted with his friend. "Damn it, +Borodaile," said he, as the latter was receiving the ultimate polish +of the hairdresser, "I never saw you look better in my life. It will +be a great pity if that fellow shoots you." + +"Shoots me!" said Lord Borodaile, very quietly,--"me! no! that is +quite out of the question; but joking apart, Bobus, I will not kill +the young man. Where shall I hit him?" + +"In the cap of the knee," said Mr. Percy, breaking an egg. + +"Nay, that will lame him for life," said Lord Borodaile, putting on +his cravat with peculiar exactitude. + +"Serve him right," said Mr. Bobus. "Hang him, I never got up so early +in my life: it is quite impossible to eat at this hour. Oh!--a +propos, Borodaile, have you left any little memoranda for me to +execute?" + +"Memoranda!--for what?" said Borodaile, who had now just finished his +toilet. + +"Oh!" rejoined Mr. Percy Bobus, "in case of accident, you know: the +man may shoot well, though I never saw him in the gallery." + +"Pray," said Lord Borodaile, in a great though suppressed passion, +"pray, Mr. Bobus, how often have I to tell you that it is not by Mr. +Linden that my days are to terminate: you are sure that Carabine saw +to that trigger?" + +"Certain," said Mr. Percy, with his mouth full, "certain. Bless me, +here's the carriage, and breakfast not half done yet." + +"Come, come," cried Borodaile, impatiently, "we must breakfast +afterwards. Here, Roberts, see that we have fresh chocolate and some +more cutlets when we return." + +"I would rather have them now," said Mr. Bobus, foreseeing the +possibility of the return being single: "Ibis! redibis?" etc. + +"Come, we have not a moment to lose," exclaimed Borodaile, hastening +down the stairs; and Mr. Percy Bobus followed, with a strange mixture +of various regrets, partly for the breakfast that was lost and partly +for the friend that might be. + +When they arrived at the ground, Clarence and the duke were already +there: the latter, who was a dead shot, had fully persuaded himself +that Clarence was equally adroit, and had, in his providence for +Borodaile, brought a surgeon. This was a circumstance of which the +viscount, in the plenitude of his confidence for himself and +indifference for his opponent, had never once dreamed. + +The ground was measured; the parties were about to take the ground. +All Linden's former agitation had vanished; his mien was firm, grave, +and determined: but he showed none of the careless and fierce +hardihood which characterized his adversary; on the contrary, a close +observer might have remarked something sad and dejected amidst all the +tranquillity and steadiness of his brow and air. + +"For Heaven's sake," whispered the duke, as he withdrew from the spot, +"square your body a little more to your left and remember your exact +level. Borodaile is much shorter than you." + +There was a brief, dread pause: the signal was given; Borodaile fired; +his ball pierced Clarence's side; the wounded man staggered one step, +but fell not. He raised his pistol; the duke bent eagerly forward; an +expression of disappointment and surprise passed his lips; Clarence +had fired in the air. The next moment Linden felt a deadly sickness +come over him; he fell into the arms of the surgeon. Borodaile, +touched by a forbearance which he had so little right to expect, +hastened to the spot. He leaned over his adversary in greater remorse +and pity than he would have readily confessed to himself. Clarence +unclosed his eyes; they dwelt for one moment upon the subdued and +earnest countenance of Borodaile. + +"Thank God," he said faintly, "that you were not the victim," and with +those words he fell back insensible. They carried him to his +lodgings. His wound was accurately examined. Though not mortal, it +was of a dangerous nature; and the surgeons ended a very painful +operation by promising a very lingering recovery. + +What a charming satisfaction for being insulted! + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +Je me contente de ce qui peut s'ecrire, et je reve tout ce qui peut se +rever.--DE SEVIGNE. + +["I content myself with writing what I am able, and I dream all I +possibly can dream."] + + +About a week after his wound, and the second morning of his return to +sense and consciousness, when Clarence opened his eyes, they fell upon +a female form seated watchfully and anxiously by his bedside. He +raised himself in mute surprise, and the figure, startled by the +motion, rose, drew the curtain, and vanished. With great difficulty +he rang his bell. His valet, Harrison, on whose mind, though it was +of no very exalted order, the kindness and suavity of his master had +made a great impression, instantly appeared. + +"Who was that lady?" asked Linden. "How came she here?" + +Harrison smiled: "Oh, sir, pray please to lie down, and make yourself +easy: the lady knows you very well and would come here; she insists +upon staying in the house, so we made up a bed in the drawing-room and +she has watched by you night and day. She speaks very little English +to be sure, but your honour knows, begging your pardon, how well I +speak French." + +"French?" said Clarence, faintly,--"French? In Heaven's name, who is +she?" + +"A Madame--Madame--La Melonveal, or some such name, sir," said the +valet. + +Clarence fell back. At that moment his hand was pressed. He turned, +and saw Talbot by his side. The kind old man had not suffered La +Meronville to be Linden's only nurse: notwithstanding his age and +peculiarity of habits, he had fixed his abode all the day in +Clarence's house, and at night, instead of returning to his own home, +had taken up his lodgings at the nearest hotel. + +With a jealous and anxious eye to the real interest and respectability +of his adopted son, Talbot had exerted all his address, and even all +his power, to induce La Meronville, who had made her settlement +previous to Talbot's, to quit the house, but in vain. With that +obstinacy which a Frenchwoman when she is sentimental mistakes for +nobility of heart, the ci-devant amante of Lord Borodaile insisted +upon watching and tending one of whose sufferings she said and +believed she was the unhappy though innocent cause: and whenever more +urgent means of removal were hinted at La Meronville flew to the +chamber of her beloved, apostrophized him in a strain worthy of one of +D'Arlincourt's heroines, and in short was so unreasonably outrageous +that the doctors, trembling for the safety of their patient, obtained +from Talbot a forced and reluctant acquiescence in the settlement she +had obtained. + +Ah! what a terrible creature a Frenchwoman is, when, instead of +coquetting with a caprice, she insists upon conceiving a grande +passion. Little, however, did Clarence, despite his vexation when he +learned of the bienveillance of La Meronville, foresee the whole +extent of the consequences it would entail upon him: still less did +Talbot, who in his seclusion knew not the celebrity of the handsome +adventuress, calculate upon the notoriety of her motions or the ill +effect her ostentatious attachment would have upon Clarence's +prosperity as a lover to Lady Flora. In order to explain these +consequences the more fully, let us, for the present, leave our hero +to the care of the surgeon, his friends, and his would-be mistress; +and while he is more rapidly recovering than the doctors either hoped +or presaged, let us renew our acquaintance with a certain fair +correspondent. + +LETTER FROM THE LADY FLORA ARDENNE TO MISS ELEANOR TREVANION. + +My Dearest Eleanor,--I have been very ill, or you would sooner have +received an answer to your kind,-too kind and consoling letter. +Indeed I have only just left my bed: they say that I have been +delirious, and I believe it; for you cannot conceive what terrible +dreams I have had. But these are all over now, and everyone is so +kind to me,--my poor mother above all! It is a pleasant thing to be +ill when we have those who love us to watch our recovery. + +I have only been in bed a few days; yet it seems to me as if a long +portion of my existence were past,--as if I had stepped into a new +era. You remember that my last letter attempted to express my +feelings at Mamma's speech about Clarence, and at my seeing him so +suddenly. Now, dearest, I cannot but look on that day, on these +sensations, as on a distant dream. Every one is so kind to me, Mamma +caresses and soothes me so fondly, that I fancy I must have been under +some illusion. I am sure they could not seriously have meant to +forbid his addresses. No, no: I feel that all will yet be well,--so +well, that even you, who are of so contented a temper, will own that +if you were not Eleanor you would be Flora. + +I wonder whether Clarence knows that I have been ill? I wish you knew +him. Well, dearest, this letter--a very unhandsome return, I own, for +yours--must content you at present, for they will not let me write +more; though, so far as I am concerned, I am never so weak, in frame I +mean, but what I could scribble to you about him. + +Addio, carissima. F. A. + +I have prevailed on Mamma, who wished to sit by me and amuse me, to go +to the Opera to-night, the only amusement of which she is particularly +fond. Heaven forgive me for my insincerity, but he always comes into +our box, and I long to hear some news of him. + +LETTER II. + +FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. + +Eleanor, dearest Eleanor, I am again very ill, but not as I was +before, ill from a foolish vexation of mind: no, I am now calm and +even happy. It was from an increase of cold only that I have suffered +a relapse. You may believe this, I assure you, in spite of your well +meant but bitter jests upon my infatuation, as you very rightly call +it, for Mr. Linden. You ask me what news from the Opera? Silly girl +that I was, to lie awake hour after hour, and refuse even to take my +draught, lest I should be surprised into sleep, till Mamma returned. +I sent Jermyn down directly I heard her knock at the door (oh, how +anxiously I had listened for it!) to say that I was still awake and +longed to see her. So, of course, Mamma came up, and felt my pulse, +and said it was very feverish, and wondered the draught had not +composed me; with a great deal more to the same purpose, which I bore +as patiently as I could, till it was my turn to talk; and then I +admired her dress and her coiffure, and asked if it was a full house, +and whether the prima donna was in voice, etc.: till, at last, I won +my way to the inquiry of who were her visitors. "Lord Borodaile," +said she, "and the Duke of ----, and Mr. St. George, and Captain +Leslie, and Mr. De Retz, and many others." I felt so disappointed, +Eleanor, but did not dare ask whether he was not of the list; till, at +last, my mother observing me narrowly, said, "And by the by, Mr. +Linden looked in for a few minutes. I am glad, my dearest Flora, that +I spoke to you so decidedly about him the other day." "Why, Mamma?" +said I, hiding my face under the clothes. "Because," said she, in +rather a raised voice, "he is quite unworthy of you! but it is late +now, and you should go to sleep; to-morrow I will tell you more." I +would have given worlds to press the question then, but could not +venture. Mamma kissed and left me. I tried to twist her words into a +hundred meanings, but in each I only thought that they were dictated +by some worldly information,--some new doubts as to his birth or +fortune; and, though that supposition distressed me greatly, yet it +could not alter my love or deprive me of hope; and so I cried and +guessed, and guessed and cried, till at last I cried myself to sleep. + +When I awoke, Mamma was already up, and sitting beside me: she talked +to me for more than an hour upon ordinary subjects, till at last, +perceiving how absent or rather impatient I appeared, she dismissed +Jermyn, and spoke to me thus:-- + +"You know, Flora, that I have always loved you, more perhaps than I +ought to have done, more certainly than I have loved your brothers and +sisters; but you were my eldest child, my first-born, and all the +earliest associations of a mother are blent and entwined with you. +You may be sure therefore that I have ever had only your happiness in +view, and that it is only with a regard to that end that I now speak +to you." + +I was a little frightened, Eleanor, by this opening, but I was much +more touched, so I took Mamma's hand and kissed and wept silently over +it; she continued: "I observed Mr. Linden's attention to you, at ----; +I knew nothing more of his rank and birth then than I do at present: +but his situation in the embassy and his personal appearance naturally +induced me to suppose him a gentleman of family, and, therefore, if +not a great at least not an inferior match for you, so far as worldly +distinctions are concerned. Added to this, he was uncommonly +handsome, and had that general reputation for talent which is often +better than actual wealth or hereditary titles. I therefore did not +check, though I would not encourage any attachment you might form for +him; and nothing being declared or decisive on either side when we +left--, I imagined that if your flirtation with him did even amount to +a momentary and girlish phantasy, absence and change of scene would +easily and rapidly efface the impression. I believe that in a great +measure it was effaced when Lord Aspeden returned to England, and with +him Mr. Linden. You again met the latter in society almost as +constantly as before; a caprice nearly conquered was once more +renewed; and in my anxiety that you should marry, not for +aggrandizement, but happiness, I own to my sorrow that I rather +favoured than forbade his addresses. The young man--remember, Flora-- +appeared in society as the nephew and heir of a gentleman of ancient +family and considerable property; he was rising in diplomacy, popular +in the world, and, so far as we could see, of irreproachable +character; this must plead my excuse for tolerating his visits, +without instituting further inquiries respecting him, and allowing +your attachment to proceed without ascertaining how far it had yet +extended. I was awakened to a sense of my indiscretion by an inquiry +which Mr. Linden's popularity rendered general; namely, if Mr. Talbot +was his uncle, who was his father? who his more immediate relations? +and at that time Lord Borodaile informed us of the falsehood he had +either asserted or allowed to be spread in claiming Mr. Talbot as his +relation. This you will observe entirely altered the situation of Mr. +Linden with respect to you. Not only his rank in life became +uncertain, but suspicious. Nor was this all: his very personal +respectability was no longer unimpeachable. Was this dubious and +intrusive person, without a name and with a sullied honour, to be your +suitor? No, Flora; and it was from this indignant conviction that I +spoke to you some days since. Forgive me, my child, if I was less +cautious, less confidential than I am now. I did not imagine the +wound was so deep, and thought that I should best cure you by seeming +unconscious of your danger. The case is now changed; your illness has +convinced me of my fault, and the extent of your unhappy attachment: +but will my own dear child pardon me if I still continue, if I even +confirm, my disapproval of her choice? Last night at the Opera Mr. +Linden entered my box. I own that I was cooler to him than usual. He +soon left us, and after the Opera I saw him with the Duke of +Haverfield, one of the most incorrigible roues of the day, leading out +a woman of notoriously bad character and of the most ostentatious +profligacy. He might have had some propriety, some decency, some +concealment at least, but he passed just before me,--before the mother +of the woman to whom his vows of honourable attachment were due and +who at that very instant was suffering from her infatuation for him. +Now, Flora, for this man, an obscure and possibly a plebeian +adventurer, whose only claim to notice has been founded on falsehood, +whose only merit, a love of you, has been, if not utterly destroyed, +at least polluted and debased,--for this man, poor alike in fortune, +character, and honour, can you any longer profess affection or +esteem?" + +"Never, never, never!" cried I, springing from the bed, and throwing +myself upon my mother's neck. "Never: I am your own Flora once more. +I will never suffer any one again to make me forget you," and then I +sobbed so violently that Mamma was frightened, and bade me lie down +and left me to sleep. Several hours have passed since then, and I +could not sleep nor think, and I would not cry, for he is no longer +worthy of my tears; so I have written to you. + +Oh, how I despise and hate myself for having so utterly, in my vanity +and folly, forgotten my mother, that dear, kind, constant friend, who +never cost me a single tear, but for my own ingratitude! Think, +Eleanor, what an affront to me,--to me, who, he so often said, had +made all other women worthless in his eyes. Do I hate him? No, I +cannot hate. Do I despise? No, I will not despise, but I will forget +him, and keep my contempt and hatred for myself. + +God bless you! I am worn out. Write soon, or rather come, if +possible, to your affectionate but unworthy friend, F. A. + +Good Heavens! Eleanor, he is wounded. He has fought with Lord +Borodaile. I have just heard it; Jermyn told me. Can it, can it be +true? What,--what have I said against him? Hate? forget? No, no: I +never loved him till now. + +LETTER III. + +FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. + +(After an interval of several weeks.) + +Time has flown, my Eleanor, since you left me, after your short but +kind visit, with a heavy but healing wing. I do not think I shall +ever again be the giddy girl I have been; but my head will change, not +my heart; that was never giddy, and that shall still be as much yours +as ever. You are wrong in thinking I have not forgotten, at least +renounced all affection for Mr. Linden. I have, though with a long +and bitter effort. The woman for whom he fought went, you know, to +his house, immediately on hearing of his wound. She has continued +with him ever since. He had the audacity to write to me once; my +mother brought me the note, and said nothing. She read my heart +aright. I returned it unopened. He has even called since his +convalescence. Mamma was not at home to him. I hear that he looks +pale and altered. I hope not,--at least I cannot resist praying for +his recovery. I stay within entirely; the season is over now, and +there are no parties: but I tremble at the thought of meeting him even +in the Park or the Gardens. Papa talks of going into the country next +week. I cannot tell you how eagerly I look forward to it: and you +will then come and see me; will you not, dearest Eleanor? + +Ah! what happy days we will have yet: we will read Italian together, +as we used to do; you shall teach me your songs, and I will instruct +you in mine; we will keep birds as we did, let me see, eight years +ago. You will never talk to me of my folly: let that be as if it had +never been; but I will wonder with you about your future choice, and +grow happy in anticipating your happiness. Oh, how selfish I was some +weeks ago! then I could only overwhelm you with my egotisms: now, +Eleanor, it is your turn; and you shall see how patiently I will +listen to yours. Never fear that you can be too prolix: the diffuser +you are, the easier I shall forgive myself. + +Are you fond of poetry, Eleanor? I used to say so, but I never felt +that I was till lately. I will show you my favourite passages in my +favourite poets when you come to see me. You shall see if yours +correspond with mine. I am so impatient to leave this horrid town, +where everything seems dull, yet feverish,--insipid, yet false. Shall +we not be happy when we meet? If your dear aunt will come with you, +she shall see how I (that is my mind) am improved. + +Farewell. + Ever your most affectionate, + F. A. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +Brave Talbot, we will follow thee.--Henry the Sixth. + +"My letter insultingly returned--myself refused admittance; not a +single inquiry made during my illness; indifference joined to positive +contempt. By Heaven, it is insupportable!" + +"My dear Clarence," said Talbot to his young friend, who, fretful from +pain and writhing beneath his mortification, walked to and fro his +chamber with an impatient stride; "my dear Clarence, do sit down, and +not irritate your wound by such violent exercise. I am as much +enraged as yourself at the treatment you have received, and no less at +a loss to account for it. Your duel, however unfortunate the event, +must have done you credit, and obtained you a reputation both for +generosity and spirit; so that it cannot be to that occurrence that +you are to attribute the change. Let us rather suppose that Lady +Flora's attachment to you has become evident to her father and mother; +that they naturally think it would be very undesirable to marry their +daughter to a man whose family nobody knows, and whose respectability +he is forced into fighting in order to support. Suffer me then to +call upon Lady Westborough, whom I knew many years ago, and explain +your origin, as well as your relationship to me." + +Linden paused irresolutely. + +"Were I sure that Lady Flora was not utterly influenced by her +mother's worldly views, I would gladly consent to your proposal, but-- +" + +"Forgive me, Clarence," cried Talbot; "but you really argue much more +like a very young man than I ever heard you do before,--even four +years ago. To be sure Lady Flora is influenced by her mother's views. +Would you have her otherwise? Would you have her, in defiance of all +propriety, modesty, obedience to her parents, and right feeling for +herself, encourage an attachment to a person not only unknown, but who +does not even condescend to throw off the incognito to the woman he +addresses? Come, Clarence, give me your instructions, and let me act +as your ambassador to-morrow." + +Clarence was silent. + +"I may consider it settled then," replied Talbot: "meanwhile you shall +come home and stay with me; the pure air of the country, even so near +town, will do you more good than all the doctors in London; and, +besides, you will thus be enabled to escape from that persecuting +Frenchwoman." + +"In what manner?" said Clarence. + +"Why, when you are in my house, she cannot well take up her abode with +you; and you shall, while I am forwarding your suit with Lady Flora, +write a very flattering, very grateful letter of excuses to Madame la +Meronville. But leave me alone to draw it up for you: meanwhile, let +Harrison pack up your clothes and medicines; and we will effect our +escape while Madame la Meronville yet sleeps." + +Clarence rang the bell; the orders were given, executed, and in less +than an hour he and his friends were on their road to Talbot's villa. + +As they drove slowly through the grounds to the house, Clarence was +sensibly struck with the quiet and stillness which breathed around. +On either side of the road the honeysuckle and rose cast their sweet +scents to the summer wind, which, though it was scarcely noon, stirred +freshly among the trees, and waved as if it breathed a second youth +over the wan cheek of the convalescent. The old servant's ear had +caught the sound of wheels, and he came to the door, with an +expression of quiet delight on his dry countenance, to welcome in his +master. They had lived together for so many years that they were +grown like one another. Indeed, the veteran valet prided himself on +his happy adoption of his master's dress and manner. A proud man, we +ween, was that domestic, whenever he had time and listeners for the +indulgence of his honest loquacity; many an ancient tale of his +master's former glories was then poured from his unburdening +remembrance. With what a glow, with what a racy enjoyment, did he +expand upon the triumphs of the past; how eloquently did he +particularize the exact grace with which young Mr. Talbot was wont to +enter the room, in which he instantly became the cynosure of ladies' +eyes; how faithfully did he minute the courtly dress, the exquisite +choice of colour, the costly splendour of material, which were the +envy of gentles, and the despairing wonder of their valets; and then +the zest with which the good old man would cry, "I dressed the boy!" +Even still, this modern Scipio (Le Sage's Scipio, not Rome's) would +not believe that his master's sun was utterly set: he was only in a +temporary retirement, and would, one day or other, reappear and +reastonish the London world. "I would give my right arm," Jasper was +wont to say, "to see Master at court. How fond the King would be of +him! Ah! well, well; I wish he was not so melancholy-like with his +books, but would go out like other people!" + +Poor Jasper! Time is, in general, a harsh wizard in his +transformations; but the change which thou didst lament so bitterly +was happier for thy master than all his former "palmy state" of +admiration and homage. "Nous avons recherche le plaisir," says +Rousseau, in one of his own inimitable antitheses, "et le bonheur a +fui loin de nous." ["We have pursued pleasure, and happiness has fled +far from our reach."] But in the pursuit of Pleasure we sometimes +chance on Wisdom, and Wisdom leads us to the right track, which, if it +take us not so far as Happiness, is sure at least of the shelter of +Content. + +Talbot leaned kindly upon Jasper's arm as he descended from the +carriage, and inquired into his servant's rheumatism with the anxiety +of a friend. The old housekeeper, waiting in the hall, next received +his attention; and in entering the drawing-room, with that +consideration, even to animals, which his worldly benevolence had +taught him, he paused to notice and caress a large gray cat which +rubbed herself against his legs. Doubtless there is some pleasure in +making even a gray cat happy! + +Clarence having patiently undergone all the shrugs, and sighs, and +exclamations of compassion at his reduced and wan appearance, which +are the especial prerogatives of ancient domestics, followed the old +man into the room. Papers and books, though carefully dusted, were +left scrupulously in the places in which Talbot had last deposited +them (incomparable good fortune! what would we not give for such +chamber handmaidens!); fresh flowers were in all the stands and vases; +the large library chair was jealously set in its accustomed place, and +all wore, to Talbot's eyes, that cheerful yet sober look of welcome +and familiarity which makes a friend of our house. The old man was in +high spirits. + +"I know not how it is," said he, "but I feel younger than ever! You +have often expressed a wish to see my family seat at Scarsdale: it is +certainly a great distance hence; but as you will be my travelling +companion, I think I will try and crawl there before the summer is +over; or, what say you, Clarence, shall I lend it to you and Lady +Flora for the honeymoon? You blush! A diplomatist blush! Ah, how +the world has changed since my time! But come, Clarence, suppose you +write to La Meronville?" + +"Not to-day, sir, if you please," said Linden: "I feel so very weak." + +"As you please, Clarence; but some years hence you will learn the +value of the present. Youth is always a procrastinator, and, +consequently, always a penitent." And thus Talbot ran on into a +strain of conversation, half serious, half gay, which lasted till +Clarence went upstairs to lie down and muse on Lady Flora Ardenne. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +La vie eat un sommeil. Les vieillards sont ceux dont le sommeil a ete +plus long: ils ne commencent a se reveiller que quand il faut mourir. +--LA BRUYERE. + +["Life is a sleep. The aged are those whose sleep has been the +longest they begin to awaken themselves just as they are obliged to +die."] + + +"You wonder why I have never turned author, with my constant love of +literature and my former desire of fame," said Talbot, as he and +Clarence sat alone after dinner, discussing many things: "the fact is, +that I have often intended it, and as often been frightened from my +design. Those terrible feuds; those vehement disputes; those +recriminations of abuse, so inseparable from literary life,--appear to +me too dreadful for a man not utterly hardened or malevolent +voluntarily to encounter. Good Heavens! what acerbity sours the blood +of an author! The manifestoes of opposing generals, advancing to +pillage, to burn, to destroy, contain not a tithe of the ferocity +which animates the pages of literary oontroversialists! No term of +reproach is too severe, no vituperation too excessive! the blackest +passions, the bitterest, the meanest malice, pour caustic and poison +upon every page! It seems as if the greatest talents, the most +elaborate knowledge, only sprang from the weakest and worst-regulated +mind, as exotics from dung. The private records, the public works of +men of letters, teem with an immitigable fury! Their histories might +all be reduced into these sentences: they were born; they quarrelled; +they died!" + +"But," said Clarence, "it would matter little to the world if these +quarrels were confined merely to poets and men of imaginative +literature, in whom irritability is perhaps almost necessarily allied +to the keen and quick susceptibilities which constitute their genius. +These are more to be lamented and wondered at among philosophers, +theologians, and men of science; the coolness, the patience, the +benevolence, which ought to characterize their works, should at least +moderate their jealousy and soften their disputes." + +"Ah!" said Talbot, "but the vanity of discovery is no less acute than +that of creation: the self-love of a philosopher is no less self-love +than that of a poet. Besides, those sects the most sure of their +opinions, whether in religion or science, are always the most bigoted +and persecuting. Moreover, nearly all men deceive themselves in +disputes, and imagine that they are intolerant, not through private +jealousy, but public benevolence: they never declaim against the +injustice done to themselves; no, it is the terrible injury done to +society which grieves and inflames them. It is not the bitter +expressions against their dogmas which give them pain; by no means: it +is the atrocious doctrines (so prejudicial to the country, if in +polities; so pernicious to the world, if in philosophy), which their +duty, not their vanity, induces them to denounce and anathematize." + +"There seems," said Clarence, "to be a sort of reaction in sophistry +and hypocrisy: there has, perhaps, never been a deceiver who was not, +by his own passions, himself the deceived." + +"Very true," said Talbot; "and it is a pity that historians have not +kept that fact in view: we should then have had a better notion of the +Cromwells and Mohammeds of the past than we have now, nor judged those +as utter impostors who were probably half dupes. But to return to +myself. I think you will already be able to answer your own question, +why I did not turn author, now that we have given a momentary +consideration to the penalties consequent on such a profession. But +in truth, as I near the close of my life, I often regret that I had +not more courage, for there is in us all a certain restlessness in the +persuasion, whether true or false, of superior knowledge or intellect, +and this urges us on to the proof; or, if we resist its impulse; +renders us discontented with our idleness and disappointed with the +past. I have everything now in my possession which it has been the +desire of my later years to enjoy: health, retirement, successful +study, and the affection of one in whose breast, when I am gone, my +memory will not utterly pass away. With these advantages, added to +the gifts of fortune, and an habitual elasticity of spirit, I confess +that my happiness is not free from a biting and frequent regret: I +would fain have been a better citizen; I would fain have died in the +consciousness not only that I had improved my mind to the utmost, but +that I had turned that improvement to the benefit of my fellow- +creatures. As it is, in living wholly for myself, I feel that my +philosophy has wanted generosity; and my indifference to glory has +proceeded from a weakness, not, as I once persuaded myself, from a +virtue but the fruitlessness of my existence has been the consequence +of the arduous frivolities and the petty objects in which my early +years were consumed; and my mind, in losing the enjoyments which it +formerly possessed, had no longer the vigour to create for itself a +new soil, from which labour it could only hope for more valuable +fruits. It is no contradiction to see those who most eagerly courted +society in their youth shrink from it the most sensitively in their +age; for they who possess certain advantages, and are morbidly vain of +them, will naturally be disposed to seek that sphere for which those +advantages are best calculated: and when youth and its concomitants +depart, the vanity so long fed still remains, and perpetually +mortifies them by recalling not so much the qualities they have lost, +as the esteem which those qualities conferred; and by contrasting not +so much their own present alteration, as the change they experience in +the respect and consideration of others. What wonder, then, that they +eagerly fly from the world, which has only mortification for their +self-love, or that we find, in biography, how often the most assiduous +votaries of pleasure have become the most rigid of recluses? For my +part, I think that that love of solitude which the ancients so +eminently possessed, and which, to this day, is considered by some as +the sign of a great mind, nearly always arises from a tenderness of +vanity, easily wounded in the commerce of the rough world; and that it +is under the shadow of Disappointment that we must look for the +hermitage. Diderot did well, even at the risk of offending Rousseau, +to write against solitude. The more a moralist binds man to man, and +forbids us to divorce our interests from our kind, the more +effectually is the end of morality obtained. They only are +justifiable in seclusion who, like the Greek philosophers, make that +very seclusion the means of serving and enlightening their race; who +from their retreats send forth their oracles of wisdom, and render the +desert which surrounds them eloquent with the voice of truth. But +remember, Clarence (and let my life, useless in itself, have at least +this moral), that for him who in no wise cultivates his talent for the +benefit of others; who is contented with being a good hermit at the +expense of being a bad citizen; who looks from his retreat upon a life +wasted in the difficiles nugae of the most frivolous part of the +world, nor redeems in the closet the time he has misspent in the +saloon,--remember that for him seclusion loses its dignity, philosophy +its comfort, benevolence its hope, and even religion its balm. +Knowledge unemployed may preserve us from vice; but knowledge +beneficently employed is virtue. Perfect happiness, in our present +state, is impossible; for Hobbes says justly that our nature is +inseparable from desires, and that the very word desire (the craving +for something not possessed) implies that our present felicity is not +complete. But there is one way of attaining what we may term, if not +utter, at least mortal, happiness; it is this,--a sincere and +unrelaxing activity for the happiness of others. In that one maxim is +concentrated whatever is noble in morality, sublime in religion, or +unanswerable in truth. In that pursuit we have all scope for whatever +is excellent in our hearts, and none for the petty passions which our +nature is heir to. Thus engaged, whatever be our errors, there will +be nobility, not weakness, in our remorse; whatever our failure, +virtue, not selfishness, in our regret; and, in success, vanity itself +will become holy and triumph eternal. As astrologers were wont to +receive upon metals 'the benign aspect of the stars, so as to detain +and fix, as it were, the felicity of that hour which would otherwise +be volatile and fugitive,' [Bacon] even so will that success leave +imprinted upon our memory a blessing which cannot pass away; preserve +forever upon our names, as on a signet, the hallowed influence of the +hour in which our great end was effected, and treasure up 'the relics +of heaven' in the sanctuary of a human fane." + +As the old man ceased, there was a faint and hectic flush over his +face, an enthusiasm on his features, which age made almost holy, and +which Clarence had never observed there before. In truth, his young +listener was deeply affected, and the advice of his adopted parent was +afterwards impressed with a more awful solemnity upon his remembrance. +Already he had acquired much worldly lore from Talbot's precepts and +conversation. He had obtained even something better than worldly +lore,--a kindly and indulgent disposition to his fellow-creatures; for +he had seen that foibles were not inconsistent with generous and great +qualities, and that we judge wrongly of human nature when we ridicule +its littleness. The very circumstances which make the shallow +misanthropical incline the wise to be benevolent. Fools discover that +frailty is not incompatible with great men; they wonder and despise: +but the discerning find that greatness is not incompatible with +frailty; and they admire and indulge. + +But a still greater benefit than this of toleration did Clarence +derive from the commune of that night. He became strengthened in his +honourable ambition and nerved to unrelaxing exertion. The +recollection of Talbot's last words, on that night, occurred to him +often and often, when sick at heart and languid with baffled hope, it +roused him from that gloom and despondency which are always +unfavourable to virtue, and incited him once more to that labour in +the vineyard which, whether our hour be late or early, will if earnest +obtain a blessing and reward. + +The hour was now waxing late; and Talbot, mindful of his companion's +health, rose to retire. As he pressed Clarence's hand and bade him +farewell for the night, Linden thought there was something more than +usually impressive in his manner and affectionate in his words. +Perhaps this was the natural result of their conversation. + +The next morning, Clarence was awakened by a noise. He listened, and +heard distinctly an alarmed cry proceeding from the room in which +Talbot slept, and which was opposite to his own. He rose hastily and +hurried to the chamber. The door was open; the old servant was +bending over the bed: Clarence approached, and saw that he supported +his master in his arms. + +"Good God!" he cried, "what is the matter?" The faithful old man +lifted up his face to Clarence, and the big tears rolled fast from +eyes in which the sources of such emotion were well-nigh dried up. + +"He loved you well, sir!" he said, and could say no more. He dropped +the body gently, and throwing himself on the floor sobbed aloud. With +a foreboding and chilled heart, Clarence bent forward; the face of his +benefactor lay directly before him, and the hand of death was upon it. +The soul had passed to its account hours since, in the hush of night, +--passed, apparently, without a struggle or a pang, like the wind, +which animates the harp one moment, and the next is gone. + +Linden seized his hand; it was heavy and cold: his eye rested upon the +miniature of the unfortunate Lady Merton, which, since the night of +the attempted robbery, Talbot had worn constantly round his neck. +Strange and powerful was the contrast of the pictured face--in which +not a colour had yet faded, and where the hues and fulness and prime +of youth dwelt, unconscious of the lapse of years--with the aged and +shrunken countenance of the deceased. + +In that contrast was a sad and mighty moral: it wrought, as it were, a +contract between youth and age, and conveyed a rapid but full history +of our passions and our life. + +The servant looked up once more on the countenance; he pointed towards +it, and muttered, "See, see how awfully it is changed!" + +"But there is a smile upon it!" said Clarence, as he flung himself +beside the body and burst into tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed +or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth +best discover virtue.--BACON. + +It is somewhat remarkable that while Talbot was bequeathing to +Clarence, as the most valuable of legacies, the doctrines of a +philosophy he had acquired, perhaps too late to practise, Glendower +was carrying those very doctrines, so far as his limited sphere would +allow, into the rule and exercise of his life. + +Since the death of the bookseller, which we have before recorded, +Glendower had been left utterly without resource. The others to whom +he applied were indisposed to avail themselves of an unknown ability. +The trade of bookmaking was not then as it is now, and if it had been, +it would not have suggested itself to the high-spirited and unworldly +student. Some publishers offered, it is true, a reward tempting +enough for an immoral tale; others spoke of the value of an attack +upon the Americans; one suggested an ode to the minister, and another +hinted that a pension might possibly be granted to one who would prove +extortion not tyranny. But these insinuations fell upon a dull ear, +and the tribe of Barabbas were astonished to find that an author could +imagine interest and principle not synonymous. + +Struggling with want, which hourly grew more imperious and urgent; +wasting his life on studies which brought fever to his pulse and +disappointment to his ambition; gnawed to the very soul by the +mortifications which his poverty gave to his pride; and watching with +tearless eyes, but a maddening brain, the slender form of his wife, +now waxing weaker and fainter, as the canker of disease fastened upon +the core of her young but blighted life,--there was yet a high, +though, alas! not constant consolation within him, whenever, from the +troubles of this dim spot his thoughts could escape, like birds +released from their cage, and lose themselves in the lustre and +freedom of their native heaven. + +"If," thought he, as he looked upon his secret and treasured work, "if +the wind scatter or the rock receive these seeds, they were at least +dispersed by a hand which asked no selfish return, and a heart which +would have lavished the harvest of its labours upon those who know not +the husbandman and trample his hopes into the dust." + +But by degrees this comfort of a noble and generous nature, these +whispers of a vanity rather to be termed holy than excusable, began to +grow unfrequent and low. The cravings of a more engrossing and heavy +want than those of the mind came eagerly and rapidly upon him; the +fair cheek of his infant became pinched and hollow; his wife conquered +nature itself by love, and starved herself in silence, and set bread +before him with a smile and bade him eat. + +"But you,--you?" he would ask inquiringly, and then pause. + +"I have dined, dearest: I want nothing; eat, love, eat." But he ate +not. The food robbed from her seemed to him more deadly than poison; +and he would rise, and dash his hand to his brow, and go forth alone, +with nature unsatisfied, to look upon this luxurious world and learn +content. + +It was after such a scene that, one day, he wandered forth into the +streets, desperate and confused in mind, and fainting with hunger, and +half insane with fiery and wrong thoughts, which dashed over his +barren and gloomy soul, and desolated, but conquered not! It was +evening: he stood (for he had strode on so rapidly, at first, that his +strength was now exhausted, and he was forced to pause) leaning +against the railed area of a house in a lone and unfrequented street. +No passenger shared this dull and obscure thoroughfare. He stood, +literally, in scene as in heart, solitary amidst the great city, and +wherever he looked, lo, there were none! + +"Two days," said he, slowly and faintly, "two days, and bread has only +once passed my lips; and that was snatched from her,--from those lips +which I have fed with sweet and holy kisses, and whence my sole +comfort in this weary life has been drawn. And she,--ay, she +starves,--and my child too. They complain not; they murmur not: but +they lift up their eyes to me and ask for--Merciful God! Thou didst +make man in benevolence; Thou dost survey this world with a pitying +and paternal eye: save, comfort, cherish them, and crush me if Thou +wilt!" + +At that moment a man darted suddenly from an obscure alley, and passed +Glendower at full speed; presently came a cry, and a shout, and a +rapid trampling of feet, and, in another moment, an eager and +breathless crowd rushed upon the solitude of the street. + +"Where is he?" cried a hundred voices to Glendower,--"where,--which +road did the robber take?" But Glendower could not answer: his nerves +were unstrung, and his dizzy brain swam and reeled; and the faces +which peered upon him, and the voices which shrieked and yelled in his +ear, were to him as the forms and sounds of a ghastly and phantasmal +world. His head drooped upon his bosom; he clung to the area for +support: the crowd passed on; they were in pursuit of guilt; they were +thirsting after blood; they were going to fill the dungeon and feed +the gibbet; what to them was the virtue they could have supported, or +the famine they could have relieved? But they knew not his distress, +nor the extent of his weakness, or some would have tarried and aided: +for there is, after all, as much kindness as cruelty in our nature; +perhaps they thought it was only some intoxicated and maudlin idler; +or, perhaps, in the heat of their pursuit, they thought not at all. + +So they rolled on, and their voices died away, and their steps were +hushed, and Glendower, insensible and cold as the iron he clung to, +was once more alone. Slowly he revived; he opened his dim and glazing +eyes, and saw the evening star break from its chamber, and, though +sullied by the thick and foggy air, scatter its holy smiles upon the +polluted city. + +He looked quietly on the still night, and its first watcher among the +hosts of heaven, and felt something of balm sink into his soul; not, +indeed, that vague and delicious calm which, in his boyhood of poesy +and romance, he had drunk in, by green solitudes, from the mellow +twilight: but a quiet, sad and sober, circling gradually over his +mind, and bringing it back from its confused and disordered visions +and darkness to the recollection and reality of his bitter life. + +By degrees the scene he had so imperfectly witnessed, the fight of the +robber and the eager pursuit of the mob, grew over him: a dark and +guilty thought burst upon his mind. + +"I am a man like that criminal," said he, fiercely. "I have nerves, +sinews, muscles, flesh; I feel hunger, thirst, pain, as acutely: why +should I endure more than he can? Perhaps he had a wife, a child, and +he saw them starving inch by inch, and he felt that he ought to be +their protector; and so he sinned. And I--I--can I not sin too for +mine? can I not dare what the wild beast, and the vulture, and the +fierce hearts of my brethren dare for their mates and young? One +gripe from this hand, one cry from this voice, and my board might be +heaped with plenty, and my child fed, and she smile as she was wont to +smile,--for one night at least." + +And as these thoughts broke upon him, Glendower rose, and with a step +firm, even in weakness, he strode unconsciously onward. + +A figure appeared; Glendower's heart beat thick. He slouched his hat +over his brows, and for one moment wrestled with his pride and his +stern virtue: the virtue conquered, but not the pride; the virtue +forbade him to be the robber; the pride submitted to be the suppliant. +He sprang forward, extended his hands towards the stranger, and cried +in a sharp voice, the agony of which rang through the long dull street +with a sudden and echoless sound, "Charity! food!" + +The stranger paused; one of the boldest of men in his own line, he was +as timid as a woman in any other. Mistaking the meaning of the +petitioner, and terrified by the vehemence of his gesture, he said, in +a trembling tone, as he hastily pulled out his purse,-- + +"There, there! do not hurt me; take it; take all!" Glendower knew the +voice, as a sound not unfamiliar to him; his pride returned in full +force. "None," thought he, "who know me, shall know my full +degradation also." And he turned away; but the stranger, mistaking +this motion, extended his hand to him, saying, "Take this, my friend: +you will have no need of violence!" and as he advanced nearer to his +supposed assailant, he beheld, by the pale lamplight, and instantly +recognized, his features. + +"Ah!" cried he, in astonishment, but with internal rejoicing, "ah! is +it you who are thus reduced?" + +"You say right, Crauford," said Glendower, sullenly, and drawing +himself up to his full height, "it is I: but you are mistaken; I am a +beggar, not a ruffian!" + +"Good heavens!" answered Crauford; "how fortunate that we should meet! +Providence watches over us unceasingly! I have long sought you in +vain. But" (and here the wayward malignity, sometimes, though not +always, the characteristic of Crauford's nature, irresistibly broke +out), "but that you, of all men, should suffer so,--you, proud, +susceptible, virtuous beyond human virtue,--you, whose fibres are as +acute as the naked eye,--that you should bear this and wince not!" + +"You do my humanity wrong!" said Glendower, with a bitter and almost +ghastly smile; "I do worse than wince!" + +"Ay, is it so?" said Crauford; "have you awakened at last? Has your +philosophy taken a more impassioned dye?" + +"Mock me not!" cried Glendower; and his eye, usually soft in its deep +thoughtfulness, glared wild and savage upon the hypocrite, who stood +trembling, yet half sneering, at the storm he had raised; "my passions +are even now beyond my mastery; loose them not upon you!" + +"Nay," said Crauford, gently, "I meant not to vex or wound you. I +have sought you several times since the last night we met, but in +vain; you had left your lodgings, and none knew whither. I would fain +talk with you. I have a scheme to propose to you which will make you +rich forever,--rich,--literally rich! not merely above poverty, but +high in affluence!" + +Glendower looked incredulously at the speaker, who continued,-- + +"The scheme has danger: that you can dare!" + +Glendower was still silent; but his set and stern countenance was +sufficient reply. "Some sacrifice of your pride," continued Crauford: +"that also you can bear?" and the tempter almost grinned with pleasure +as he asked the question. + +"He who is poor," said Glendower, speaking at last, "has a right to +pride. He who starves has it too; but he who sees those whom he loves +famish, and cannot aid, has it not!" + +"Come home with me, then," said Crauford; "you seem faint and weak: +nature craves food; come and partake of mine; we will then talk over +this scheme, and arrange its completion." + +"I cannot," answered Glendower, quietly. "And why?" + +"Because they starve at home!" + +"Heavens!" said Crauford, affected for a moment into sincerity; "it is +indeed fortunate that business should have led me here: but meanwhile +you will not refuse this trifle,--as a loan merely. By and by our +scheme will make you so rich that I must be the borrower." + +Glendower did hesitate for a moment; he did swallow a bitter rising of +the heart: but he thought of those at home and the struggle was over. + +"I thank you," said he; "I thank you for their sake: the time may +come,"--and the proud gentleman stopped short, for his desolate +fortunes rose before him and forbade all hope of the future. + +"Yes!" cried Crauford, "the time may come when you will repay me this +money a hundredfold. But where do you live? You are silent. Well, +you will not inform me: I understand you. Meet me, then, here, on +this very spot, three nights hence: you will not fail?" + +"I will not," said Glendower; and pressing Crauford's hand with a +generous and grateful warmth, which might have softened a heart less +obdurate, he turned away. + +Folding his arms, while a bitter yet joyous expression crossed his +countenance, Crauford stood still, gazing upon the retreating form of +the noble and unfortunate man whom he had marked for destruction. + +"Now," said he, "this virtue is a fine thing, a very fine thing to +talk so loftily about. A little craving of the gastric juices, a +little pinching of this vile body, as your philosophers and saints +call our better part, and, lo! virtue oozes out like water through a +leaky vessel,--and the vessel sinks! No, no; virtue is a weak game, +and a poor game, and a losing game. Why, there is that man, the very +pink of integrity and rectitude, he is now only wanting temptation to +fall; and he will fall, in a fine phrase, too, I'll be sworn! And +then, having once fallen, there will be no medium: he will become +utterly corrupt; while I, honest Dick Crauford, doing as other wise +men do, cheat a trick or two, in playing with fortune, without being a +whit the worse for it. Do I not subscribe to charities? am I not +constant at church, ay, and meeting to boot? kind to my servants, +obliging to my friends, loyal to my king? 'Gad, if I were less loving +to myself, I should have been far less useful to my country! And now, +now let me see what has brought me to these filthy suburbs. Ah, +Madame H----. Woman, incomparable woman! On, Richard Crauford, thou +hast made a good night's work of it hitherto!--business seasons +pleasures!" and the villain upon system moved away. + +Glendower hastened to his home; it was miserably changed, even from +the humble abode in which we last saw him. The unfortunate pair had +chosen their present residence from a melancholy refinement in luxury; +they had chosen it because none else shared it with them, and their +famine and pride and struggles and despair were without witness or +pity. + +With a heavy step Glendower entered the chamber where his wife sat. +When at a distance he had heard a faint moan, but as he had approached +it ceased; for she from whom it came knew his step, and hushed her +grief and pain that they might not add to his own. The peevishness, +the querulous and stinging irritations of want, came not to that +affectionate and kindly heart; nor could all those biting and bitter +evils of fate which turn the love that is born of luxury into rancour +and gall scathe the beautiful and holy passion which had knit into one +those two unearthly natures. They rather clung the closer to each +other, as all things in heaven and earth spoke in tempest or in gloom +around them, and coined their sorrows into endearment, and their looks +into smiles, and strove each from the depth of despair to pluck hope +and comfort for the other. + +This, it is true, was more striking and constant in her than in +Glendower; for in love, man, be he ever so generous, is always +outdone. Yet even when in moments of extreme passion and conflict the +strife broke from his breast into words, never once was his discontent +vented upon her, nor his reproaches lavished on any but fortune or +himself, nor his murmurs mingled with a single breath wounding to her +tenderness or detracting from his love. + +He threw open the door; the wretched light cast its sickly beams over, +the squalid walls, foul with green damps, and the miserable yet clean +bed, and the fireless hearth, and the empty board, and the pale cheek +of the wife, as she rose and flung her arms round his neck, and +murmured out her joy and welcome. "There," said he, as he extricated +himself from her, and flung the money upon the table, "there, love, +pine no more, feed yourself and our daughter, and then let us sleep +and be happy in our dreams." + +A writer, one of the most gifted of the present day, has told the +narrator of this history that no interest of a high nature can be +given to extreme poverty. I know not if this be true yet if I mistake +not our human feelings, there is nothing so exalted, or so divine, as +a great and brave spirit working out its end through every earthly +obstacle and evil; watching through the utter darkness, and steadily +defying the phantoms which crowd around it; wrestling with the mighty +allurements, and rejecting the fearful voice of that WANT which is the +deadliest and surest of human tempters; nursing through all calamity +the love of species, and the warmer and closer affections of private +ties; sacrificing no duty, resisting all sin; and amidst every horror +and every humiliation, feeding the still and bright light of that +genius which, like the lamp of the fabulist, though it may waste +itself for years amidst the depths of solitude, and the silence of the +tomb, shall live and burn immortal and undimmed, when all around it is +rottenness and decay! + +And yet I confess that it is a painful and bitter task to record the +humiliations, the wearing, petty, stinging humiliations, of Poverty; +to count the drops as they slowly fall, one by one, upon the fretted +and indignant heart; to particularize, with the scrupulous and nice +hand of indifference, the fractional and divided movements in the +dial-plate of Misery; to behold the refinement of birth, the masculine +pride of blood, the dignities of intellect, the wealth of knowledge, +the delicacy, and graces of womanhood,--all that ennoble and soften +the stony mass of commonplaces which is our life frittered into atoms, +trampled into the dust and mire of the meanest thoroughfares of +distress; life and soul, the energies and aims of man, ground into one +prostrating want, cramped into one levelling sympathy with the dregs +and refuse of his kind, blistered into a single galling and festering +sore: this is, I own, a painful and a bitter task; but it hath its +redemption,--a pride even in debasement, a pleasure even in woe,--and +it is therefore that, while I have abridged, I have not shunned it. +There are some whom the lightning of fortune blasts, only to render +holy. Amidst all that humbles and scathes; amidst all that shatters +from their life its verdure, smites to the dust the pomp and summit of +their pride, and in the very heart of existence writeth a sudden and +"strange defeature,"--they stand erect,--riven, not uprooted,--a +monument less of pity than of awe! There are some who pass through +the Lazar-House of Misery with a step more august than a Caesar's in +his hall. The very things which, seen alone, are despicable and vile, +associated with them become almost venerable and divine; and one ray, +however dim and feeble, of that intense holiness which, in the INFANT +GOD, shed majesty over the manger and the straw, not denied to those +who in the depth of affliction cherish His patient image, flings over +the meanest localities of earth an emanation from the glory of Heaven! + + + + +CHAPTER L. + + Letters from divers hands, which will absolve + Ourselves from long narration.--Tanner of Tyburn. + +One morning about a fortnight after Talbot's death, Clarence was +sitting alone, thoughtful and melancholy, when the three following +letters were put into his hand: + +LETTER I. + +FROM THE DUKE OF HAVERFIELD. + +Let me, my dear Linden, be the first to congratulate you upon your +accession of fortune: five thousand a year, Scarsdale, and 80,000 in +the Funds, are very pretty foes to starvation! Ah, my dear fellow, if +you had but shot that frosty Caucasus of humanity, that pillar of the +state, made not to bend, that--but you know already whom I mean, and +so I will spare you more of my lamentable metaphors: had you shot Lord +Borodaile, your happiness would now be complete! Everybody talks of +your luck. La Meronville tending on you with her white hands, the +prettiest hands in the world: who would not be wounded even by Lord +Borodaile, for such a nurse? And then Talbot's--yet, I will not speak +of that, for you are very unlike the present generation; and who knows +but you may have some gratitude, some affection, some natural feeling +in you? I had once; but that was before I went to France: those +Parisians, with their fine sentiments, and witty philosophy, play the +devil with one's good old-fashioned feelings. So Lord Aspeden is to +have an Italian ministry. By the by, shall you go with him, or will +you not rather stay at home, and enjoy your new fortunes,--hunt, race, +dine out, dance, vote in the House of Commons, and, in short, do all +that an Englishman and a gentleman should do? Ornamento e splendor +del secolo nostro. Write me a line whenever you have nothing better +to do. + +And believe me, Most truly yours, HAVERFIELD. + +Will you sell your black mare, or will you buy my brown one? Utrum +horum mavis accipe, the only piece of Latin I remember. + +LETTER FROM LORD ASPEDEN. + +My Dear Linden,--Suffer me to enter most fully into your feeling. +Death, my friend, is common to all: we must submit to its +dispensations. I heard accidentally of the great fortune left you by +Mr. Talbot (your father, I suppose I may venture to call him). +Indeed, though there is a silly prejudice against illegitimacy, yet as +our immortal bard says,-- + + "Wherefore base? + When thy dimensions are as well compact, + Thy mind as generous and thy shape as true + As honest madam's issue!" + +For my part, my dear Linden, I say, on your behalf, that it is very +likely that you are a natural son, for such are always the luckiest +and the best. + +You have probably heard of the honour his Majesty has conferred on me, +in appointing to my administration the city of ----. As the choice of +a secretary has been left to me, I need not say how happy I shall be +to keep my promise to you. Indeed, as I told Lord ---- yesterday +morning, I do not know anywhere a young man who has more talent, or +who plays better on the flute. + +Adieu, my dear young friend, and believe me, Very truly yours, + ASPEDEN. + +LETTER FROM MADAME DE LA MERONVILLE. (Translated.) + +You have done me wrong,--great wrong. I loved you,--I waited on you, +tended you, nursed you, gave all up for you; and you forsook +me,--forsook me without a word. True, that you have been engaged in a +melancholy duty, but, at least, you had time to write a line, to cast +a thought, to one who had shown for you the love that I have done. +But we will pass over all this: I will not reproach you; it is beneath +me. The vicious upbraid: the virtuous forgive! I have for several +days left your house. I should never have come to it, had you not +been wounded, and, as I fondly imagined, for my sake. Return when you +will, I shall no longer be there to persecute and torment you. + +Pardon this letter. I have said too much for myself,--a hundred times +too much to you; but I shall not sin again. This intrusion is my +last. CECILE DE LA MERONVILLE. + +These letters will probably suffice to clear up that part of +Clarence's history which had not hitherto been touched upon; they will +show that Talbot's will (after several legacies to his old servants, +his nearest connections, and two charitable institutions, which he had +founded, and for some years supported) had bequeathed the bulk of his +property to Clarence. The words in which the bequest was made were +kind, and somewhat remarkable. "To my relation and friend, commonly +known by the name of Clarence Linden, to whom I am bound alike by +blood and affection," etc. These expressions, joined to the magnitude +of the bequest, the apparently unaccountable attachment of the old man +to his heir, and the mystery which wrapped the origin of the latter, +all concurred to give rise to an opinion, easily received, and soon +universally accredited, that Clarence was a natural son of the +deceased; and so strong in England is the aristocratic aversion to an +unknown lineage, that this belief, unflattering as it was, procured +for Linden a much higher consideration, on the score of birth, than he +might otherwise have enjoyed. Furthermore will the above +correspondence testify the general eclat of Madame la Meronville's +attachment, and the construction naturally put upon it. Nor do we see +much left for us to explain, with regard to the Frenchwoman herself, +which cannot equally well be gleaned by any judicious and intelligent +reader, from the epistle last honoured by his perusal. Clarence's +sense of gallantry did, indeed, smite him severely, for his negligence +and ill requital to one who, whatever her faults or follies, had at +least done nothing with which he had a right to reproach her. It +must. however, be considered in his defence that the fatal event which +had so lately occurred, the relapse which Clarence had suffered in +consequence, and the melancholy confusion and bustle in which the last +week or ten days had been passed, were quite sufficient to banish her +from his remembrance. Still she was a woman, and had loved, or seemed +to love; and Clarence, as he wrote to her a long, kind, and almost +brotherly letter, in return for her own, felt that, in giving pain to +another, one often suffers almost as much for avoiding as for +committing a sin. + +We have said his letter was kind; it was also frank, and yet prudent. +In it he said that he had long loved another, which love alone could +have rendered him insensible to her attachment; that he, nevertheless, +should always recall her memory with equal interest and admiration; +and then, with a tact of flattery which the nature of the +correspondence and the sex of the person addressed rendered excusable, +he endeavoured, as far as he was able, to soothe and please the vanity +which the candour of his avowal was calculated to wound. + +When he had finished this letter he despatched another to Lord +Aspeden, claiming a reprieve of some days before he answered the +proposal of the diplomatist. After these epistolary efforts, he +summoned his valet, and told him, apparently in a careless tone, to +find out if Lady Westborough was still in town. Then throwing himself +on the couch, he wrestled with the grief and melancholy which the +death of a friend, and more than a father, might well cause in a mind +less susceptible than his, and counted the dull hours crawl onward +till his servant returned. Lady Westborough and all the family had +been gone a week to their seat in ----. + +"Well," thought Clarence, "had he been alive, I could have intrusted +my cause to a mediator; as it is, I will plead, or rather assert it, +myself. Harrison," said he aloud, "see that my black mare is ready by +sunrise to-morrow: I shall leave town for some days." + +"Not in your present state of health, sir, surely?" said Harrison, +with the license of one who had been a nurse. + +"My health requires it: no more words, my good Harrison, see that I am +obeyed." And Harrison, shaking his head doubtfully, left the room. + +"Rich, independent, free to aspire to the heights which in England are +only accessible to those who join wealth to ambition, I have at +least," said Clarence, proudly, "no unworthy pretensions even to the +hand of Lady Flora Ardenne. If she can love me for myself, if she can +trust to my honour, rely on my love, feel proud in my pride, and +aspiring in my ambition, then, indeed, this wealth will be welcome to +me, and the disguised name which has cost me so many mortifications +become grateful, since she will not disdain to share it." + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + + A little druid wight + Of withered aspect; but his eye was keen + With sweetness mixed,--a russet brown bedight. + THOMSON: Castle of Indolence. + + Thus holding high discourse, they came to where + The cursed carle was at his wonted trade, + Still tempting heedless men into his snare, + In witching wise, as I before have said.--Ibid. + +It was a fine, joyous summer morning when Clarence set out, alone and +on horseback, upon his enterprise of love and adventure. If there be +anything on earth more reviving and inspiriting than another, it is, +to my taste, a bright day,--a free horse, a journey of excitement +before one, and loneliness! Rousseau--in his own way, a great though +rather a morbid epicure of this world's enjoyments--talks with rapture +of his pedestrian rambles when in his first youth. But what are your +foot-ploddings to the joy which lifts you into air with the bound of +your mettled steed? + +But there are times when an iron and stern sadness locks, as it were, +within itself our capacities of enjoyment; and the song of the birds, +and the green freshness of the summer morning, and the glad motion of +the eager horse, brought neither relief nor change to the musings of +the young adventurer. + +He rode on for several miles without noticing anything on his road, +and only now and then testifying the nature of his thoughts and his +consciousness of solitude by brief and abrupt exclamations and +sentences, which proclaimed the melancholy yet exciting subjects of +his meditations. During the heat of the noon, he rested at a small +public-house about ---- miles from town; and resolving to take his +horse at least ten miles farther before his day's journey ceased, he +remounted towards the evening and slowly resumed his way. + +He was now entering the same county in which he first made his +appearance in this history. Although several miles from the spot on +which the memorable night with the gypsies had been passed, his +thoughts reverted to its remembrance, and he sighed as he recalled the +ardent hopes which then fed and animated his heart. While thus +musing, he heard the sound of hoofs behind him, and presently came by +a sober-looking man, on a rough, strong pony, laden (besides its +master's weight) with saddle-bags of uncommon size, and to all +appearance substantially and artfully filled. + +Clarence looked, and, after a second survey, recognized the person of +his old acquaintance, Mr. Morris Brown. + +Not equally reminiscent was the worshipful itinerant, who, in the +great variety of forms and faces which it was his professional lot to +encounter, could not be expected to preserve a very nice or +distinguishing recollection of each. + +"Your servant, sir, your servant," said Mr. Brown, as he rode his pony +alongside of our traveller. "Are you going as far as W---- this +evening?" + +"I hardly know yet," answered Clarence; "the length of my ride depends +upon my horse rather than myself." + +"Oh, well, very well," said Mr. Brown; "but you will allow me, +perhaps, sir, the honour of riding with you as far as you go." + +"You give me much gratification by your proposal, Mr. Brown!" said +Clarence. + +The broker looked in surprise at his companion. "So you know me, +sir?" + +"I do," replied Clarence. "I am surprised that you have forgotten +me." + +Slowly Mr. Brown gazed, till at last his memory began to give itself +the rousing shake. "God bless me, sir, I beg you a thousand pardons: +I now remember you perfectly; Mr. Linden, the nephew of my old +patroness, Mrs. Minden. Dear, dear, how could I be so forgetful! I +hope, by the by, sir, that the shirts wore well? I am thinking you +will want some more. I have some capital cambric of curiously fine +quality and texture, from the wardrobe of the late Lady Waddilove." + +"What, Lady Waddilove still!" cried Clarence. "Why, my good friend, +you will offer next to furnish me with pantaloons from her ladyship's +wardrobe." + +"Why, really, sir, I see you preserve your fine spirits; but I do +think I have one or two pair of plum-coloured velvet inexpressibles, +that passed into my possession when her ladyship's husband died, which +might, perhaps, with a leetle alteration, fit you, and, at all events, +would be a very elegant present from a gentleman to his valet." + +"Well, Mr. Brown, whenever I or my valet wear plum-coloured velvet +breeches, I will certainly purchase those in your possession; but to +change the subject, can you inform me what has become of my old host +and hostess, the Copperases, of Copperas Bower?" + +"Oh, sir, they are the same as ever; nice, genteel people they are, +too. Master Adolphus has grown into a fine young gentleman, very +nearly as tall as you and I are. His worthy father preserves his +jovial vein, and is very merry whenever I call there. Indeed it was +but last week that he made an admirable witticism. 'Bob,' said he +(Tom,--you remember Tom, or De Warens, as Mrs. Copperas was pleased to +call him,--Tom is gone), 'Bob, have you stopped the coach?' 'Yes, +sir,' said Bob. 'And what coach is it?' asked Mr. Copperas. 'It be +the Swallow, sir,' said the boy. 'The Swallow! oh, very well,' cried +Mr. Copperas; 'then, now, having swallowed in the roll, I will e'en +roll in the swallow! 'Ha! ha! ha! sir, very facetious, was it not?" + +"Very, indeed," said Clarence; "and so Mr. de Warens has gone; how +came that?" + +"Why, sir, you see, the boy was always of a gay turn, and he took to +frisking about, as he called it, of a night, and so he was taken up +for thrashing a watchman, and appeared before Sir John, the +magistrate, the next morning." + +"Caractacus before Caesar!" observed Linden; "and what said Caesar?" + +"Sir?" said Mr. Brown. + +"I mean, what said Sir John?" + +"Oh! he asked him his name, and Tom, whose head Mrs. Copperas (poor +good woman!) had crammed with pride enough for fifty foot-boys, +replied, 'De Warens,' with all the air of a man of independence. 'De +Warens!' cried Sir John, amazed, 'we'll have no De's here: take him to +Bridewell!' and so, Mrs. Copperas, being without a foot-boy, sent for +me, and I supplied her--with Bob!" + +"Out of the late Lady Waddilove's wardrobe too?" said Clarence. + +"Ha, ha! that's well, very well, sir. No, not exactly; but he was a +son of her late ladyship's coachman. Mr. Copperas has had two other +servants of the name of Bob before, but this is the biggest of all, so +he humorously calls him 'Triple Bob Major!' You observe that road to +the right, sir: it leads to the mansion of an old customer of mine, +General Cornelius St. Leger; many a good bargain have I sold to his +sister. Heaven rest her! when she died I lost a good friend, though +she was a little hot or so, to be sure. But she had a relation, a +young lady; such a lovely, noble-looking creature: it did one's heart, +ay, and one's eyes also, good to look at her; and she's gone too; +well, well, one loses one's customers sadly; it makes me feel old and +comfortless to think of it. Now, yonder, as far as you can see among +those distant woods, lived another friend of mine, to whom I offered +to make some very valuable presents upon his marriage with the young +lady I spoke of just now, but, poor gentleman, he had not time to +accept them; he lost his property by a lawsuit, a few months after he +was married, and a very different person now has Mordaunt Court." + +"Mordaunt Court!" cried Clarence; "do you mean to say that Mr. +Mordaunt has lost that property?" + +"Why, sir, one Mr. Mordaunt has lost it, and another has gained it: +but the real Mr. Mordaunt has not an acre in this county or elsewhere, +I fear, poor gentleman. He is universally regretted, for he was very +good and very generous, though they say he was also mighty proud and +reserved; but for my part I never perceived it. If one is not proud +one's self, Mr. Linden, one is very little apt to be hurt by pride in +other people." + +"And where is Mr. Algernon Mordaunt?" asked Clarence, as he recalled +his interview with that person, and the interest with which Algernon +then inspired him. + +"That, sir, is more than any of us can say. He has disappeared +altogether. Some declare that he has gone abroad, others that he is +living in Wales in the greatest poverty. However, wherever he is, I +am sure that he cannot be rich; for the lawsuit quite ruined him, and +the young lady he married had not a farthing." + +"Poor Mordaunt!" said Clarence, musingly. + +"I think, sir, that the squire would not be best pleased if he heard +you pity him. I don't know why, but he certainly looked, walked, and +moved like one whom you felt it very hard to pity. But I am thinking +that it is a great shame that the general should not do anything for +Mr. Mordaunt's wife, for she was his own flesh and blood; and I am +sure he had no cause to be angry at her marrying a gentleman of such +old family as Mr. Mordaunt. I am a great stickler for birth, sir; I +learned that from the late Lady W. 'Brown,' she said, and I shall +never forget her ladyship's air when she did say it, 'Brown, respect +your superiors, and never fall into the hands of the republicans and +atheists'!" + +"And why," said Clarence, who was much interested in Mordaunt's fate, +"did General St. Leger withhold his consent?" + +"That we don't exactly know, sir; but some say that Mr. Mordaunt was +very high and proud with the general, and the general was to the full +as fond of his purse as Mr. Mordaunt could be of his pedigree; and so, +I suppose, one pride clashed against the other, and made a quarrel +between them." + +"Would not the general, then, relent after the marriage?" + +"Oh! no, sir; for it was a runaway affair. Miss Diana St. Leger, his +sister, was as hot as ginger upon it, and fretted and worried the poor +general, who was never of the mildest, about the match, till at last +he forbade the poor young lady's very name to be mentioned. And when +Miss Diana died about two years ago, he suddenly introduced a tawny +sort of cretur, whom they call a mulatto or creole, or some such +thing, into the house; and it seems that he has had several children +by her, whom he never durst own during Miss Diana's life, but whom he +now declares to be his heirs. Well, they rule him with a rod of iron, +and suck him as dry as an orange. They are a bad, griping set, all of +them; and, I am sure, I don't say so from any selfish feeling, Mr. +Linden, though they have forbid me the house, and called me, to my +very face, an old cheating Jew. Think of that, sir!--I, whom the late +Lady W. in her exceeding friendship used to call 'honest Brown,'--I +whom your worthy--" + +"And who," uncourteously interrupted Clarence, "has Mordaunt Court +now?" + +"Why, a distant relation of the last squire's, an elderly gentleman +who calls himself Mr. Vavasour Mordaunt. I am going there to-morrow +morning, for I still keep up a connection with the family. Indeed the +old gentleman bought a lovely little ape of me, which I did intend as +a present to the late (as I may call him) Mr. Mordaunt; so, though I +will not say I exactly like him,--he is a hard hand at a bargain,--yet +at least I will not deny him his due." + +"What sort of a person is he? What character does he bear?" asked +Clarence. + +"I really find it hard to answer that question," said the gossiping +Mr. Brown. "In great things he is very lavish and ostentatious, but +in small things he is very penurious and saving, and miser-like; and +all for one son, who is deformed and very sickly. He seems to dote on +that boy; and now I have got two or three little presents in these +bags for Mr. Henry. Heaven forgive me, but when I look at the poor +creature, with his face all drawn up, and his sour, ill-tempered +voice, and his limbs crippled, I almost think it would be better if he +were in his grave, and the rightful Mr. Mordaunt, who would then be +the next of kin, in his place." + +"So then, there is only this unhappy cripple between Mr. Mordaunt and +the property?" said Clarence. + +"Exactly so, sir. But will you let me ask where you shall put up at +W----? I will wait upon you, if you will give me leave, with some +very curious and valuable articles, highly desirable either for +yourself or for little presents to your friends." + +"I thank you," said Clarence, "I shall make no stay at W----, but I +shall be glad to see you in town next week. Favour me, meanwhile, by +accepting this trifle." + +"Nay, nay, sir," said Mr. Brown, pocketing the money, "I really cannot +accept this; anything in the way of exchange,--a ring, or a seal, or-- +" + +"No, no, not at present," said Clarence; "the night is coming on, and +I shall make the best of my way. Good-by, Mr. Brown;" and Clarence +trotted off: but he had scarce got sixty yards before he heard the +itinerant merchant cry out, "Mr. Linden, Mr. Linden!" and looking +back, he beheld the honest Brown putting his shaggy pony at full +speed, in order to overtake him; so he pulled up. + +"Well, Mr. Brown, what do you want?" + +"Why, you see, sir, you gave me no exact answer about the plum-colored +velvet inexpressibles," said Mr. Brown. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + + Are we contemned?--The Double Marriage. + +It was dusk when Clarence arrived at the very same inn at which, more +than five years ago, he had assumed his present name. As he recalled +the note addressed to him, and the sum (his whole fortune) which it +contained, he could not help smiling at the change his lot had since +then undergone; but the smile soon withered when he thought of the +kind and paternal hand from which that change had proceeded, and knew +that his gratitude was no longer availing, and that that hand, in +pouring its last favours upon him, had become cold. He was ushered +into No. 4, and left to his meditations till bed-time. + +The next day he recommenced his journey. Westborough Park, was, +though in another county, within a short ride of W----; but, as he +approached it, the character of the scenery became essentially +changed. Bare, bold, and meagre, the features of the country bore +somewhat of a Scottish character. On the right side of the road was a +precipitous and perilous descent, and some workmen were placing posts +along a path for foot-passengers on that side nearest the carriage- +road, probably with a view to preserve unwary coachmen or equestrians +from the dangerous vicinity of the descent, which a dark night might +cause them to incur. As Clarence looked idly on the workmen, and +painfully on the crumbling and fearful descent I have described, he +little thought that that spot would, a few years after, become the +scene of a catastrophe affecting in the most powerful degree the +interests of his future life. Our young traveller put up his horse at +a small inn, bearing the Westborough arms, and situated at a short +distance from the park gates. Now that he was so near his mistress-- +now that less than an hour, nay, than the fourth part of an hour, +might place him before her, and decide his fate--his heart, which had +hitherto sustained him, grew faint, and presented, first fear, then +anxiety, and, at last, despondency to his imagination and forebodings. + +"At all events," said he, "I will see her alone before I will confer +with her artful and proud mother or her cipher of a father. I will +then tell her all my history, and open to her all my secrets: I will +only conceal from her my present fortunes; for even if rumour should +have informed her of them, it will be easy to give the report no +sanction; I have a right to that trial. When she is convinced that, +at least, neither my birth nor character can disgrace her, I shall see +if her love can enable her to overlook my supposed poverty and to +share my uncertain lot. If so, there will be some triumph in +undeceiving her error and rewarding her generosity; if not, I shall be +saved from involving my happiness with that of one who looks only to +my worldly possessions. I owe it to her, it is true, to show her that +I am no low-born pretender: but I owe it also to myself to ascertain +if my own individual qualities are sufficient to gain her hand." + +Fraught with these ideas, which were natural enough to a man whose +peculiar circumstances were well calculated to make him feel rather +soured and suspicious, and whose pride had been severely wounded by +the contempt with which his letter had been treated, Clarence walked +into the park, and, hovering around the house, watched and waited that +opportunity of addressing Lady Flora, which he trusted her habits of +walking would afford him; but hours rolled away, the evening set in, +and Lady Flora had not once quitted the house. + +More disappointed and sick at heart than he liked to confess, Clarence +returned to his inn, took his solitary meal, and strolling once more +into the park, watched beneath the windows till midnight, endeavouring +to guess which were the casements of her apartments, and feeling his +heart beat high at every light which flashed forth and disappeared, +and every form which flitted across the windows of the great +staircase. Little did Lady Flora, as she sat in her room alone, and, +in tears, mused over Clarence's fancied worthlessness and infidelity, +and told her heart again and again that she loved no more,--little did +she know whose eye kept vigils without, or whose feet brushed away the +rank dews beneath her windows, or whose thoughts, though not +altogether unmingled with reproach, were riveted with all the ardour +of a young and first love upon her. + +It was unfortunate for Linden that he had no opportunity of personally +pleading his suit; his altered form and faded countenance would at +least have insured a hearing and an interest for his honest though +somewhat haughty sincerity: but though that day, and the next, and the +next, were passed in the most anxious and unremitting vigilance, +Clarence only once caught a glimpse of Lady Flora, and then she was +one amidst a large party; and Clarence, fearful of a premature and +untimely discovery, was forced to retire into the thicknesses of the +park, and lose the solitary reward of his watches almost as soon as he +had won it. + +Wearied and racked by his suspense, and despairing of obtaining any +favourable opportunity for an interview without such a request, +Clarence at last resolved to write to Lady Flora, entreating her +assent to a meeting, in which he pledged himself to clear up all that +had hitherto seemed doubtful in his conduct or mysterious in his +character. Though respectful, urgent, and bearing the impress of +truth and feeling, the tone of the letter was certainly that of a man +who conceived he had a right to a little resentment for the past and a +little confidence for the future. It was what might well be written +by one who imagined his affection had once been returned, but would as +certainly have been deemed very presumptuous by a lady who thought +that the affection itself was a liberty. + +Having penned this epistle, the next care was how to convey it. After +much deliberation it was at last committed to the care of a little +girl, the daughter of the lodge-keeper, whom Lady Flora thrice a week +personally instructed in the mysteries of spelling, reading, and +calligraphy. With many injunctions to deliver the letter only to the +hands of the beautiful teacher, Clarence trusted his despatches to the +little scholar, and, with a trembling frame and wistful eye, watched +Susan take her road, with her green satchel and her shining cheeks, to +the great house. + +One hour, two hours, three hours, passed, and the messenger had not +returned. Restless and impatient, Clarence walked back to his inn, +and had not been there many minutes before a servant, in the +Westborough livery, appeared at the door of the humble hostelry, and +left the following letter for his perusal and gratification:-- + +WESTBOROUGH PASS. + +Sir,--The letter intended for my daughter has just been given to me by +Lady Westborough. I know not what gave rise to the language, or the +very extraordinary request for a clandestine meeting, which you have +thought proper to address to Lady Flora Ardenne; but you will allow me +to observe that, if you intend to confer upon my daughter the honour +of a matrimonial proposal, she fully concurs with me and her mother in +the negative which I feel necessitated to put upon your obliging +offer. + +I need not add that all correspondence with my daughter must close +here. I have the honour to be, sir, + +Your very obedient servant, WESTBOROUGH. + +TO CLARENCE LINDEN, Esq. + +Had Clarence's blood been turned to fire, his veins could not have +swelled and burned with a fiercer heat than they did, as he read the +above letter,--a masterpiece, perhaps, in the line of what may be +termed the "d--d civil" of epistolary favours. "Insufferable +arrogance!" he muttered within his teeth. "I will live to repay it. +Perfidious, unfeeling woman: what an escape I have had of her! Now, +now, I am on the world, and alone, thank Heaven. I will accept +Aspeden's offer, and leave this country; when I return, it shall not +be as a humble suitor to Lady Flora Ardenne. Pish! how the name +sickens me: but come, I have a father; at least a nominal one. He is +old and weak, and may die before I return. I will see him once more, +and then, hey for Italy! Oh! I am so happy,--so happy at my freedom +and escape. What, ho! waiter! my horse instantly!" + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + + Lucr.--What has thy father done? + Beat.--What have I done? Am I not innocent?--The Cenci. + +Tam twilight was darkening slowly over a room of noble dimensions and +costly fashion. Although it was the height of summer, a low fire +burned in the grate; and, stretching his hands over the feeble flame, +an old man of about sixty sat in an armchair curiously carved with +armorial bearings. The dim yet fitful flame cast its upward light +upon a countenance, stern, haughty, and repellent, where the passions +of youth and manhood had dug themselves graves in many an iron line +and deep furrow: the forehead, though high, was narrow and compressed; +the brows sullenly overhung the eyes; and the nose, which was +singularly prominent and decided, age had sharpened, and brought out, +as it were, till it gave a stubborn and very forbidding expression to +the more sunken features over which it rose with exaggerated dignity. +Two bottles of wine, a few dried preserves, and a water glass, richly +chased, and ornamented with gold, showed that the inmate of the +apartment had passed the hour of the principal repast, and his +loneliness at a time usually social seemed to indicate that few olive +branches were accustomed to overshadow his table. + +The windows of the dining-room reached to the ground, and without the +closing light just enabled one to see a thick copse of wood, which, at +a very brief interval of turf, darkened immediately opposite the +house. While the old man was thus bending over the fire and conning +his evening contemplations, a figure stole from the copse I have +mentioned, and, approaching the window, looked pryingly into the +apartment; then with a noiseless hand it opened the spring of the +casement, which was framed on a peculiar and old-fashioned +construction, that required a practised and familiar touch, entered +the apartment, and crept on, silent and unperceived by the inhabitant +of the room, till it paused and stood motionless, with folded arms, +scarce three steps behind the high back of the old man's chair. + +In a few minutes the latter moved from his position, and slowly rose; +the abruptness with which he turned, brought the dark figure of the +intruder full and suddenly before him: he started back, and cried in +an alarmed tone, "Who is there?" + +The stranger made no reply. + +The old man, in a voice in which anger and pride mingled with fear, +repeated the question. The figure advanced, dropped the cloak in +which it was wrapped, and presenting the features of Clarence Linden, +said, in a low but clear tone,-- + +"Your son." + +The old man dropped his hold of the bell-rope, which he had just +before seized, and leaned as if for support against the oak wainscot; +Clarence approached. + +"Yes!" said he, mournfully, "your unfortunate, your offending, but +your guiltless son. More than five years I have been banished from +your house; I have been thrown, while yet a boy, without friends, +without guidance, without name, upon the wide world, and to the mercy +of chance. I come now to you as a man, claiming no assistance, and +uttering no reproach, but to tell you that him whom an earthly father +rejected God has preserved; that without one unworthy or debasing act +I have won for myself the friends who support and the wealth which +dignifies life,--since it renders it independent. Through all the +disadvantages I have struggled against I have preserved unimpaired my +honour, and unsullied my conscience; you have disowned, but you might +have claimed me without shame. Father, these hands are clean!" + +A strong and evident emotion shook the old man's frame. He raised +himself to his full height, which was still tall and commanding, and +in a voice, the natural harshness of which was rendered yet more +repellent by passion, replied, "Boy! your presumption is insufferable. +What to me is your wretched fate? Go, go, go to your miserable +mother: find her out; claim kindred there; live together, toil +together, rot together, but come not to me! disgrace to my house, ask +not admittance to my affections; the law may give you my name, but +sooner would I be torn piecemeal than own your right to it. If you +want money, name the sum, take it: cut up my fortune to shreds, seize +my property, revel on it; but come not here. This house is sacred; +pollute it not: I disown you; I discard you; I,--ay, I detest,--I +loathe you!" + +And with these words, which came forth as if heaved from the inmost +heart of the speaker, who shook with the fury he endeavoured to +stifle, he fell back into his chair, and fixed his eyes, which glared +fearfully through the increasing darkness upon Linden, who stood high, +erect, and sorrowfully before him. + +"Alas, my lord!" said Clarence, with mournful bitterness, "have not +the years which have seared your form and whitened your locks brought +some meekness to your rancour, some mercy to your injustice, for one +whose only crime against you seems to have been his birth. But I said +I came not to reproach, nor do I. Many a bitter hour, many a pang of +shame and mortification and misery, which have made scars in my heart +that will never wear away, my wrongs have cost me; but let them pass. +Let them not swell your future and last account whenever it be +required. I am about to leave this country, with a heavy and +foreboding heart; we may never meet again on earth. I have no longer +any wish, any chance, of resuming the name you have deprived me of. I +shall never thrust myself on your relationship or cross your view. +Lavish your wealth upon him whom you have placed so immeasurably above +me in your affections. But I have not deserved your curse, Father; +give me your blessing, and let me depart in peace." + +"Peace! and what peace have I had? what respite from gnawing shame, +the foulness and leprosy of humiliation and reproach, since--since--? +But this is not your fault, you say: no, no,--it is another's; and you +are only the mark of my stigma; my disgrace, not its perpetrator. Ha! +a nice distinction, truly. My blessing you say! Come, kneel; kneel, +boy, and have it!" + +Clarence approached, and stood bending and bareheaded before his +father, but he knelt not. + +"Why do you not kneel?" cried the old man, vehemently. + +"It is the attitude of the injurer, not of the injured!" said +Clarence, firmly. + +"Injured! insolent reprobate, is it not I who am injured? Do you not +read it in my brow,--here, here?" and the old man struck his clenched +hand violently against his temples. "Was I not injured?" he +continued, sinking his voice into a key unnaturally low; "did I not +trust implicitly? did I not give up my heart without suspicion? was I +not duped deliciously? was I not kind enough, blind enough, fool +enough and was I not betrayed,--damnably, filthily betrayed? But that +was no injury. Was not my old age turned into a sapless tree, a +poisoned spring? Were not my days made a curse to me, and my nights a +torture? Was I not, am I not, a mock and a by-word, and a miserable, +impotent, unavenged old man? Injured! But this is no injury! Boy, +boy, what are your wrongs to mine?" + +"Father!" cried Clarence, deprecatingly, "I am not the cause of your +wrongs: is it just that the innocent should suffer for the guilty?" + +"Speak not in that voice!" cried the old man, "that voice!--fie, fie +on it. Hence! away! away, boy! why tarry you? My son! and have that +voice? Pooh, you are not my son. Ha! ha!--my son?" + +"What am I, then?" said Clarence, soothingly: for he was shocked and +grieved, rather than irritated by a wrath which partook so strongly of +insanity. + +"I will tell you," cried the father, "I will tell you what you are: +you are my curse!" + +"Farewell!" said Clarence, much agitated, and retiring to the window +by which he had entered; "may your heart never smite you for your +cruelty! Farewell! may the blessing you have withheld from me be with +you!" + +"Stop! stay!" cried the father; for his fury was checked for one +moment, and his nature, fierce as it was, relented: but Clarence was +already gone, and the miserable old man was left alone to darkness, +and solitude, and the passions which can make a hell of the human +heart! + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + + Sed quae praeclara et prospera tanti, + Ut rebus laetis par sit mensura malornm?--JUVENAL. + + ["But what excellence or prosperity so great that there should be + an equal measure of evils for our joys?"] + +We are now transported to a father and a son of a very different +stamp. + +It was about the hour of one p.m., when the door of Mr. Vavasour +Mordaunt's study was thrown open, and the servant announced Mr. Brown. + +"Your servant, sir; your servant, Mr. Henry," said the itinerant, +bowing low to the two gentlemen thus addressed. The former, Mr. +Vavasour Mordaunt, might be about the same age as Linden's father. A +shrewd, sensible, ambitious man of the world, he had made his way from +the state of a younger brother, with no fortune and very little +interest, to considerable wealth, besides the property he had acquired +by law, and to a degree of consideration for general influence and +personal ability, which, considering he had no official or +parliamentary rank, very few of his equals enjoyed. Persevering, +steady, crafty, and possessing, to an eminent degree, that happy art +of "canting" which opens the readiest way to character and +consequence, the rise and reputation of Mr. Vavasour Mordaunt appeared +less to be wondered at than envied; yet, even envy was only for those +who could not look beyond the surface of things. He was at heart an +anxious and unhappy man. The evil we do in the world is often paid +back in the bosom of home. Mr. Vavasour Mordaunt was, like Crauford, +what might be termed a mistaken utilitarian: he had lived utterly and +invariably for self; but instead of uniting self-interest with the +interest of others, he considered them as perfectly incompatible ends. +But character was among the greatest of all objects to him; so that, +though he had rarely deviated into what might fairly be termed a +virtue, he had never transgressed what might rigidly be called a +propriety. He had not the aptitude, the wit, the moral audacity of +Crauford: he could not have indulged in one offence with impunity, by +a mingled courage and hypocrisy in veiling others; he was the slave of +the forms which Crauford subjugated to himself. He was only so far +resembling Crauford as one man of the world resembles another in +selfishness and dissimulation: he could be dishonest, not villanous,-- +much less a villain upon system. He was a canter, Crauford a +hypocrite: his uttered opinions were, like Crauford's, different from +his conduct; but he believed the truth of the former even while +sinning in the latter; he canted so sincerely that the tears came into +his eyes when he spoke. Never was there a man more exemplary in +words: people who departed from him went away impressed with the idea +of an excess of honour, a plethora of conscience. "It was almost a +pity," said they, "that Mr. Vavasour was so romantic;" and thereupon +they named him as executor to their wills and guardian to their sons. +None but he could, in carrying the lawsuit against Mordaunt, have lost +nothing in reputation by success. But there was something so +specious, so ostensibly fair in his manner and words, while he was +ruining Mordaunt, that it was impossible not to suppose he was +actuated by the purest motives, the most holy desire for justice; not +for himself, he said, for he was old, and already rich enough, but for +his son! From that son came the punishment of all his offences,--the +black drop at the bottom of a bowl seemingly so sparkling. To him, as +the father grew old and desirous of quiet, Vavasour had transferred +all his selfishness, as if to a securer and more durable firm. The +child, when young, had been singularly handsome and intelligent; and +Vavasour, as he toiled and toiled at his ingenious and graceful +cheateries, pleased himself with anticipating the importance and +advantages the heir to his labours would enjoy. For that son he +certainly had persevered more arduously than otherwise he might have +done in the lawsuit, of the justice of which he better satisfied the +world than his own breast; for that son he rejoiced as he looked +around the stately halls and noble domain from which the rightful +possessor had been driven; for that son he extended economy into +penuriousness, and hope into anxiety; and, too old to expect much more +from the world himself, for that son he anticipated, with a wearing +and feverish fancy, whatever wealth could purchase, beauty win, or +intellect command. + +But as if, like the Castle of Otranto, there was something in Mordaunt +Court which contained a penalty and a doom for the usurper, no sooner +had Vavasour possessed himself of his kinsman's estate, than the +prosperity of his life dried and withered away, like Jonah's gourd, in +a single night. His son, at the age of thirteen, fell from a +scaffold, on which the workmen were making some extensive alterations +in the old house, and became a cripple and a valetudinarian for life. +But still Vavasour, always of a sanguine temperament, cherished a hope +that surgical assistance might restore him: from place to place, from +professor to professor, from quack to quack, he carried the unhappy +boy, and as each remedy failed he was only the more impatient to +devise a new one. But as it was the mind as well as person of his son +in which the father had stored up his ambition; so, in despite of this +fearful accident and the wretched health by which it was followed, +Vavasour never suffered his son to rest from the tasks and tuitions +and lectures of the various masters by whom he was surrounded. The +poor boy, it is true, deprived of physical exertion and naturally of a +serious disposition, required very little urging to second his +father's wishes for his mental improvement; and as the tutors were all +of the orthodox university calibre, who imagine that there is no +knowledge (but vanity) in any other works than those in which their +own education has consisted, so Henry Vavasour became at once the +victor and victim of Bentleys and Scaligers, word-weighers and metre- +scanners, till, utterly ignorant of everything which could have +softened his temper, dignified his misfortunes, and reconciled him to +his lot, he was sinking fast into the grave, soured by incessant pain +into moroseness, envy, and bitterness; exhausted by an unwholesome and +useless application to unprofitable studies; an excellent scholar (as +it is termed), with the worst regulated and worst informed mind of +almost any of his contemporaries equal to himself in the advantages of +ability, original goodness of disposition, and the costly and profuse +expenditure of education. + +But the vain father, as he heard, on all sides, of his son's talents, +saw nothing sinister in their direction; and though the poor boy grew +daily more contracted in mind and broken in frame, Vavasour yet hugged +more and more closely to his breast the hope of ultimate cure for the +latter and future glory for the former. So he went on heaping money +and extending acres, and planting and improving and building and +hoping and anticipating, for one at whose very feet the grave was +already dug! + +But we left Mr. Brown in the study, making his bow and professions of +service to Mr. Vavasour Mordaunt and his son. + +"Good day, honest Brown," said the former, a middle-sized and rather +stout man, with a well-powdered head, and a sharp, shrewd, and very +sallow countenance; "good day; have you brought any of the foreign +liqueurs you spoke of, for Mr. Henry?" + +"Yes, sir, I have some curiously fine eau d'or and liqueur des files, +besides the marasquino and curacoa. The late Lady Waddilove honoured +my taste in these matters with her especial approbation." + +"My dear boy," said Vavasour, turning to his son, who lay extended on +the couch, reading not the "Prometheus" (that most noble drama ever +created), but the notes upon it, "my dear boy, as you are fond of +liqueurs, I desired Brown to get some peculiarly fine; perhaps--" + +"Pish!" said the son, fretfully interrupting him, "do, I beseech you, +take your hand off my shoulder. See now, you have made me lose my +place. I really do wish you would leave me alone for one moment in +the day." + +"I beg your pardon, Henry," said the father, looking reverently on the +Greek characters which his son preferred to the newspaper. "It is +very vexatious, I own; but do taste these liqueurs. Dr. Lukewarm said +you might have everything you liked--" + +"But quiet!" muttered the cripple. + +"I assure you, sir," said the wandering merchant, "that they are +excellent; allow me, Mr. Vavasour Mordaunt, to ring for a corkscrew. +I really do think, sir, that Mr. Henry looks much better. I declare +he has quite a colour." + +"No, indeed!" said Vavasour, eagerly. "Well, it seems to me, too, +that he is getting better. I intend him to try Mr. E----'s patent +collar in a day or two; but that will in some measure prevent his +reading. A great pity; for I am very anxious that he should lose no +time in his studies just at present. He goes to Cambridge in +October." + +"Indeed, sir! Well, he will set the town in a blaze, I guess, sir! +Everybody says what a fine scholar Mr. Henry is,--even in the +servants' hall!" + +"Ay, ay," said Vavasour, gratified even by this praise, "he is clever +enough, Brown; and, what is more" (and here Vavasour's look grew +sanctified), "he is good enough. His principles do equal honour to +his head and heart. He would be no son of mine if he were not as much +the gentleman as the scholar." + +The youth lifted his heavy and distorted face from his book, and a +sneer raised his lip for a moment; but a sudden spasm of pain seizing +him, the expression changed, and Vavasour, whose eyes were fixed upon +him, hastened to his assistance. + +"Throw open the window, Brown, ring the bell, call--" + +"Pooh, Father," cried the boy, with a sharp, angry voice, "I am not +going to die yet, nor faint either; but it is all your fault. If you +will have those odious, vulgar people here for your own pleasure, at +least suffer me, another day, to retire." + +"My son, my son!" said the grieved father, in reproachful anger, "it +was my anxiety to give you some trifling enjoyment that brought Brown +here: you must be sensible of that!" + +"You tease me to death," grumbled the peevish unfortunate. + +"Well, sir," said Mr. Brown, "shall I leave the bottles here? or do +you please that I shall give them to the butler? I see that I am +displeasing and troublesome to Mr. Henry; but as my worthy friend and +patroness, the late Lady--" + +"Go, go, honest Brown!" said Vavasour (who desired every man's good +word), "go, and give the liqueurs to Preston. Mr. Henry is extremely +sorry that he is too unwell to see you now; and I--I have the heart of +a father for his sufferings." + +Mr. Brown withdrew. "'Odious and vulgar,'" said he to himself, in a +little fury,--for Mr. Brown peculiarly valued himself on his +gentility,--"'odious and vulgar!' To think of his little lordship +uttering such shameful words! However, I will go into the steward's +room, and abuse him there. But, I suppose, I shall get no dinner in +this house,--no, not so much as a crust of bread; for while the old +gentleman is launching out into such prodigious expenses on a great +scale,--making heathenish temples, and spoiling the fine old house +with his new picture gallery and nonsense,--he is so close in small +matters, that I warrant not a candle-end escapes him; griping and +pinching and squeezing with one hand, and scattering money, as if it +were dirt, with the other,--and all for that cross, ugly, deformed, +little whippersnapper of a son. 'Odious and vulgar,' indeed! What +shocking language! Mr. Algernon Mordaunt would never have made use of +such words, I know. And, bless me, now I think of it, I wonder where +that poor gentleman is. The young heir here is not long for this +world, I can see; and who knows but what Mr. Algernon may be in great +distress; and I am sure, as far as four hundred pounds, or even a +thousand, go, I would not mind lending it him, only upon the post- +obits of Squire Vavasour and his hopeful. I like doing a kind thing; +and Mr. Algernon was always very good to me; and I am sure I don't +care about the security, though I think it will be as sure as +sixpence; for the old gentleman must be past sixty, and the young one +is the worse life of the two. And when he's gone, what relation so +near as Mr. Algernon? We should help one another; it is but one's +duty: and if he is in great distress he would not mind a handsome +premium. Well, nobody can say Morris Brown is not as charitable as +the best Christian breathing; and, as the late Lady Waddilove very +justly observed, 'Brown, believe me, a prudent risk is the surest +gain!' I will lose no time in finding the late squire out." + +Muttering over these reflections, Mr. Brown took his way to the +steward's room. + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +Clar.--How, two letters?--The Lover's Progress. + +LETTER FROM CLARENCE LINDEN, ESQ., TO THE DUKE OF HAVERFIELD. + +HOTEL ----, CALAIS. + +My Dear Duke,--After your kind letter, you will forgive me for not +having called upon you before I left England, for you have led me to +hope that I may dispense with ceremony towards you; and, in sad and +sober earnest, I was in no mood to visit even you during the few days +I was in London, previous to my departure. Some French philosopher +has said that, 'the best compliment we can pay our friends, when in +sickness or misfortune, is to avoid them.' I will not say how far I +disagree with this sentiment, but I know that a French philosopher +will be an unanswerable authority with you; and so I will take shelter +even under the battery of an enemy. + +I am waiting here for some days in expectation of Lord Aspeden's +arrival. Sick as I was of England and all that has lately occurred to +me there, I was glad to have an opportunity of leaving it sooner than +my chief could do; and I amuse myself very indifferently in this dull +town, with reading all the morning, plays all the evening, and dreams +of my happier friends all the night. + +And so you are sorry that I did not destroy Lord Borodaile. My dear +duke, you would have been much more sorry if I had! What could you +then have done for a living Pasquin for your stray lampoons and +vagrant sarcasms? Had an unfortunate bullet carried away-- + + "That peer of England, pillar of the state," + +as you term him, pray on whom could 'Duke Humphrey unfold his +griefs'?--Ah, Duke, better as it is, believe me; and, whenever you are +at a loss for a subject for wit, you will find cause to bless my +forbearance, and congratulate yourself upon the existence of its +object. + +Dare I hope that, amidst all the gayeties which court you, you will +find time to write to me? If so, you shall have in return the +earliest intelligence of every new soprano, and the most elaborate +criticisms on every budding figurante of our court. + +Have you met Trollolop lately, and in what new pursuit are his +intellectual energies engaged? There, you see, I have fairly +entrapped your Grace into a question which common courtesy will oblige +you to answer. + +Adieu, ever, my dear Duke. Most truly yours, etc. + +LETTER FROM THE DUKE OF HAVERFIELD TO CLARENCE LINDEN, ESQ. + +A thousand thanks, mon cher, for your letter, though it was certainly +less amusing and animated than I could have wished it for your sake, +as well as my own; yet it could not have been more welcomely received, +had it been as witty as your conversation itself. I heard that you +had accepted the place of secretary to Lord Aspeden, and that you had +passed through London on your way to the Continent, looking (the +amiable Callythorpe, 'who never flatters,' is my authority) more like +a ghost than yourself. So you may be sure, my dear Linden, that I was +very anxious to be convinced under your own hand of your carnal +existence. + +Take care of yourself, my good fellow, and don't imagine, as I am apt +to do, that youth is like my hunter, Fearnought, and will carry you +over everything. In return for your philosophical maxim, I will give +you another. "In age we should remember that we have been young, and +in youth that we are to be old." Ehem!--am I not profound as a +moralist? I think a few such sentences would become my long face +well; and, to say truth, I am tired of being witty; every one thinks +he can be that: so I will borrow Trollolop's philosophy,--take snuff, +wear a wig out of curl, and grow wise instead of merry. + +A propos of Trollolop; let me not forget that you honour him with your +inquiries. I saw him three days since, and he asked me if I had been +impressed lately with the idea vulgarly called Clarence Linden; and he +then proceeded to inform me that he had heard the atoms which composed +your frame were about to be resolved into a new form. While I was +knitting my brows very wisely at this intelligence, he passed on to +apprise me that I had neither length, breadth, nor extension, nor +anything but mind. Flattered by so delicate a compliment to my +understanding, I yielded my assent: and he then shifted his ground, +and told me that there was no such thing as mind; that we were but +modifications of matter; and that, in a word, I was all body. I took +advantage of this doctrine, and forthwith removed my modification of +matter from his. + +Findlater has just lost his younger brother in a duel. You have no +idea how shocking it was. Sir Christopher one day heard his brother, +who had just entered the ---- Dragoons, ridiculed for his want of +spirit, by Major Elton, who professed to be the youth's best friend. +The honest heart of our worthy baronet was shocked beyond measure at +this perfidy, and the next time his brother mentioned Elton's name +with praise, out came the story. You may guess the rest: young +Findlater called out Elton, who shot him through the lungs! "I did it +for the best," cried Sir Christopher. + +La pauvre petite Meronville! What an Ariadne! Just as I was thinking +to play the Bacchus to your Theseus, up steps an old gentleman from +Yorkshire, who hears it is fashionable to marry bonas robas, proposes +honourable matrimony, and deprives me and the world of La Meronville! +The wedding took place on Monday last, and the happy pair set out to +their seat in the North. Verily, we shall have quite a new race in +the next generation; I expect all the babes will skip into the world +with a pas de zephyr, singing in sweet trebles,-- + + "Little dancing loves we are! + Who the deuce is our papa?" + +I think you will be surprised to hear that Lord Borodaile is beginning +to thaw; I saw him smile the other day! Certainly, we are not so near +the North Pole as we were! He is going, and so am I, in the course of +the autumn, to your old friends the Westboroughs. Report says that he +is un peu epris de la belle Flore; but, then, Report is such a liar! +For my own part I always contradict her. + +I eagerly embrace your offer of correspondence, and assure you that +there are few people by whose friendship I conceive myself so much +honoured as by yours. You will believe this; for you know that, like +Callythorpe, I never flatter. Farewell for the present. + +Sincerely yours, HAVERFIELD. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + + Q. Eliz.--Shall I be tempted of the devil thus? + K. Rich.--Ay, if the devil tempt thee to do good. + Q. Eliz.--Shall I forget myself to be myself?--SHAKSPEARE. + +It wanted one hour to midnight, as Crauford walked slowly to the +lonely and humble street where he had appointed his meeting with +Glendower. It was a stormy and fearful night. The day had been +uncommonly sultry, and, as it died away, thick masses of cloud came +labouring along the air, which lay heavy and breathless, as if under a +spell,--as if in those dense and haggard vapours the rider of the +storm sat, like an incubus, upon the atmosphere beneath, and paralyzed +the motion and wholesomeness of the sleeping winds. And about the +hour of twilight, or rather when twilight should have been, instead of +its quiet star, from one obscure corner of the heavens flashed a +solitary gleam of lightning, lingered a moment,-- + + "And ere a man had power to say, Behold! + The jaws of darkness did devour it up." + +But then, as if awakened from a torpor by a signal universally +acknowledged, from the courts and quarters of heaven, came, blaze +after blaze, and peal upon peal, the light and voices of the Elements +when they walk abroad. The rain fell not: all was dry and arid; the +mood of Nature seemed not gentle enough for tears; and the lightning, +livid and forked, flashed from the sullen clouds with a deadly +fierceness, made trebly perilous by the panting drought and stagnation +of the air. The streets were empty and silent, as if the huge city +had been doomed and delivered to the wrath of the tempest; and ever +and anon the lightnings paused upon the housetops, shook and quivered +as if meditating their stroke, and then, baffled as it were, by some +superior and guardian agency, vanished into their gloomy tents, and +made their next descent from some opposite corner of the skies. + +It was a remarkable instance of the force with which a cherished +object occupies the thoughts, and of the all-sufficiency of the human +mind to itself, the slowness and unconsciousness of danger with which +Crauford, a man luxurious as well as naturally timid, moved amidst the +angry fires of heaven and brooded, undisturbed and sullenly serene, +over the project at his heart. + +"A rare night for our meeting," thought he; "I suppose he will not +fail me. Now let me con over my task. I must not tell him all yet. +Such babes must be led into error before they can walk: just a little +inkling will suffice, a glimpse into the arcana of my scheme. Well, +it is indeed fortunate that I met him, for verily I am surrounded with +danger, and a very little delay in the assistance I am forced to seek +might exalt me to a higher elevation than the peerage." + +Such was the meditation of this man, as with a slow, shufling walk, +characteristic of his mind, he proceeded to the appointed spot. + +A cessation of unusual length in the series of the lightnings, and the +consequent darkness, against which the dull and scanty lamps vainly +struggled, prevented Crauford and another figure approaching from the +opposite quarter seeing each other till they almost touched. Crauford +stopped abruptly. + +"Is it you?" said he. + +"It is a man who has outlived fortune!" answered Glendower, in the +exaggerated and metaphorical language which the thoughts of men who +imagine warmly, and are excited powerfully, so often assume. + +"Then," rejoined Crauford, "you are the more suited for my purpose. A +little urging of necessity behind is a marvellous whetter of the +appetite to danger before, he! he!" And as he said this, his low +chuckling laugh jarringly enough contrasted with the character of the +night and his companion. + +Glendower replied not: a pause ensued; and the lightning which, +spreading on a sudden from east to west, hung over the city a burning +and ghastly canopy, showed the face of each to the other, working and +almost haggard as it was with the conception of dark thoughts, and +rendered wan and unearthly by the spectral light in which it was +beheld. "It is an awful night," said Glendower. + +"True," answered Crauford, "a very awful night; but we are all safe +under the care of Providence. Jesus! what a flash! Think you it is a +favourable opportunity for our conversation?" + +"Why not?" said Glendower; "what have the thunders and wrath of Heaven +to do with us?" + +"H-e-m! h-e-m! God sees all things," rejoined Crauford, "and avenges +Himself on the guilty by His storms!" + +"Ay; but those are the storms of the heart! I tell you that even the +innocent may have that within to which the loudest tempests without +are peace! But guilt, you say; what have we to do with guilt?" + +Crauford hesitated, and, avoiding any reply to this question, drew +Glendower's arm within his own, and in a low half-whispered tone +said,-- + +"Glendower, survey mankind; look with a passionless and unprejudiced +eye upon the scene which moves around us: what do you see anywhere but +the same re-acted and eternal law of Nature,--all, all preying upon +each other? Or if there be a solitary individual who refrains, he is +as a man without a common badge, without a marriage garment, and the +rest trample him under foot! Glendower, you are such a man! Now +hearken, I will deceive you not; I honour you too much to beguile you, +even to your own good. I own to you, fairly and at once, that in the +scheme I shall unfold to you, there may be something repugnant, to the +factitious and theoretical principles of education,--something hostile +to the prejudices, though not to the reasonings, of the mind; but--" + +"Hold!" said Glendower, abruptly, pausing and fixing his bold and +searching eye upon the tempter; "hold! there will be no need of +argument or refinement in this case: tell me at once your scheme, and +at once I will accept or reject it!" + +"Gently," said Crauford; "to all deeds of contract there is a +preamble. Listen to me yet further: when I have ceased, I will listen +to you. It is in vain that you place man in cities; it is in vain +that you fetter him with laws; it is in vain that you pour into his +mind the light of an imperfect morality, of a glimmering wisdom, of an +ineffectual religion: in all places he is the same,--the same savage +and crafty being, who makes the passions which rule himself the tools +of his conquest over others! There is in all creation but one evident +law,--self-preservation! Split it as you like into hairbreadths and +atoms, it is still fundamentally and essentially unaltered. +Glendower, that self-preservation is our bond now. Of myself I do not +at present speak; I refer only to you: self-preservation commands you +to place implicit confidence in me; it impels you to abjure indigence, +by accepting the proposal I am about to make to you." + +"You, as yet, speak enigmas," said Glendower; "but they are +sufficiently clear to tell me their sense is not such as I have heard +you utter." + +"You are right. Truth is not always safe,--safe either to others, or +to ourselves! But I dare open to you now my real heart: look in it; I +dare to say that you will behold charity, benevolence, piety to God, +love and friendship at this moment to yourself; but I own, also, that +you will behold there a determination--which to me seems courage--not +to be the only idle being in the world, where all are busy; or, worse +still, to be the only one engaged in a perilous and uncertain game, +and yet shunning to employ all the arts of which he is master. I will +own to you that, long since, had I been foolishly inert, I should have +been, at this moment, more penniless and destitute than yourself. I +live happy, respected, wealthy! I enjoy in their widest range the +blessings of life. I dispense those blessings to others. Look round +the world: whose name stands fairer than mine? whose hand relieves +more of human distresses? whose tongue preaches purer doctrines? +None, Glendower, none. I offer to you means not dissimilar to those I +have chosen, fortunes not unequal to those I possess. Nothing but the +most unjustifiable fastidiousness will make you hesitate to accept my +offer." + +"You cannot expect that I have met you this night with a resolution to +be unjustifiably fastidious," said Glendower, with a hollow and cold +smile. + +Crauford did not immediately answer, for he was considering whether it +was yet the time for disclosing the important secret. While he was +deliberating, the sullen clouds began to break from their suspense. A +double darkness gathered around, and a few large drops fell on the +ground in token of a more general discharge about to follow from the +floodgates of heaven. The two men moved onward, and took shelter +under an old arch. Crauford first broke silence. "Hist!" said he, +hist! do you hear anything?" + +"Yes! I heard the winds and the rain, and the shaking houses, and the +plashing pavements, and the reeking housetops,--nothing more." + +Looking long and anxiously around to certify himself that none was +indeed the witness of their conference, Crauford approached close to +Glendower and laid his hand heavily upon his arm. At that moment a +vivid and lengthened flash of lightning shot through the ruined arch, +and gave to Crauford's countenance a lustre which Glendower almost +started to behold. The face, usually so smooth, calm, bright in +complexion, and almost inexpressive from its extreme composure, now +agitated by the excitement of the moment, and tinged by the ghastly +light of the skies, became literally fearful. The cold blue eye +glared out from its socket; the lips blanched, and, parting in act to +speak, showed the white glistening teeth; and the corners of the +mouth, drawn down in a half sneer, gave to the cheeks, rendered green +and livid by the lightning, a lean and hollow appearance contrary to +their natural shape. + +"It is," said Crauford, in a whispered but distinct tone, "a perilous +secret that I am about to disclose to you. I indeed have no concern +in it, but my lords the judges have, and you will not therefore be +surprised if I forestall the ceremonies of their court and require an +oath." + +Then, his manner and voice suddenly changing into an earnest and deep +solemnity, as excitement gave him an eloquence more impressive, +because unnatural to his ordinary moments, he continued: "By those +lightnings and commotions above; by the heavens in which they revel in +their terrible sports; by the earth, whose towers they crumble, and +herbs they blight, and creatures they blast into cinders at their +will; by Him whom, whatever be the name He bears, all men in the +living world worship and tremble before; by whatever is sacred in this +great and mysterious universe, and at the peril of whatever can wither +and destroy and curse,--swear to preserve inviolable and forever the +secret I shall whisper in your ear!" + +The profound darkness which now, in the pause of the lightning, +wrapped the scene, hid from Crauford all sight of the effect he had +produced, and even the very outline of Glendower's figure; but the +gloom made more distinct the voice which thrilled through it upon +Crauford's ear. + +"Promise me that there is not dishonour, nor crime, which is +dishonour, in this confidence, and I swear." + +Crauford ground his teeth. He was about to reply impetuously, but he +checked himself. "I am not going," thought he, "to communicate my own +share of this plot, but merely to state that a plot does exist, and +then to point out in what manner he can profit by it; so far, +therefore, there is no guilt in his concealment, and, consequently, no +excuse for him to break his vow." + +Rapidly running over this self-argument, he said aloud, "I promise!" + +"And," rejoined Glendower, "I swear!" + +At the close of this sentence another flash of lightning again made +darkness visible, and Glendower, beholding the countenance of his +companion, again recoiled: for its mingled haggardness and triumph +seemed to his excited imagination the very expression of a fiend! +"Now," said Crauford, relapsing into his usual careless tone, somewhat +enlivened by his sneer, "now, then, you must not interrupt me in my +disclosure by those starts and exclamations which break from your +philosophy like sparks from flint. Hear me throughout." + +And, bending down, till his mouth reached Glendower's ear, he +commenced his recital. Artfully hiding his own agency, the master- +spring of the gigantic machinery of fraud, which, too mighty for a +single hand, required an assistant,--throwing into obscurity the sin, +while, knowing the undaunted courage and desperate fortunes of the +man, he did not affect to conceal the danger; expatiating upon the +advantages, the immense and almost inexhaustible resources of wealth +which his scheme suddenly opened upon one in the deepest abyss of +poverty, and slightly sketching, as if to excite vanity, the ingenuity +and genius by which the scheme originated, and could only be +sustained,--Crauford's detail of temptation, in its knowledge of human +nature, in its adaptation of act to principles, in its web-like craft +of self-concealment, and the speciousness of its lure, was indeed a +splendid masterpiece of villanous invention. + +But while Glendower listened, and his silence flattered Crauford's +belief of victory, not for one single moment did a weak or yielding +desire creep around his heart. Subtly as the scheme was varnished, +and scarce a tithe of its comprehensive enormity unfolded, the strong +and acute mind of one long accustomed to unravel sophistry and gaze on +the loveliness of truth, saw at once that the scheme proposed was of +the most unmingled treachery and baseness. Sick, chilled, withering +at heart, Glendower leaned against the damp wall; as every word which +the tempter fondly imagined was irresistibly confirming his purpose, +tore away the last prop to which, in the credulity of hope, the +student had clung, and mocked while it crushed the fondness of his +belief. + +Crauford ceased, and stretched forth his hand to grasp Glendower's. +He felt it not. "You do not speak, my friend," said he; "do you +deliberate, or have you not decided?" Still no answer came. +Surprised, and half alarmed, he turned round, and perceived by a +momentary flash of lightning, that Glendower had risen and was moving +away towards the mouth of the arch. + +"Good Heavens! Glendower," cried Crauford, "where are you going?" + +"Anywhere," cried Glendower, in a sudden paroxysm of indignant +passion, "anywhere in this great globe of suffering, so that the +agonies of my human flesh and heart are not polluted by the accents of +crime! And such crime! Why, I would rather go forth into the +highways, and win bread by the sharp knife and the death-struggle, +than sink my soul in such mire and filthiness of sin. Fraud! fraud! +treachery! Merciful Father! what can be my state, when these are +supposed to tempt me!" + +Astonished and aghast, Crauford remained rooted to the spot. + +"Oh!" continued Glendower, and his noble nature was wrung to the +utmost; "Oh, MAN, MAN! that I should have devoted my best and freshest +years to the dream of serving thee! In my boyish enthusiasm, in my +brief day of pleasure and of power, in the intoxication of love, in +the reverse of fortune, in the squalid and obscure chambers of +degradation and poverty, that one hope animated, cheered, sustained me +through all! In temptation did this hand belie, or in sickness did +this brain forego, or in misery did this heart forget, thy great and +advancing cause? In the wide world, is there one being whom I have +injured, even in thought; one being who, in the fellowship of want, +should not have drunk of my cup, or broken with me the last morsel of +my bread?--and now, now, is it come to this?" + +And, hiding his face with his hands, he gave way to a violence of +feeling before which the weaker nature of Crauford stood trembling and +abashed. It lasted not long; he raised his head from its drooping +posture, and, as he stood at the entrance of the arch, a prolonged +flash from the inconstant skies shone full upon his form. Tall, +erect, still, the gloomy and ruined walls gave his colourless +countenance and haughty stature in bold and distinct relief; all trace +of the past passion had vanished: perfectly calm and set, his features +borrowed even dignity from their marble paleness, and the marks of +suffering which the last few months had writ in legible characters on +the cheek and brow. Seeking out, with an eye to which the intolerable +lightnings seemed to have lent something of their fire, the cowering +and bended form of his companion, he said,-- + +"Go home, miserable derider of the virtue you cannot understand; go to +your luxurious and costly home; go and repine that human nature is not +measured by your mangled and crippled laws: amidst men, yet more +fallen than I am, hope to select your victim; amidst prisons, and +hovels, and roofless sheds; amidst rags and destitution, and wretches +made mad by hunger, hope that you may find a villain. I leave you to +that hope, and--to remembrance!" + +As Glendower moved away, Crauford recovered himself. Rendered +desperate by the vital necessity of procuring some speedy aid in his +designs, and not yet perfectly persuaded of the fallacy of his former +judgment, he was resolved not to suffer Glendower thus easily to +depart. Smothering his feelings by an effort violent even to his +habitual hypocrisy, he sprang forward, and laid his hand upon +Glendower's shoulder. + +"Stay, stay," said he, in a soothing and soft voice; "you have wronged +me greatly. I pardon your warmth,--nay, I honour it; but hereafter +you will repent your judgment of me. At least, do justice to my +intentions. Was I an actor in the scheme proposed to you? what was it +to me? Was I in the smallest degree to be benefited by it? Could I +have any other motive than affection for you? If I erred, it was from +a different view of the question; but is it not the duty of a friend +to find expedients for distress, and to leave to the distressed person +the right of accepting or rejecting them? But let this drop forever: +partake of my fortune; be my adopted brother. Here, I have hundreds +about me at this moment; take them all, and own at least that I meant +you well." + +Feeling that Glendower, who at first had vainly endeavoured to shake +off his hand, now turned towards him, though at the moment it was too +dark to see his countenance, the wily speaker continued, "Yes, +Glendower, if by that name I must alone address you, take all I have: +there is no one in this world dearer to me than you are. I am a +lonely and disappointed man, without children or ties. I sought out a +friend who might be my brother in life and my heir in death. I found +you: be that to me!" + +"I am faint and weak," said Glendower, slowly, "and I believe my +senses cannot be clear; but a minute since, and you spoke at length, +and with a terrible distinctness, words which it polluted my very ear +to catch, and now you speak as if you loved me. Will it please you to +solve the riddle?" + +"The truth is this," said Crauford: "I knew your pride; I feared you +would not accept a permanent pecuniary aid, even from friendship. I +was driven, therefore, to devise some plan of independence for you. I +could think of no plan but that which I proposed. You speak of it as +wicked: it may be so; but it seemed not wicked to me. I may have +formed a wrong--I own it is a peculiar--system of morals; but it is, +at least, sincere. Judging of my proposal by that system, I saw no +sin in it. I saw, too, much less danger than, in the honesty of my +heart, I spoke of. In a similar distress, I solemnly swear, I myself +would have adopted a similar relief. Nor is this all; the plan +proposed would have placed thousands in your power. Forgive me if I +thought your life, and the lives of those most dear to you, of greater +value than these sums to the persons defrauded, ay, defrauded, if you +will: forgive me if I thought that with these thousands you would +effect far more good to the community than their legitimate owners. +Upon these grounds, and on some others, too tedious now to state, I +justified my proposal to my conscience. Pardon me, I again beseech +you: accept my last proposal; be my partner, my friend, my heir; and +forget a scheme never proposed to you, if I had hoped (what I hope +now) that you would accept the alternative which it is my pride to +offer, and which you are not justified, even by pride, to refuse." + +"Great Source of all knowledge!" ejaculated Glendower, scarce audibly, +and to himself. "Supreme and unfathomable God! dost Thou most loathe +or pity Thine abased creatures, walking in their dim reason upon this +little earth, and sanctioning fraud, treachery, crime, upon a +principle borrowed from Thy laws? Oh! when, when will Thy full light +of wisdom travel down to us, and guilt and sorrow, and this world's +evil mysteries, roll away like vapours before the blaze?" + +"I do not hear you, my friend," said Crauford. "Speak aloud; you +will, I feel you will, accept my offer, and become my brother!" + +"Away!" said Glendower; "I will not." + +"He wanders; his brain is touched!" muttered Crauford, and then +resumed aloud, "Glendower, we are both unfit for talk at present; both +unstrung by our late jar. You will meet me again to-morrow, perhaps. +I will accompany you now to your door." + +"Not a step: our paths are different." + +"Well, well, if you will have it so, be it as you please. I have +offended: you have a right to punish me, and play the churl to-night; +but your address?" + +"Yonder," said Glendower, pointing to the heavens. "Come to me a +month hence, and you will find me there!" + +"Nay, nay, my friend, your brain is heated; but you leave me? Well, +as I said, your will is mine: at least take some of these paltry notes +in earnest of our bargain; remember when next we meet you will share +all I have." + +"You remind me," said Glendower, quietly, "that we have old debts to +settle. When last I saw you, you lent me a certain sum: there it is; +take it; count it; there is but one poor guinea gone. Fear not: even +to the uttermost farthing you shall be repaid." + +"Why, why, this is unkind, ungenerous. Stay, stay,--" but, waving his +hand impatiently, Glendower darted away, and passing into another +street, the darkness effectually closed upon his steps. + +"Fool! fool! that I am," cried Crauford, stamping vehemently on the +ground; "in what point did my wit fail me, that I could not win one +whom very hunger had driven into my net? But I must yet find him; and +I will; the police shall be set to work: these half confidences may +ruin me. And how deceitful he has proved: to talk more diffidently +than a whining harlot upon virtue, and yet be so stubborn upon trial! +Dastard that I am, too, as well as fool: I felt sunk into the dust by +his voice. But pooh, I must have him yet; your worst villains make +the most noise about the first step. True that I cannot storm, but I +will undermine. But, wretch that I am, I must win him or another +soon, or I perish on a gibbet. Out, base thought!" + + + + +CHAPTER LVII. + +Formam quidem ipsam, Marce fili, et tanquam faciem honesti video: +quae, si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores (ut ait Plato) excitaret +sapientia.--TULLY. + +["Son Marcus, you seethe form and as it were the face of Virtue: that +Wisdom, which if it could be perceived by the eyes, would (as Plato +saith) kindle absolute and marvellous affection."] + + +It was almost dawn when Glendower returned to his home. Fearful of +disturbing his wife, he stole with mute steps to the damp and rugged +chamber, where the last son of a princely line, and the legitimate +owner of lands and halls which ducal rank might have envied, held his +miserable asylum. The first faint streaks of coming light broke +through the shutterless and shattered windows, and he saw that she +reclined in a deep sleep upon the chair beside their child's couch. +She would not go to bed herself till Glendower returned, and she had +sat up, watching and praying, and listening for his footsteps, till, +in the utter exhaustion of debility and sickness, sleep had fallen +upon her. Glendower bent over her. + +"Sleep," said he, "sleep on! The wicked do not come to thee now. +Thou art in a world that has no fellowship with this,--a world from +which even happiness is not banished! Nor woe nor pain, nor memory of +the past nor despair of all before thee, make the characters of thy +present state! Thou forestallest the forgetfulness of the grave, and +thy heart concentrates all earth's comfort in one word,--'Oblivion! +'Beautiful, how beautiful thou art even yet! that smile, that +momentary blush, years have not conquered them. They are as when, my +young bride, thou didst lean first upon my bosom, and dream that +sorrow was no more! And I have brought thee unto this! These green +walls make thy bridal chamber, yon fragments of bread thy bridal +board. Well! it is no matter! thou art on thy way to a land where all +things, even a breaking heart, are at rest. I weep not; wherefore +should I weep? Tears are not for the dead, but their survivors. I +would rather see thee drop inch by inch into the grave, and smile as I +beheld it, than save thee for an inheritance of sin. What is there in +this little and sordid life that we should strive to hold it? What in +this dreadful dream that we should fear to wake?" + +And Glendower knelt beside his wife, and, despite his words, tears +flowed fast and gushingly down his cheeks; and wearied as he was, he +watched upon her slumbers, till they fell from the eyes to which his +presence was more joyous than the day. + +It was a beautiful thing, even in sorrow, to see that couple, whom +want could not debase, nor misfortune, which makes even generosity +selfish, divorce! All that Fate had stripped from the poetry and +graces of life, had not shaken one leaf from the romance of their +green and unwithered affections! They were the very type of love in +its holiest and most enduring shape: their hearts had grown together; +their being had flowed through caves and deserts, and reflected the +storms of an angry Heaven; but its waters had indissolubly mingled +into one! Young, gifted, noble, and devoted, they were worthy victims +of this blighting and bitter world! Their garden was turned into a +wilderness; but, like our first parents, it was hand in hand that +they took their solitary way! Evil beset them, but they swerved not; +the rains and the winds fell upon their unsheltered beads, but they +were not bowed; and through the mazes and briers of this weary life, +their bleeding footsteps strayed not, for they had a clew! The mind +seemed, as it were, to become visible and external as the frame +decayed, and to cover the body with something of its own invulnerable +power; so that whatever should have attacked the mortal and frail +part, fell upon that which, imperishable and divine, resisted and +subdued it! + +It was unfortunate for Glendower that he never again met Wolfe: for +neither fanaticism of political faith, nor sternness of natural +temper, subdued in the republican the real benevolence and generosity +which redeemed and elevated his character; nor could any impulse of +party zeal have induced him, like Crauford, systematically to take +advantage of poverty in order to tempt to participation in his +schemes. From a more evil companion Glendower had not yet escaped: +Crauford, by some means or other, found out his abode, and lost no +time in availing himself of the discovery. In order fully to +comprehend his unwearied persecution of Glendower, it must constantly +be remembered that to this persecution he was bound by a necessity +which, urgent, dark, and implicating life itself, rendered him callous +to every obstacle and unsusceptible of all remorse. With the +exquisite tact which he possessed, he never openly recurred to his +former proposal of fraud: he contented himself with endeavouring to +persuade Glendower to accept pecuniary assistance, but in vain. The +veil once torn from his character no craft could restore. Through all +his pretences and sevenfold hypocrisy Glendower penetrated at once +into his real motives: he was not to be duped by assurances of +friendship which he knew the very dissimilarities between their +natures rendered impossible. He had seen at the first, despite all +allegations to the contrary, that in the fraud Crauford had proposed, +that person could by no means be an uninfluenced and cold adviser. In +after conversations, Crauford, driven by the awful interest he had in +success from his usual consummateness of duplicity, betrayed in +various important minutiae how deeply he was implicated in the crime +for which he had argued; and not even the visible and progressive +decay of his wife and child could force the stern mind of Glendower +into accepting those wages of iniquity which he knew well were only +offered as an earnest or a snare. + +There is a royalty in extreme suffering, when the mind falls not with +the fortunes, which no hardihood of vice can violate unabashed. Often +and often, humble and defeated through all his dissimulation, was +Crauford driven from the presence of the man whom it was his bitterest +punishment to fear most when most he affected to despise; and as +often, re-collecting his powers and fortifying himself in his +experience of human frailty when sufficiently tried, did he return to +his attempts. He waylaid the door and watched the paths of his +intended prey. He knew that the mind which even best repels +temptation first urged hath seldom power to resist the same +suggestion, if daily--dropping, unwearying--presenting itself in every +form, obtruded in every hour, losing its horror by custom, and finding +in the rebellious bosom itself its smoothest vizard and most alluring +excuse. And it was, indeed, a mighty and perilous trial to Glendower, +when rushing from the presence of his wife and child, when fainting +under accumulated evils, when almost delirious with sickening and +heated thought, to hear at each prompting of the wrung and excited +nature, each heave of the black fountain that in no mortal breast is +utterly exhausted, one smooth, soft, persuasive voice forever +whispering, "Relief!"--relief, certain, utter, instantaneous! the +voice of one pledged never to relax an effort or spare a pang, by a +danger to himself, a danger of shame and death,--the voice of one who +never spoke but in friendship and compassion, profound in craft, and a +very sage in the disguises with which language invests deeds. But +VIRTUE has resources buried in itself, which we know not till the +invading hour calls them from their retreats. Surrounded by hosts +without, and when Nature itself, turned traitor, is its most deadly +enemy within, it assumes a new and a superhuman power, which is +greater than Nature itself. Whatever be its creed, whatever be its +sect, from whatever segment of the globe its orisons arise, Virtue is +God's empire, and from His throne of thrones He will defend it. +Though cast into the distant earth, and struggling on the dim arena of +a human heart, all things above are spectators of its conflict or +enlisted in its cause. The angels have their charge over it; the +banners of archangels are on its side; and from sphere to sphere, +through the illimitable ether, and round the impenetrable darkness at +the feet of God, its triumph is hymned by harps which are strung to +the glories of the Creator! + +One evening, when Crauford had joined Glendower in his solitary +wanderings, the dissembler renewed his attacks. + +"But why not," said he, "accept from my friendship what to my +benevolence you would deny? I couple with my offers, my prayers +rather, no conditions. How then do you, can you, reconcile it to your +conscience, to suffer your wife and child to perish before your eyes?" + +"Man, man," said Glendower, "tempt me no more: let them die! At +present the worst is death: what you offer me is dishonour." + +"Heavens, how uncharitable is this! Can you call the mere act of +accepting money from one who loves you dishonour?" + +"It is in vain that you varnish your designs," said Glendower, +stopping and fixing his eyes upon him. "Do you not think that cunning +ever betrays itself? In a thousand words, in a thousand looks which +have escaped you, but not me, I know that, if there be one being on +this earth whom you hate and would injure, that being is myself. Nay, +start not: listen to me patiently. I have sworn that it is the last +opportunity you shall have. I will not subject myself to farther +temptation: I am now sane; but there are things which may drive me +mad, and in madness you might conquer. You hate me it is out of the +nature of earthly things that you should not. But even were it +otherwise, do you think that I could believe you would come from your +voluptuous home to these miserable retreats; that, among the lairs of +beggary and theft, you would lie in wait to allure me to forsake +poverty, without a stronger motive than love for one who affects it +not for you? I know you: I have read your heart; I have penetrated +into that stronger motive; it is your own safety. In the system of +atrocity you proposed to me, you are the principal. You have already +bared to me enough of the extent to which that system reaches to +convince me that a single miscreant, however ingenious, cannot, +unassisted, support it with impunity. You want help: I am he in whom +you have dared to believe that you could find it. You are detected; +now be undeceived!" + +"Is it so?" said Crauford; and as he saw that it was no longer +possible to feign, the poison of his heart broke forth in its full +venom. The fiend rose from the reptile, and stood exposed in its +natural shape. Returning Glendower's stern but lofty gaze with an eye +to which all evil passions lent their unholy fire, he repeated, "Is it +so? then you are more penetrating than I thought; but it is +indifferent to me. It was for your sake, not mine, most righteous +man, that I wished you might have a disguise to satisfy the modesty of +your punctilios. It is all one to Richard Crauford whether you go +blindfold or with open eyes into his snare. Go you must, and shall. +Ay, frowns will not awe me. You have desired the truth: you shall +have it. You are right: I hate you,--hate you with a soul whose force +of hatred you cannot dream of. Your pride, your stubbornness, your +coldness of heart, which things that would stir the blood of beggars +cannot warm; your icy and passionless virtue,--I hate, I hate all! +You are right also, most wise inquisitor, in supposing that in the +scheme proposed to you, I am the principal: I am! You were to be the +tool, and shall. I have offered you mild inducements,--pleas to +soothe the technicalities of your conscience: you have rejected them; +be it so. Now choose between my first offer and the gibbet. Ay, the +gibbet! That night on which we made the appointment which shall not +yet be in vain,--on that night you stopped me in the street; you +demanded money; you robbed me; I will swear; I will prove it. Now, +then, tremble, man of morality: dupe of your own strength, you are in +my power; tremble! Yet in my safety is your escape: I am generous. I +repeat my original offer,--wealth, as great as you will demand, or-- +the gibbet, the gibbet: do I speak loud enough? do you hear?" + +"Poor fool!" said Glendower, laughing scornfully and moving away. But +when Crauford, partly in mockery, partly in menace, placed his hand +upon Glendower's shoulder, as if to stop him, the touch seemed to +change his mood from scorn to fury; turning abruptly round, he seized +the villain's throat with a giant's strength, and cried out, while his +whole countenance worked beneath the tempestuous wrath within, "What +if I squeeze out thy poisonous life from thee this moment!" and then +once more bursting into a withering laughter, as he surveyed the +terror which he had excited, he added, "No, no: thou art too vile!" +and, dashing the hypocrite against the wall of a neighbouring house, +he strode away. + +Recovering himself slowly, and trembling with rage and fear, Crauford +gazed round, expecting yet to find he had sported too far with the +passions he had sought to control. When, however, he had fully +satisfied himself that Glendower was gone, all his wrathful and angry +feelings returned with redoubled force. But their most biting torture +was the consciousness of their impotence. For after the first +paroxysm of rage had subsided he saw, too clearly, that his threat +could not be executed without incurring the most imminent danger of +discovery. High as his character stood, it was possible that no +charge against him might excite suspicion, but a word might cause +inquiry, and inquiry would be ruin. Forced, therefore, to stomach his +failure, his indignation, his shame, his hatred, and his vengeance, +his own heart became a punishment almost adequate to his vices. + +"But my foe will die," said he, clinching his fist so firmly that the +nails almost brought blood from the palm; "he will starve, famish, and +see them--his wife, his child--perish first! I shall have my triumph, +though I shall not witness it. But now, away to my villa: there, at +least, will be some one whom I can mock and beat and trample, if I +will! Would--would--would that I were that very man, destitute as he +is! His neck, at least, is safe: if he dies, it will not be upon the +gallows, nor among the hootings of the mob! Oh, horror! horror! What +are my villa, my wine, my women, with that black thought ever +following me like a shadow? Who, who while an avalanche is sailing +over him, who would sit down to feast?" + +Leaving this man to shun or be overtaken by Fate, we return to +Glendower. It is needless to say that Crauford visited him no more; +and, indeed, shortly afterwards Glendower again changed his home. But +every day and every hour brought new strength to the disease which was +creeping and burning through the veins of the devoted wife; and +Glendower, who saw on earth nothing before them but a jail, from which +as yet they had been miraculously delivered, repined not as he beheld +her approach to a gentler and benigner home. Often he sat, as she was +bending over their child, and gazed upon her cheek with an insane and +fearful joy at the characters which consumption had there engraved; +but when she turned towards him her fond eyes (those deep wells of +love, in which truth lay hid, and which neither languor nor disease +could exhaust), the unnatural hardness of his heart melted away, and +he would rush from the house, to give vent to an agony against which +fortitude and manhood were in vain. + +There was no hope for their distress. His wife had, unknown to +Glendower (for she dreaded his pride), written several times to a +relation, who, though distant, was still the nearest in blood which +fate had spared her, but ineffectually; the scions of a large and +illegitimate family, which surrounded him, utterly prevented the +success, and generally interrupted the application, of any claimant on +his riches but themselves. Glendower, whose temper had ever kept him +aloof from all but the commonest acquaintances, knew no human being to +apply to. Utterly unable to avail himself of the mine which his +knowledge and talents should have proved; sick, and despondent at +heart, and debarred by the loftiness of honour, or rather principle +that nothing could quell, from any unlawful means of earning bread, +which to most minds would have been rendered excusable by the urgency +of nature,--Glendower marked the days drag on in dull and protracted +despair, and envied every corpse that he saw borne to the asylum in +which all earth's hopes seemed centred and confined. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII. + + For ours was not like earthly love. + And must this parting be our very last? + No! I shall love thee still when death itself is past. + . . . . . . + Hush'd were his Gertrude's lips! but still their bland + And beautiful expression seem'd to melt + With love that could not die! and still his hand + She presses to the heart, no more that felt. + Ah, heart! where once each fond affection dwelt. + CAMPBELL. + +"I wonder," said Mr. Brown to himself, as he spurred his shaggy pony +to a speed very unusual to the steady habits of either party, "I wonder +where I shall find him. I would not for the late Lady Waddilove's +best diamond cross have any body forestall me in the news. To think +of my young master dying so soon after my last visit, or rather my +last visit but one; and to think of the old gentleman taking on so, +and raving about his injustice to the rightful possessor, and saying +that he is justly punished, and asking me so eagerly if I could +discover the retreat of the late squire, and believing me so +implicitly when I undertook to do it, and giving me this letter!" And +here Mr. Brown wistfully examined an epistle sealed with black wax, +peeping into the corners, which irritated rather than satisfied his +curiosity. "I wonder what the old gentleman says in it; I suppose he +will, of course, give up the estate and house. Let me see; that long +picture gallery, just built, will, at all events, want furnishing. +That would be a famous opportunity to get rid of the Indian jars, and +the sofas, and the great Turkey carpet. How lucky that I should just +have come in time to get the letter. But let me consider how I shall +find out?--an advertisement in the paper? Ah! that's the plan. +'Algernon Mordaunt, Esq.: something greatly to his advantage; apply to +Mr. Brown, etc.' Ah! that will do well, very well. The Turkey carpet +won't be quite long enough. I wish I had discovered Mr. Mordaunt's +address before, and lent him some money during the young gentleman's +life: it would have seemed more generous. However, I can offer it +now, before I show the letter. Bless me, it's getting dark. Come, +Dobbin, ye-up!" Such were the meditations of the faithful friend of +the late Lady Waddilove, as he hastened to London, charged with the +task of discovering Mordaunt and with the delivery of the following +epistle:-- + +You are now, sir, the heir to that property which, some years ago, +passed from your hands into mine. My son, for whom alone wealth or I +may say life was valuable to me, is no more. I only, an old, +childless man, stand between you and the estates of Mordaunt. Do not +wait for my death to enjoy them. I cannot live here, where everything +reminds me of my great and irreparable loss. I shall remove next +month into another home. Consider this, then, as once more yours. +The house, I believe, you will not find disimproved by my alterations: +the mortgages on the estate have been paid off; the former rental you +will perhaps allow my steward to account to you for, and after my +death the present one will be yours. I am informed that you are a +proud man, and not likely to receive favours. Be it so, sir! it is no +favour you will receive, but justice; there are circumstances +connected with my treaty with your father which have of late vexed my +conscience; and conscience, sir, must be satisfied at any loss. But +we shall meet, perhaps, and talk over the past; at present I will not +enlarge on it. If you have suffered by me, I am sufficiently +punished, and my only hope is to repair your losses. + +I am, etc., H. VAVASOUR MORDAUNT. + +Such was the letter, so important to Mordaunt, with which our worthy +friend was charged. Bowed to the dust as Vavasour was by the loss of +his son, and open to conscience as affliction had made him, he had +lived too long for effect, not to be susceptible to its influence, +even to the last. Amidst all his grief, and it was intense, there were +some whispers of self-exaltation at the thought of the eclat which his +generosity and abdication would excite; and, with true worldly +morality, the hoped-for plaudits of others gave a triumph rather than +humiliation to his reconcilement with himself. + +To say truth, there were indeed circumstances connected with his +treaty with Mordaunt's father calculated to vex his conscience. He +knew that he had not only taken great advantage of Mr. Mordaunt's +distress, but that at his instigation a paper which could forever have +prevented Mr. Mordaunt's sale of the property, had been destroyed. +These circumstances, during the life of his son, he had endeavoured to +forget or to palliate. But grief is rarely deaf to remorse; and at +the death of that idolized son the voice at his heart grew imperious, +and he lost the power in losing the motive of reasoning it away. + +Mr. Brown's advertisement was unanswered; and, with the zeal and +patience of the Christian proselyte's tribe and calling, the good man +commenced, in person, a most elaborate and painstaking research. For +a long time, his endeavours were so ineffectual that Mr. Brown, in +despair, disposed of the two Indian jars for half their value, and +heaved a despondent sigh, whenever he saw the great Turkey carpet +rolled up in his warehouse with as much obstinacy as if it never meant +to unroll itself again. + +At last, however, by dint of indefatigable and minute investigation, +he ascertained that the object of his search had resided in London, +under a feigned name; from lodging to lodging, and corner to corner, +he tracked him, till at length he made himself master of Mordaunt's +present retreat. A joyful look did Mr. Brown cast at the great Turkey +carpet, as he passed by it, on his way to his street door, on the +morning of his intended visit to Mordaunt. "It is a fine thing to +have a good heart," said he, in the true style of Sir Christopher +Findlater, and he again eyed the Turkey carpet. "I really feel quite +happy at the thought of the pleasure I shall give." + +After a walk through as many obscure and filthy wynds and lanes and +alleys and courts as ever were threaded by some humble fugitive from +justice, the patient Morris came to a sort of court, situated among +the miserable hovels in the vicinity of the Tower. He paused +wonderingly at a dwelling in which every window was broken, and where +the tiles, torn from the roof, lay scattered in forlorn confusion +beside the door; where the dingy bricks looked crumbling away, from +very age and rottenness, and the fabric, which was of great antiquity, +seemed so rocking and infirm that the eye looked upon its distorted +and overhanging position with a sensation of pain and dread; where the +very rats had deserted their loathsome cells from the insecurity of +their tenure, and the ragged mothers of the abject neighbourhood +forbade their brawling children to wander under the threatening walls, +lest they should keep the promise of their mouldering aspect, and, +falling, bare to the obstructed and sickly day the secrets of their +prison-house. Girt with the foul and reeking lairs of that extreme +destitution which necessity urges irresistibly into guilt, and +excluded, by filthy alleys and an eternal atmosphere of smoke and rank +vapour, from the blessed sun and the pure air of heaven, the miserable +mansion seemed set apart for every disease to couch within,--too +perilous even for the hunted criminal; too dreary even for the beggar +to prefer it to the bare hedge, or the inhospitable porch, beneath +whose mockery of shelter the frost of winter had so often numbed him +into sleep. + +Thrice did the heavy and silver-headed cane of Mr. Brown resound upon +the door, over which was a curious carving of a lion dormant, and a +date, of which only the two numbers 15 were discernable. Roused by a +note so unusual, and an apparition so unwontedly smug as the worthy +Morris, a whole legion of dingy and smoke-dried brats, came trooping +from the surrounding huts, and with many an elvish cry, and strange +oath, and cabalistic word, which thrilled the respectable marrow of +Mr. Brown, they collected in a gaping, and, to his alarmed eye, a +menacing group, as near to the house as their fears and parents would +permit them. + +"It is very dangerous," thought Mr. Brown, looking shiveringly up at +the hanging and tottering roof, "and very appalling," as he turned to +the ragged crowd of infant reprobates which began with every moment to +increase. At last he summoned courage, and inquired, in a tone half +soothing and half dignified, if they could inform him how to obtain +admittance or how to arouse the inhabitants. + +An old crone, leaning out of an opposite window, with matted hair +hanging over a begrimed and shrivelled countenance, made answer. "No +one," she said, in her peculiar dialect, which the worthy man scarcely +comprehended, "lived there or had done so for years:" but Brown knew +better; and while he was asserting the fact, a girl put her head out +of another hovel, and said that she had sometimes seen, at the dusk of +the evening, a man leave the house, but whether any one else lived in +it she could not tell. Again Mr. Brown sounded an alarm, but no +answer came forth, and in great fear and trembling he applied violent +hands to the door: it required but little force; it gave way; he +entered; and, jealous of the entrance of the mob without, reclosed and +barred, as well as he was able, the shattered door. The house was +unnaturally large for the neighbourhood, and Brown was in doubt +whether first to ascend a broken and perilous staircase or search the +rooms below: he decided on the latter; he found no one, and with a +misgiving heart, which nothing but the recollection of the great +Turkey carpet could have inspired, he ascended the quaking steps. All +was silent. But a door was unclosed. He entered, and saw the object +of his search before him. + +Over a pallet bent a form, on which, though youth seemed withered and +even pride broken, the unconquerable soul left somewhat of grace and +of glory, that sustained the beholder's remembrance of better days; a +child in its first infancy knelt on the nearer side of the bed with +clasped hands, and vacant eyes that turned towards the intruder with a +listless and lacklustre gaze. But Glendower, or rather Mordaunt, as +he bent over the pallet, spoke not, moved not: his eyes were riveted +on one object; his heart seemed turned into stone and his veins +curdled into ice. Awed and chilled by the breathing desolation of the +spot, Brown approached, and spoke he scarcely knew what. "You are," +he concluded his address, "the master of Mordaunt Court; "and he +placed the letter in the hands of the person he thus greeted. + +"Awake, hear me!" cried Algernon to Isabel, as she lay extended on the +couch; and the messenger of glad tidings, for the first time seeing +her countenance, shuddered, and knew that he was in the chamber of +death. + +"Awake, my own, own love! Happy days are in store for us yet: our +misery is past; you will live, live to bless me in riches, as you have +done in want." + +Isabel raised her eyes to his, and a smile, sweet, comforting, and +full of love, passed the lips which were about to close forever. +"Thank Heaven," she murmured, "for your dear sake. It is pleasant to +die now, and thus;" and she placed the hand that was clasped in her +relaxing and wan fingers within the bosom which had been for anguished +and hopeless years his asylum and refuge, and which now when fortune +changed, as if it had only breathed in comfort to his afflictions, was +for the first time and forever to be cold,--cold even to him! + +"You will live, you will live," cried Mordaunt, in wild and +incredulous despair, "in mercy live! You, who have been my angel of +hope, do not,--O God, O God! do not desert me now!" + +But that faithful and loving heart was already deaf to his voice, and +the film grew darkening and rapidly over the eye which still with +undying fondness sought him out through the shade and agony of death. +Sense and consciousness were gone, and dim and confused images whirled +round her soul, struggling a little moment before they sank into the +depth and silence where the past lies buried. But still mindful of +him, and grasping, as it were, at his remembrance, she clasped, closer +and closer, the icy hand which she held, to her breast. "Your hand is +cold, dearest, it is cold," said she, faintly, "but I will warm it +here!" And so her spirit passed away, and Mordaunt felt afterwards, +in a lone and surviving pilgrimage, that her last thought had been +kindness to him, and that her last act had spoken forgetfulness even +of death in the tenderness of love! + + + + + +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. + + + + + +CHAPTER LXVIII. + + We will examine if those accidents, + Which common fame calls injuries, happen to him + Deservedly or no.--The New Inn. + +FROM LORD ULSWATER TO LADY WESTBOROUGH. + +Forgive me, dearest Lady Westborough, for my violence: you know and +will allow for the infirmities of my temper. I have to make you and +Lady Flora one request, which I trust you will not refuse me. + +Do not see or receive any communication from Mr. Linden till +Wednesday; and on that day at the hour of twelve suffer me to meet him +at your house. I will then either prove him to be the basest of +impostors, or, if I fail in this and Lady Flora honours my rival with +one sentiment of preference, I will without a murmur submit to her +decree and my rejection. Dare I trust that this petition will be +accorded to one who is, with great regard and esteem, etc. + +"This is fortunate," said Lady Westborough gently to her daughter, +who, leaning her head on her mother's bosom, suffered hopes, the +sweeter for their long sleep, to divide, if not wholly to possess, her +heart. "We shall have now time well and carefully to reflect over +what will be best for your future happiness. We owe this delay to one +to whom you have been affianced. Let us, therefore, now merely write +to Mr. Linden, to inform him of Lord Ulswater's request; and to say +that if he will meet his lordship at the time appointed, we, that is +I, shall be happy to see him." + +Lady Flora sighed, but she saw the reasonableness of her mother's +proposal, and pressing Lady Westborough's hand murmured her assent. + +"At all events," thought Lady Westborough, as she wrote to Clarence, +"the affair can but terminate to advantage. If Lord Ulswater proves +Mr. Linden's unworthiness, the suit of the latter is of course at rest +forever: if not, and Mr. Linden be indeed all that he asserts, my +daughter's choice cannot be an election of reproach; Lord Ulswater +promises peaceably to withdraw his pretensions; and though Mr. Linden +may not possess his rank or fortune, he is certainly one with whom, if +of ancient blood, any family would be proud of an alliance." + +Blending with these reflections a considerable share of curiosity and +interest in a secret which partook so strongly of romance, Lady +Westborough despatched her note to Clarence. The answer returned was +brief, respectful, and not only acquiescent in but grateful for the +proposal. + +With this arrangement both Lady Westborough and Lady Flora were +compelled, though with very different feelings, to be satisfied; and +an agreement was established between them, to the effect that if +Linden's name passed unblemished through the appointed ordeal Lady +Flora was to be left to, and favoured in, her own election; while, on +the contrary, if Lord Ulswater succeeded in the proof he had spoken +of, his former footing in the family was to be fully re-established +and our unfortunate adventurer forever discarded. + +To this Lady Flora readily consented; for with a sanguine and certain +trust in her lover's truth and honour, which was tenfold more strong +for her late suspicions, she would not allow herself a doubt as to the +result; and with an impatience, mingled with a rapturous exhilaration +of spirit, which brought back to her the freshness and radiancy of her +youngest years, she counted the hours and moments to the destined day. + +While such was the state of affairs at Westborough Park, Clarence was +again on horseback and on another excursion. By the noon of the day +following that which had seen his eventful meeting with Lady Flora, he +found himself approaching the extreme boundaries of the county in +which Mordaunt Court and the memorable town of W---- were situated. +The characteristics of the country were now materially changed from +those which gave to the vicinity of Algernon's domains its wild and +uncultivated aspect. + +As Clarence slowly descended a hill of considerable steepness and +length, a prospect of singular and luxurious beauty opened to his +view. The noblest of England's rivers was seen, through "turfs and +shades and flowers," pursuing "its silver-winding way." On the +opposite banks lay, embosomed in the golden glades of autumn, the busy +and populous town that from the height seemed still and lifeless as an +enchanted city, over which the mid-day sun hung like a guardian +spirit. Behind, in sweeping diversity, stretched wood and dale, and +fields despoiled of their rich harvest, yet still presenting a yellow +surface to the eye; and ever and anon some bright patch of green, +demanding the gaze as if by a lingering spell from the past spring; +while, here and there, spire and hamlet studded the landscape, or some +lowly cot lay, backed by the rising ground or the silent woods, white +and solitary, and sending up its faint tribute of smoke in spires to +the altars of Heaven. The river was more pregnant of life than its +banks: barge and boat were gliding gayly down the wave, and the glad +oar of the frequent and slender vessels consecrated to pleasure was +seen dimpling the water, made by distance smoother than glass. + +On the right side of Clarence's road, as he descended the hill, lay +wide plantations of fir and oak, divided from the road by a park +paling, the uneven sides of which were covered with brown moss, and +which, at rare openings in the young wood, gave glimpses of a park, +seemingly extending over great space, the theatre of many a stately +copse and oaken grove, which might have served the Druids with fane +and temple meet for the savage sublimity of their worship. + +Upon these unfrequent views, Clarence checked his horse, and gazed, +with emotions sweet yet bitter, over the pales, along the green +expanse which they contained. And once, when through the trees he +caught a slight glimpse of the white walls of the mansion they +adorned, all the years of his childhood seemed to rise on his heart, +thrilling to its farthest depths with a mighty and sorrowful yet sweet +melody, and-- + + "Singing of boyhood back, the voices of his home." + +Home! yes, amidst those groves had the April of his life lavished its +mingled smiles and tears! There was the spot hallowed by his earliest +joys! and the scene of sorrows still more sacred than joys! and now, +after many years, the exiled boy came back, a prosperous and +thoughtful man, to take but one brief glance of that home which to him +had been less hospitable than a stranger's dwelling, and to find a +witness among those who remembered him of his very birth and identity! + +He wound the ascent at last, and entering a small town at the foot of +the hill, which was exactly facing the larger one on the opposite +shore of the river, put up his horse at one of the inns, and then, +with a beating heart, remounted the hill, and entering the park by one +of its lodges found himself once more in the haunts of his childhood. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIX. + + Oh, the steward, the steward: I might have guessed as much. + Tales of the Crusaders. + +The evening was already beginning to close, and Clarence was yet +wandering in the park, and retracing, with his heart's eye, each knoll +and tree and tuft once so familiar to his wanderings. + +At the time we shall again bring him personally before the reader, he +was leaning against an iron fence that, running along the left wing of +the house, separated the pleasure-grounds from the park, and gazing +with folded arms and wistful eyes upon the scene on which the dusk of +twilight was gradually gathering. + +The house was built originally in the reign of Charles II.; it had +since received alteration and additions, and now presented to the eye +a vast pile of Grecian or rather Italian architecture, heterogeneously +blended with the massive window, the stiff coping, and the heavy roof +which the age immediately following the Revolution introduced. The +extent of the building and the grandeur of the circling demesnes were +sufficient to render the mansion imposing in effect; while, perhaps, +the style of the architecture was calculated to conjoin a stately +comfort with magnificence, and to atone in solidity for any deficiency +in grace. + +At a little distance from the house, and placed on a much more +commanding site, were some ancient and ivy-grown ruins, now scanty +indeed and fast mouldering into decay, but sufficient to show the +antiquarian the remains of what once had been a hold of no ordinary +size and power. These were the wrecks of the old mansion, which was +recorded by tradition to have been reduced to this state by accidental +fire, during the banishment of its loyal owner in the time of the +Protectorate. Upon his return the present house was erected. + +As Clarence was thus stationed he perceived an elderly man approach +towards him. "This is fortunate," said he to himself,--"the very +person I have been watching for. Well, years have passed lightly over +old Wardour: still the same precise garb, the same sturdy and slow +step, the same upright form." + +The person thus designated now drew near enough for parlance; and, in +a tone a little authoritative, though very respectful, inquired if +Clarence had any business to transact with him. + +"I beg pardon," said Clarence, slouching his hat over his face, "for +lingering so near the house at this hour: but I have seen it many +years ago, and indeed been a guest within its walls; and it is rather +my interest for an old friend, than my curiosity to examine a new one, +which you are to blame for my trespass." + +"Oh, sir," answered Mr. Wardour, a short and rather stout man, of +about sixty-four, attired in a chocolate coat, gray breeches, and silk +stockings of the same dye, which, by the waning light, took a sombrer +and sadder hue, "oh, sir, pray make no apology. I am only sorry the +hour is so late that I cannot offer to show you the interior of the +house: perhaps, if you are staying in the neighbourhood, you would +like to see it to-morrow. You were here, I take it, sir, in my old +lord's time? + +"I was!--upon a visit to his second son: we had been boys together." + +"What! Master Clinton?" cried the old man, with extreme, animation; +and then, suddenly changing his voice, added, in a subdued and +saddened tone, "Ah, poor young gentleman, I wonder where he is now?" + +"Why, is he not in this country?" asked Clarence. + +"Yes--no--that is, I can't exactly say where he is; I wish I could: +poor Master Clinton! I loved him as my own son." + +"You surprise me," said Clarence. "Is there anything in the fate of +Clinton L'Estrange that calls forth your pity? If so, you would +gratify a much better feeling than curiosity if you would inform me of +it. The fact is that I came here to seek him; for I have been absent +from the country many years, and on my return my first inquiry was for +my old friend and schoolfellow. None knew anything of him in London, +and I imagined therefore that he might have settled down into a +country gentleman. I was fully prepared to find him marshalling the +fox-hounds or beating the preserves; and you may consequently imagine +my mortification on learning at my inn that he had not been residing +here for many years; further I know not!" + +"Ay, ay, sir," said the old steward, who had listened very attentively +to Clarence's detail, "had you pressed one of the village gossips a +little closer, you would doubtless have learned more. But 't is a +story I don't much love telling, although formerly I could have talked +of Master Clinton by the hour together to any one who would have had +the patience to listen to me." + +"You have really created in me a very painful desire to learn more," +said Clarence; "and, if I am not intruding on any family secrets, you +would oblige me greatly by whatever information you may think proper +to afford to an early and attached friend of the person in question." + +"Well, sir, well," replied Mr. Wardour, who, without imputation on his +discretion, loved talking as well as any other old gentleman of sixty- +four, "if you will condescend to step up to my house, I shall feel +happy and proud to converse with a friend of my dear young master; and +you are heartily welcome to the information I can give you." + +"I thank you sincerely," said Clarence; "but suffer me to propose, as +an amendment to your offer, that you accompany me for an hour or two +to my inn." + +"Nay, sir," answered the old gentleman, in a piqued tone, "I trust you +will not disdain to honour me with your company. Thank Heaven, I can +afford to be hospitable now and then." + +Clarence, who seemed to have his own reasons for the amendment he had +proposed, still struggled against this offer, but was at last, from +fear of offending the honest steward, obliged to accede. + +Striking across a path, which led through a corner of the plantation +to a space of ground containing a small garden, quaintly trimmed in +the Dutch taste, and a brick house of moderate dimensions, half +overgrown with ivy and jessamine, Clarence and his inviter paused at +the door of the said mansion, and the latter welcomed his guest to his +abode. + +"Pardon me," said Clarence, as a damsel in waiting opened the door, +"but a very severe attack of rheumatism obliges me to keep on my hat: +you will, I hope, indulge me in my rudeness." + +"To be sure, to be sure, sir. I myself suffer terribly from +rheumatism in the winter; though you look young, sir, very young, to +have an old man's complaint. Ah, the people of my day were more +careful of themselves, and that is the reason we are such stout +fellows in our age." + +And the worthy steward looked complacently down at legs which very +substantially filled their comely investments. "True, sir," said +Clarence, laying his hand upon that of the steward, who was just about +to open the door of an apartment; "but suffer me at least to request +you not to introduce me to any of the ladies of your family. I could +not, were my very life at stake, think of affronting them by not +doffing my hat. I have the keenest sense of what is due to the sex, +and I must seriously entreat you, for the sake of my health during the +whole of the coming winter, to suffer our conversation not to take +place in their presence." + +"Sir, I honour your politeness," said the prim little steward: "I, +myself, like every true Briton, reverence the ladies; we will +therefore retire to my study. Mary, girl," turning to the attendant, +"see that we have a nice chop for supper in half an hour; and tell +your mistress that I have a gentleman of quality with me upon +particular business, and must not be disturbed." + +With these injunctions, the steward led the way to the farther end of +the house, and, having ushered his guest into a small parlour, adorned +with sundry law-books, a great map of the estate, a print of the late +owner of it, a rusty gun slung over the fireplace, two stuffed +pheasants, and a little mahogany buffet,--having, we say, led Clarence +to this sanctuary of retiring stewardship, he placed a seat for him +and said,--"Between you and me, sir, be it respectfully said, I am not +sorry that our little confabulation should pass alone. Ladies are +very delightful, very delightful, certainly: but they won't let one +tell a story one's own way; they are fidgety, you know, sir,--fidgety, +nothing more; 't is a trifle, but it is unpleasant. Besides, my wife +was Master Clinton's foster-mother, and she can't hear a word about +him, without running on into a long rigmarole of what he did as a +baby, and so forth. I like people to be chatty, sir, but not +garrulous; I can't bear garrulity, at least in a female. But, +suppose, sir, we defer our story till after supper? A glass of wine +or warm punch makes talk glide more easily; besides, sir, I want +something to comfort me when I talk about Master Clinton. Poor +gentleman, he was so comely, so handsome!" + +"Did you think so?" said Clarence, turning towards the fire. + +"Think so!" ejaculated the steward, almost angrily; and forthwith he +launched out into an encomium on the perfections, personal, moral, and +mental, of Master Clinton which lasted till the gentle Mary entered to +lay the cloth. This reminded the old steward of the glass of wine +which was so efficacious in making talk glide easily; and, going to +the buffet before mentioned, he drew forth two bottles, both of port. +Having carefully and warily decanted both, he changed the subject of +his praise; and, assuring Clarence that the wine he was about to taste +was at least as old as Master Clinton, having been purchased in joyous +celebration of the young gentleman's birthday, he whiled away the +minutes with a glowing eulogy on its generous qualities, till Mary +entered with the supper. + +Clarence, with an appetite sharpened, despite his romance, by a long +fast, did ample justice to the fare; and the old steward, warming into +familiarity with the virtues of the far-famed port, chatted and laughed +in a strain half simple and half shrewd. + +The fire being stirred up to a free blaze, the hearth swept, and all +the tokens of supper, save and except the kingly bottle and its +subject glasses, being removed, the steward and his guest drew closer +to each other, and the former began his story. + + + + +CHAPTER LXX. + + The actors are at hand, and by their show + You shall know all that you are like to know. + Midsummer-Night's Dream. + +"You know, probably, sir, that my late lord was twice married; by his +first wife he had three children, only one of whom, the youngest, +though now the present earl, survived the first period of infancy. +When Master Francis, as we always called him, in spite of his +accession to the title of viscount, was about six years old, my lady +died, and a year afterwards my lord married again. His second wife +was uncommonly handsome: she was a Miss Talbot (a Catholic), daughter +of Colonel Talbot, and niece to the celebrated beau, Squire Talbot of +Scarsdale Park. Poor lady! they say that she married my lord through +a momentary pique against a former lover. However that may be, she +was a fine, high-spirited creature: very violent in temper, to be +sure, but generous and kind when her passion was over; and however +haughty to her equals charitable and compassionate to the poor." + +"She had but one son, Master Clinton. Never, sir, shall I forget the +rejoicings that were made at his birth: for my lord doted on his +second wife, and had disliked his first, whom he had married for her +fortune; and it was therefore natural that he should prefer the child +of the present wife to Master Francis. Ah, it is sad to think how +love can change! Well, sir, my lord seemed literally to be wrapped up +in the infant: he nursed it and fondled it, and hung over it, as if he +had been its mother rather than its father. My lady desired that it +might be christened by one of her family names; and my lord +consenting, it was called Clinton. (The wine is with you, sir! Do +observe that it has not changed colour in the least, notwithstanding +its age.)" + +"My lord was fond of a quiet, retired life; indeed, he was a great +scholar, and spent the chief part of his time among his books. Dr. +Latinas, the young gentleman's tutor, said his lordship made Greek +verses better than Dr. Latinas could make English ones, so you may +judge of his learning. But my lady went constantly to town, and was +among the gayest of the gay; nor did she often come down here without +bringing a whole troop of guests. Lord help us, what goings on there +used to be at the great house!--such dancing and music, and dining and +supping, and shooting-parties, fishing-parties, gypsy-parties: you +would have thought all England was merrymaking there." + +"But my lord, though he indulged my lady in all her whims and +extravagance, seldom took much share in them himself. He was +constantly occupied with his library and children, nor did he ever +suffer either Master Francis or Master Clinton to mix with the guests. +He kept them very close at their studies, and when the latter was six +years old, I do assure you, sir, he could say his Propria quae maribus +better than I can. (You don't drink, sir.) When Master Francis was +sixteen, and Master Clinton eight, the former was sent abroad on his +travels with a German tutor, and did not return to England for many +years afterwards; meanwhile Master Clinton grew up to the age of +fourteen, increasing in comeliness and goodness. He was very fond of +his studies, much more so than Master Francis had been, and was +astonishingly forward for his years. So my lord loved him better and +better, and would scarcely ever suffer him to be out of his sight." + +"When Master Clinton was about the age I mentioned, namely, fourteen, +a gentleman of the name of Sir Clinton Manners became a constant +visitor at the house. Report said that he was always about my lady in +London at Ranelagh, and the ball-rooms and routs, and all the fine +places; and certainly he was scarcely ever from her side in the +pleasure parties at the Park. But my lady said that he was a cousin +of hers, and an old playmate in childhood, and so he was; and +unhappily for her, something more too. My lord, however, shut up in +his library, did not pay any attention to my lady's intimacy with Sir +Clinton; on the contrary, as he was a cousin and friend of hers, his +lordship seemed always happy to see him, and was the only person in +the neighbourhood who had no suspicion of what was going on." + +"Oh, sir, it is a melancholy story, and I can scarcely persuade myself +to tell it. (It is really delicious wine this-six-and-twenty years +old last birthday--to say nothing of its age before I bought it.) Ah! +well, sir, the blow came at last like a thunderclap: my lady, finding +disguise was in vain, went off with Sir Clinton. Letters were +discovered which showed that they had corresponded for years; that he +was her lover before marriage; that she, in a momentary passion with +him, had accepted my lord's offer; that she had always repented her +precipitation; and that she had called her son after his name: all +this, and much more, sir, did my lord learn, as it were, at a single +blow." + +"He obtained a divorce, and Sir Clinton and my lady went abroad. But +from that time my lord was never the same man. Always proud and +gloomy, he now became intolerably violent and morose. He shut himself +up, saw no company of any description, rarely left the house, and +never the park; and, from being one of the gayest places in the +country, sir, the mansion became as dreary and deserted as if it had +been haunted. (It is for you to begin the second bottle, sir.)" + +"But the most extraordinary change in my lord was in his conduct to +Master Clinton: from doting upon him, to a degree that would have +spoilt any temper less sweet than my poor young master's, he took the +most violent aversion to him. From the circumstance of his name, and +the long intimacy existing between my lady and her lover, his lordship +would not believe that Master Clinton was his own child; and indeed I +must confess there seemed good ground for his suspicions. Besides +this, Master Clinton took very much after his mother. He had her +eyes, hair, and beautiful features, so that my lord could never see +him without being reminded of his disgrace; therefore whenever the +poor young gentleman came into his presence, he would drive him out +with oaths and threats which rang through the whole house. He could +not even bear that he should have any attendance or respect from the +servants, for he considered him quite as an alien like, and worse than +a stranger; and his lordship's only delight seemed to consist in +putting upon him every possible indignity and affront. But Master +Clinton was a high-spirited young gentleman; and, after having in vain +endeavoured to soothe my lord by compliance and respect, he at last +utterly avoided his lordship's presence." + +"He gave up his studies in a great measure, and wandered about the +park and woods all day and sometimes even half the night; his mother's +conduct and his father's unkindness seemed to prey upon his health and +mind, and at last he grew almost as much altered as my lord. From +being one of the merriest boys possible, full of life and spirits, he +became thoughtful and downcast, his step lost its lightness, and his +eye all the fire which used once quite to warm one's heart when one +looked at it; in short, sir, the sins of the mother were visited as +much upon the child as the husband. (Not the least tawny, sir, you +see, though it is so old!)" + +"My lord at first seemed to be glad that he now never saw his son, +but, by degrees, I think he missed the pleasure of venting his spleen +upon him; and so he ordered my young master not to stir out without +his leave, and confined him closer than ever to his studies. (Well, +sir, if it were not for this port I could not get out another +sentence.) There used then to be sad scenes between them: my lord was +a terribly passionate man, and said things sharper than a two-edged +sword, as the psalms express it; and though Master Clinton was one of +the mildest and best-tempered boys imaginable, yet he could not at all +times curb his spirit; and, to my mind, when a man is perpetually +declaring he is not your father, one may now and then be forgiven in +forgetting that you are to behave as his son." + +"Things went on in this way sadly enough for about three years and a +half, when Master Clinton was nearly eighteen. One evening, after my +lord had been unusually stormy, Master Clinton's spirit warmed, I +suppose, and, from word to word, the dispute increased, till my lord, +in a furious rage, ordered in the servants, and told them to horsewhip +his son. Imagine, sir, what a disgrace to that noble house! But +there was not one of them who would not rather have cut off his right +hand than laid a finger upon Master Clinton, so greatly was he +beloved; and, at last, my lord summoned his own gentleman, a German, +six feet high, entirely devoted to his lordship, and commanded him, +upon pain of instant dismissal, to make use in his presence of a +horsewhip which he put into his hand." + +"The German did not dare refuse, so he approached Master Clinton. The +servants were still in the room, and perhaps they would have been bold +enough to rescue Master Clinton, had there been any need of their +assistance; but he was a tall youth, as bold as a hero, and, when the +German approached, he caught him by the throat, threw him down, and +very nearly strangled him; he then, while my lord was speechless with +rage, left the room, and did not return all night. (What a body it +has, sir--ah!)" + +"The next morning I was in a little room adjoining my lord's study, +looking over some papers and maps. His lordship did not know of my +presence, but was sitting alone at breakfast, when Master Clinton +suddenly entered the study; the door leading to my room was ajar, and +I heard all the conversation that ensued." + +"My lord asked him very angrily how he had dared absent himself all +night; but Master Clinton, making no reply to this question, said, in +a very calm, loud voice, which I think I hear now, 'My lord, after the +insult you have offered to me, it is perhaps unnecessary to observe +that nothing could induce me to remain under your roof. I come, +therefore, to take my last leave of you.'" + +"He paused, and my lord (probably like me, being taken by surprise) +making no reply, he continued, 'You have often told me, my lord, that +I am not your son; if this be possible, so much the more must you +rejoice at the idea of ridding your presence of an intruder.' 'And +how, sir, do you expect to live, except upon my bounty?' exclaimed my +lord. 'You remember,' answered my young master, 'that a humble +dependant of my mother's family, who had been our governess in +childhood, left me at her death the earnings of her life. I believe +they amount to nearly a thousand pounds; I look to your lordship's +honour either for the principal or the yearly interest, as may please +you best: further I ask not from you.' 'And do you think, sir,' cried +my lord, almost screaming with passion, 'that upon that beggarly +pittance you shall go forth to dishonour more than it is yet +dishonoured the name of my ancient house? Do you think, sir, that +that name to which you have no pretension, though the law iniquitously +grants it you, shall be sullied either with trade or robbery? for to +one or the other you must necessarily be driven.' 'I foresaw your +speech, my lord, and am prepared with an answer. Far be it from me to +thrust myself into any family, the head of which thinks proper to +reject me; far be it from me to honour my humble fortunes with a name +which I am as willing as yourself to disown: I purpose, therefore, to +adopt a new one; and, whatever may be my future fate, that name will +screen me both from your remembrance and the world's knowledge. Are +you satisfied now, my lord?'" + +"His lordship did not answer for some minutes: at last, he said +sneeringly, 'Go, boy, go! I am delighted to hear you have decided so +well. Leave word with my steward where you wish your clothes to be +sent to you: Heaven forbid I should rob you either of your wardrobe or +your princely fortune. Wardour will transmit to you the latter, even +to the last penny, by the same conveyance as that which is honoured by +the former. And now good-morning, sir; yet stay, and mark my words: +never dare to re-enter my house, or to expect an iota more of fortune +or favour from me. And, hark you, sir: if you dare violate your word; +if you dare, during my life, at least, assume a name which you were +born to sully,--my curse, my deepest, heartiest, eternal curse, be +upon your head in this world and the next!' 'Fear not, my lord: my +word is pledged,' said the young gentleman; and the next moment I +heard his parting step in the hall." + +"Sir, my heart was full (your glass is empty!) and my head spun round +as if I were on a precipice: but I was determined my young master +should not go till I had caught another glimpse of his dear face; so I +gently left the room I was in, and, hastening out of the house by a +private entrance, met Master Clinton in the park, not very far from +the spot where I saw you, sir, just now. To my surprise there was no +sign of grief or agitation upon his countenance. I had never seen him +look so proud, or for years so happy." + +"'Wardour,' said he, in a gay tone, when he saw me, 'I was going to +your house: my father has at last resolved that I should, like my +brother, commence my travels; and I wish to leave with you the address +of the place to which my clothes, etc., will be sent.' + +"I could not contain any longer when I heard this, sir: I burst into +tears, confessed that I had accidentally heard his conversation with +my lord, and besought him not to depart so hastily, and with so small +a fortune; but he shook his head and would not hear me. 'Believe me, +my good Wardour,' said he, 'that since my unhappy mother's flight, I +have never felt so elated or so happy as I do now: one should go +through what I have done, to learn the rapture of independence.' He +then told me to have his luggage sent to him, under his initials of C. +L., at the Golden Fleece, the principal inn in the town of W----, +which, you know, sir, is at the other end of the county, on the road +to London; and then, kindly shaking me by the hand, he broke away from +me: but he turned back before he had got three paces, and said (and +then, for the first time, the pride of his countenance fell, and the +tears stood in his eyes), 'Wardour, do not divulge what you have +heard: put as good a face upon my departure as you can, and let the +blame, if any, fall upon me, not upon your lord; after all he is to be +pitied, not blamed, and I can never forget that he once loved me.' He +did not wait for my answer,--perhaps he did not like to show me how +much he was affected,--but hurried down the park, and I soon lost +sight of him. My lord that very morning sent for me, demanded what +address his son had left, and gave me a letter, enclosing, I suppose, +a bill for my poor young master's fortune, ordering it to be sent with +the clothes immediately." + +"Sir, I have never seen or heard aught of the dear gentleman since; +you must forgive me, I cannot help tears, sir--(the wine is with +you)." + +"But the mother, the mother!" said Clarence, earnestly; "what became +of her? she died abroad, two years since, did she not?" + +"She did, sir," answered the honest steward, refilling his glass. +"They say that she lived very unhappily with Sir Clinton, who did not +marry her; till all of a sudden she disappeared, none knew whither." + +Clarence redoubled his attention. + +"At last," resumed the steward, "two years ago, a letter came from her +to my lord; she was a nun in some convent (in Italy I think) to which +she had, at the time of her disappearance, secretly retired. The +letter was written on her death-bed, and so affectingly, I suppose, +that even my stern lord was in tears for several days after he +received it. But the principal passage in it was relative to her son: +it assured my lord (for so with his own lips he told me just before he +died, some months ago) that Master Clinton was in truth his son, and +that it was not till she had been tempted many years after her +marriage that she had fallen; she implored my lord to believe this 'on +the word of one for whom earth and earth's objects were no more;' +those were her words." + +"Six months ago, when my lord lay on the bed from which he never rose, +he called me to him and said, "Wardour, you have always been the +faithful servant of our house, and warmly attached to my second son; +tell my poor boy, if ever you see him, that I did at last open my eyes +to my error and acknowledge him as my child; tell him that I have +desired his brother (who was then, sir, kneeling by my lord's side), +as he values my blessing, to seek him out and repair the wrong I have +done him; and add that my best comfort in death was the hope of his +forgiveness." + +"Did he, did he say that?" exclaimed Clarence, who had been violently +agitated during the latter part of this recital, and now sprang from +his seat. "My father, my father! would that I had borne with thee +more! mine, mine was the fault; from thee should have come the +forgiveness!" + +The old steward sat silent and aghast. At that instant his wife +entered, with a message of chiding at the lateness of the hour upon +her lip, but she started back when she saw Clarence's profile, as he +stood leaning against the wall. + +"Good heavens!" cried she, "is it, is it,--yes, it is my young master, +my own foster-son!" + +Rightly had Clarence conjectured, when he had shunned her presence. +Years had indeed wrought a change in his figure and face; +acquaintance, servant, friend, relation,--the remembrance of his +features had passed from all: but she who had nursed him as an infant +on her lap and fed him from her breast, she who had joined the +devotion of clanship to the fondness of a mother, knew him at a +glance. "Yes," cried he, as he threw himself into her withered and +aged arms, "it is I, the child you reared, come, after many years, to +find too late, when a father is no more, that he had a right to a +father's home." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXI. + + Let us go in, + And charge us there upon inter'gatories.--SHAKSPEARE. + +"But did not any one recognize you in your change of name?" said the +old foster-mother, looking fondly upon Clarence, as he sat the next +morning by her side. "How could any one forget so winsome a face who +had once seen it?" + +"You don't remember," said Clarence (as we will yet continue to call +our hero), smiling, "that your husband had forgotten it." + +"Ay, sir," cried the piqued steward, "but that was because you wore +your hat slouched over your eyes: if you had taken off that, I should +have known you directly." + +"However that may be," said Clarence, unwilling to dwell longer on an +occurrence which he saw hurt the feelings of the kind Mr. Wardour, "it +is very easy to explain how I preserved my incognito. You recollect +that my father never suffered me to mix with my mother's guests: so +that I had no chance of their remembering me, especially as during the +last three years and a half no stranger had ever entered our walls. +Add to this that I was in the very time of life in which a few years +work the greatest change, and on going to London I was thrown entirely +among people who could never have seen me before. Fortunately for me, +I became acquainted with my mother's uncle; circumstances subsequently +led me to disclose my birth to him, upon a promise that he would never +call me by any other name than that which I had assumed. He, who was +the best, the kindest, the most generous of human beings, took a +liking to me. He insisted not only upon his relationship to me, as my +grand-uncle, but upon the justice of repairing to me the wrongs his +unhappy niece had caused me. The delicacy of his kindness, the ties +of blood, and an accident which had enabled me to be of some service +to him, all prevented my resisting the weight of obligation with which +he afterwards oppressed me. He procured me an appointment abroad: I +remained there four years. When I returned, I entered, it is true, +into very general society: but four years had, as you may perceive, +altered me greatly; and even had there previously existed any chance +of my being recognized, that alteration would probably have been +sufficient to insure my secret." + +"But your brother,--my present lord,--did you never meet him, sir?" + +"Often, my good mother; but you remember that I was little more than +six years old when he left England, and when he next saw me I was +about two and twenty: it would have been next to a miracle, or, at +least, would have required the eyes of love like yours, to have +recalled me to memory after such an absence." + +"Well--to turn to my story--I succeeded, partly as his nearest +relation, but principally from an affection dearer than blood, to the +fortune of my grand-uncle, Mr. Talbot. Fate prospered with me: I rose +in the world's esteem and honour, and soon became prouder of my +borrowed appellation than of all the titles of my lordly line. +Circumstances occurring within the last week which it will be needless +to relate, but which may have the greatest influence over my future +life, made it necessary to do what I had once resolved I would never +do,--prove my identity and origin. Accordingly I came here to seek +you." + +"But why did not my honoured young master disclose himself last +night?" asked the steward. + +"I might say," answered Clarence, "because I anticipated great +pleasure in a surprise; but I had another reason; it was this: I had +heard of my poor father's death, and I was painfully anxious to learn +if at the last he had testified any relenting towards me, and yet more +so to ascertain the manner of my unfortunate mother's fate. Both +abroad and in England, I had sought tidings of her everywhere, but in +vain; in mentioning my mother's retiring into a convent, you have +explained the reason why my efforts were so fruitless. With these two +objects in view, I thought myself more likely to learn the whole truth +as a stranger than in my proper person; for in the latter case, I +deemed it probable that your delicacy and kindness might tempt you to +conceal whatever was calculated to wound my feelings, and to +exaggerate anything that might tend to flatter or to soothe them. +Thank Heaven, I now learn that I have a right to the name my boyhood +bore, and that my birth is not branded with the foulest of private +crimes, and that in death my father's heart yearned to his too hasty +but repentant son. Enough of this: I have now only to request you, my +friend, to accompany me, before daybreak on Wednesday morning, to a +place several miles hence. Your presence there will be necessary to +substantiate the proof for which I came hither." + +"With all my heart, sir," cried the honest steward; "and after +Wednesday you will, I trust, assume your rightful name." + +"Certainly," replied Clarence; "since I am no longer 'the Disowned.'" + +Leaving Clarence now for a brief while to renew his acquaintance with +the scenes of his childhood, and to offer the tribute of his filial +tears to the ashes of a father whose injustice had been but "the +stinging of a heart the world had stung," we return to some old +acquaintances in the various conduct of our drama. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXII. + + Upon his couch the veiled Mokanna lay.--The Veiled Prophet. + +The autumn sun broke through an apartment in a villa in the +neighbourhood of London, furnished with the most prodigal yet not +tasteless attention to luxury and show, within which, beside a table +strewed with newspapers, letters, and accounts, lay Richard Crauford, +extended carelessly upon a sofa which might almost have contented the +Sybarite who quarrelled with a rose-leaf. At his elbow was a bottle +half emptied and a wineglass just filled. An expression of triumph +and enjoyment was visible upon his handsome but usually inexpressive +countenance. + +"Well," said he, taking up a newspaper, "let us read this paragraph +again. What a beautiful sensation it is to see one's name in print. +'We understand that Richard Crauford, Esq., M. P. for ----, is to be +raised to the dignity of the peerage. There does not perhaps exist in +the country a gentleman more universally beloved and esteemed' (mark +that, Dicky Crauford). 'The invariable generosity with which his +immense wealth has been employed, his high professional honour, the +undeviating and consistent integrity of his political career' (ay, to +be sure, it is only your honest fools who are inconsistent: no man can +deviate who has one firm principle, self-interest), 'his manly and +energetic attention to the welfare of religion' (he! he! he!), +'conjoined to a fortune almost incalculable, render this condescension +of our gracious Sovereign no less judicious than deserved! We hear +that the title proposed for the new peer is that of Viscount +Innisdale, which, we believe, was formerly in the noble family of +which Mr. Crauford is a distant branch.' + +"He! he! he! Bravo! bravo! Viscount Innisdale, noble family, distant +branch,--the devil I am! What an ignoramus my father was not to know +that! Why, rest his soul, he never knew who his grandfather was; but +the world shall not be equally ignorant of that important point. Let +me see, who shall be Viscount Innisdale's great-grandfather? Well, +well, whoever he is, here's long life to his great-grandson! +'Incalculable fortune!' Ay, ay, I hope at all events it will never be +calculated. But now for my letters. Bah! this wine is a thought too +acid for the cellars of Viscount Innisdale! What, another from Mother +H----! Dark eyes, small mouth, sings like an angel, eighteen! Pish! +I am too old for such follies now: 't is not pretty for Viscount +Innisdale. Humph! Lisbon, seven hundred pounds five shillings and +seven-pence--half-penny, is it, or farthing? I must note that down. +Loan for King of Prussia. Well, must negotiate that to-morrow. Ah, +Hockit, the wine-merchant, pipe of claret in the docks, vintage of +17--. Bravo! all goes smooth for Viscount Innisdale! Pish! from my +damnable wife! What a pill for my lordship! What says she?" + + DAWLISH, DEVONSHIRE. +You have not, my dearest Richard, answered my letters for months. I +do not, however, presume to complain of your silence; I know well that +you have a great deal to occupy your time, both in business and +pleasure. But one little line, dear Richard,--one little line, surely +that is not too much now and then. I am most truly sorry to trouble +you again about money; and you must know that I strive to be as saving +as possible; ("Pish--curse the woman; sent her twenty pounds three +months ago!") but I really am so distressed, and the people here are +so pressing; and, at all events, I cannot bear the thought of your +wife being disgraced. Pray, forgive me, Richard, and believe how +painful it is in me to say so much. I know you will answer this! and, +oh, do, do tell me how you are. + +Ever your affectionate wife, CAROLINE CRAUFORD. + +"Was there ever poor man so plagued? Where's my note book? Mem.-- +Send Car. to-morrow 20 pounds to last her the rest of the year. Mem. +--Send Mother H----, 100 pounds. Mem.--Pay Hockit's bill, 830 pounds. +Bless me, what shall I do with Viscountess Innisdale? Now, if I were +not married, I would be son-in-law to a duke. Mem.--Go down to +Dawlish, and see if she won't die soon. Healthy situation, I fear,-- +devilish unlucky,--must be changed. Mem.--Swamps in Essex. Who's +that?" + +A knock at the door disturbed Mr. Crauford in his meditations. He +started up, hurried the bottle and glass under the sofa, where the +descending drapery completely hid them; and, taking up a newspaper, +said in a gentle tone, "Come in." A small thin man, bowing at every +step, entered. + +"Ah! Bradley, is it you, my good fellow?" said Crauford: "glad to see +you,--a fine morning: but what brings you from town so early?" + +"Why, sir," answered Mr. Bradley, very obsequiously, "something +unpleasant has--" + +"Merciful Heaven!" cried Crauford, blanched into the whiteness of +death, and starting up from the sofa with a violence which frightened +the timid Mr. Bradley to the other end of the room, "the counting- +house, the books,--all safe?" + +"Yes, sir, yes, at present, but--" + +"But what, man?" + +"Why, honoured sir," returned Mr. Bradley, bowing to the ground, "your +partner, Mr. Jessopp, has been very inquisitive about the accounts. +He says Mr. Da Costa, the Spanish merchant, has been insinuating very +unpleasant hints, and that he must have a conversation with you at +your earliest convenience; and when, sir, I ventured to remonstrate +about the unreasonableness of attending to what Mr. Da Costa said, Mr. +Jessopp was quite abusive, and declared that there seemed some very +mysterious communication between you (begging your pardon, sir) and +me, and that he did not know what business I, who had no share in the +firm, had to interfere." + +"But," said Crauford, "you were civil to him; did not reply hotly, eh! +my good Bradley?" + +"Lord forbid, sir; Lord forbid, that I should not know my place +better, or that I should give an unbecoming word to the partner of my +honoured benefactor. But, sir, if I dare venture to say so, I think +Mr. Jessopp is a little jealous or so of you; he seemed quite in a +passion at the paragraph in the paper about my honoured master's +becoming a lord." + +"Right, honest Bradley, right; he is jealous: we must soothe him. Go, +my good fellow, go to him with my compliments, and say that I will be +with him by one. Never fear this business will be easily settled." + +And, bowing himself out of the room, Bradley withdrew. Left alone, a +dark cloud gathered over the brow of Mr. Crauford. + +"I am on a precipice," thought he; "but if my own brain does not turn +giddy with the prospect, all yet may be safe. Cruel necessity, that +obliged me to admit another into the business, that foiled me of +Mordaunt, and drove me upon this fawning rascal! So, so: I almost +think there is a Providence, now that Mordaunt has grown rich; but +then his wife died; ay, ay, God saved him, but the devil killed her. +[Dieu a puni ce fripon, le diable a noye les autres.--VOLTAIRE: +Candide.] He! he! he! But, seriously, seriously, there is danger in +the very air I breathe! I must away to that envious Jessopp +instantly; but first let me finish the bottle." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIII. + + A strange harmonious inclination + Of all degrees to reformation.--Hudibras. + +About seven miles from W----, on the main road from ----, there was in +17-- a solitary public-house, which by the by is now a magnificent +hotel. Like many of its brethren in the more courtly vicinity of the +metropolis, this amoenum hospitium peregrinae gentis then had its +peculiar renown for certain dainties of the palate; and various in +degree and character were the numerous parties from the neighbouring +towns and farms, which upon every legitimate holiday were wont to +assemble at the mansion of mine host of the Jolly Angler, in order to +feast upon eel-pie and grow merry over the true Herefordshire cider. + +But upon that special day on which we are about to introduce our +reader into the narrow confines of its common parlour, the said +hostelry was crowded with persons of a very different description from +the peaceable idlers who were ordinarily wont to empty mine host's +larder, and forget the price of corn over the divine inspirations of +pomarial nectar. Instead of the indolent, satisfied air of the +saturnalian merrymaker, the vagrant angler, or the gentleman farmer, +with his comely dame who "walked in silk attire, and siller had to +spare;" instead of the quiet yet glad countenances of such hunters of +pleasure and eaters of eel-pie, or the more obstreperous joy of +urchins let loose from school to taste some brief and perennial +recreation, and mine host's delicacies at the same time; instead of +these, the little parlour presented a various and perturbed group, +upon whose features neither eel-pie nor Herefordshire cider had +wrought the relaxation of a holiday or the serenity of a momentary +content. + +The day to which we now refer was the one immediately preceding that +appointed for the far-famed meeting at W----; and many of the +patriots, false or real, who journeyed from a distance to attend that +rendezvous, had halted at our host's of the Jolly Angler, both as +being within a convenient space from the appointed spot, and as a +tabernacle where promiscuous intrusion and (haply) immoderate charges +were less likely to occur than at the bustling and somewhat +extraordinary hotels and inns of the town of W----. + +The times in which this meeting was held were those of great popular +excitement and discontent; and the purport of the meeting proposed was +to petition Parliament against the continuance of the American war and +the King against the continuance of his ministers. + +Placards of an unusually inflammatory and imprudent nature had given +great alarm to the more sober and well-disposed persons in the +neighbourhood of W----; and so much fear was felt or assumed upon the +occasion that a new detachment of Lord Ulswater's regiment had been +especially ordered into the town; and it was generally rumoured that +the legal authorities would interfere, even by force, for the +dispersion of the meeting in question. These circumstances had given +the measure a degree of general and anxious interest which it would +not otherwise have excited; and while everybody talked of the danger +of attending the assembly, everybody resolved to thrust himself into +it. + +It was about the goodly hour of noon, and the persons assembled were +six in number, all members of the most violent party, and generally +considered by friend and foe as embracers of republican tenets. One +of these, a little, oily, corpulent personage, would have appeared far +too sleek and well fed for a disturber of things existing, had not a +freckled, pimpled, and fiery face, a knit brow, and a small black eye +of intolerable fierceness belied the steady and contented appearance +of his frame and girth. This gentleman, by name Christopher +Culpepper, spoke in a quick, muffled, shuffling sort of tone, like the +pace of a Welsh pony, somewhat lame, perfectly broken-winded, but an +exemplary ambler for all that. + +Next to him sat, with hands clasped over his knees, a thin, small man, +with a countenance prematurely wrinkled and an air of great dejection. +Poor Castleton! his had been, indeed, the bitter lot of a man, honest +but weak, who attaches himself, heart and soul, to a public cause +which, in his life at least, is hopeless. Three other men were +sitting by the open window, disputing, with the most vehement +gestures, upon the character of Wilkes; and at the other window, +alone, silent, and absorbed, sat a man whose appearance and features +were singularly calculated to arrest and to concentrate attention. +His raven hair, grizzled with the first advance of age, still +preserved its strong, wiry curl and luxuriant thickness. His brows, +large, bushy, and indicative of great determination, met over eyes +which at that moment were fixed upon vacancy with a look of thought +and calmness very unusual to their ordinary restless and rapid +glances. His mouth, that great seat of character, was firmly and +obstinately shut; and though, at the first observation, its downward +curve and iron severity wore the appearance of unmitigated harshness, +disdain, and resolve, yet a more attentive deducer of signs from +features would not have been able to detect in its expression anything +resembling selfishness or sensuality, and in that absence would have +found sufficient to redeem the more repellent indications of mind +which it betrayed. + +Presently the door was opened, and the landlord, making some apology +to both parties for having no other apartment unoccupied, introduced a +personage whose dress and air, as well as a kind of saddle-bag, which +he would not intrust to any other bearer than himself, appeared to +denote him as one rather addicted to mercantile than political +speculations. Certainly he did not seem much at home among the +patriotic reformers, who, having glared upon him for a single moment, +renewed, without remark, their several attitudes or occupations. + +The stranger, after a brief pause, approached the solitary reformer +whom we last described; and making a salutation, half timorous and +half familiar, thus accosted him,-- + +"Your servant, Mr. Wolfe, your servant. I think I had the pleasure of +hearing you a long time ago at the Westminster election: very eloquent +you were, sir, very!" + +Wolfe looked up for an instant at the face of the speaker, and, not +recognizing it, turned abruptly away, threw open the window, and, +leaning out, appeared desirous of escaping from all further intrusion +on the part of the stranger; but that gentleman was by no means of a +nature easily abashed. + +"Fine day, sir, for the time of year; very fine day, indeed. October +is a charming month, as my lamented friend and customer, the late Lady +Waddilove, was accustomed to say. Talking of that, sir, as the winter +is now approaching, do you not think it would be prudent, Mr. Wolfe, +to provide yourself with an umbrella? I have an admirable one which I +might dispose of: it is from the effects of the late Lady Waddilove. +'Brown,' said her ladyship, a short time before her death, 'Brown, you +are a good creature; but you ask too much for the Dresden vase. We +have known each other a long time; you must take fourteen pounds ten +shillings, and you may have that umbrella in the corner into the +bargain.' Mr. Wolfe, the bargain was completed, and the umbrella +became mine: it may now be yours." + +And so saying, Mr. Brown, depositing his saddle-bag on the ground, +proceeded to unfold an umbrella of singular antiquity and form,--a +very long stick, tipped with ivory, being surmounted with about a +quarter of a yard of sea-green silk, somewhat discoloured by time and +wear. + +"It is a beautiful article, sir," said Mr. Brown, admiringly surveying +it: "is it not?" + +"Pshaw!" said Wolfe, impatiently, "what have I to do with your goods +and chattels? Go and palm the cheatings and impositions of your +pitiful trade upon some easier gull." + +"Cheatings and impositions, Mr. Wolfe!" cried the slandered Brown, +perfectly aghast; "I would have you to know, sir, that I have served +the first families in the country, ay, and in this county too, and +never had such words applied to me before. Sir, there was the late +Lady Waddilove, and the respected Mrs. Minden, and her nephew the +ambassador, and the Duchess of Pugadale, and Mr. Mordaunt of Mordaunt +Court, poor gentleman, though he is poor no more," and Mr. Brown +proceeded to enumerate the long list of his customers. + +Now, we have stated that Wolfe, though he had never known the rank of +Mordaunt, was acquainted with his real name, and, as the sound caught +his ear, he muttered, "Mordaunt, Mordaunt, ay, but not my former +acquaintance,--not him who was called Glendower. No, no: the man +cannot mean him." + +"Yes, sir, but I do mean him," cried Brown, in a rage. "I do mean +that Mr. Glendower, who afterwards took another name, but whose real +appellation is Mr. Algernon Mordaunt of Mordaunt Court, in this +county, sir." + +"What description of man is he?" said Wolfe; "rather tall, slender, +with an air and mien like a king's, I was going to say, but better +than a king's, like a freeman's?" + +"Ay, ay--the same," answered Mr. Brown, sullenly; "but why should I +tell you? 'Cheating and imposition,' indeed! I am sure my word can +be of no avail to you; and I sha' n't stay here any longer to be +insulted, Mr. Wolfe, which, I am sure, talking of freemen, no freeman +ought to submit to; but as the late Lady Waddilove once very wisely +said to me, 'Brown, never have anything to do with those republicans: +they are the worst tyrants of all.' Good morning, Mr. Wolfe; +gentlemen, your servant; 'cheating and imposition,' indeed! and Mr. +Brown banged the door as he departed. + +"Wolfe," said Mr. Christopher Culpepper, "who is that man?" + +"I know not," answered the republican, laconically, and gazing on the +ground, apparently in thought. + +"He has the air of a slave," quoth the free Culpepper, and slaves +cannot bear the company of freemen; therefore he did right to go, +whe-w! Had we a proper and thorough and efficient reform, human +nature would not be thus debased by trades and callings and barters +and exchange, for all professions are injurious to the character and +the dignity of man, whe-w! but, as I shall prove upon the hustings to- +morrow, it is in vain to hope for any amendment in the wretched state +of things until the people of these realms are fully, freely, and +fairly represented, whe-w! Gentlemen, it is past two, and we have not +ordered dinner, whe-w!" (N. B.--This ejaculation denotes the kind of +snuffle which lent peculiar energy to the dicta of Mr. Culpepper.) + +"Ring the bell, then, and summon the landlord," said, very +pertinently, one of the three disputants upon the character of Wilkes. + +The landlord appeared; dinner was ordered. + +"Pray," said Wolfe, "has that man, Mr. Brown I think he called +himself, left the inn?" + +"He has, sir, for he was mightily offended at something which--" + +"And," interrupted Wolfe, "how far hence does Mr. Mordaunt live?" + +"About five miles on the other side of W----," answered mine host. + +Wolfe rose, seized his hat, and was about to depart. + +"Stay, stay," cried citizen Christopher Culpepper; "you will not leave +us till after dinner?" + +"I shall dine at W----," answered Wolfe, quitting the room. + +"Then our reckoning will be heavier," said Culpepper. "It is not +handsome in Wolfe to leave us, whe-w! Really I think that our brother +in the great cause has of late relaxed in his attentions and zeal to +the goddess of our devotions, whe-w!" + +"It is human nature!" cried one of the three disputants upon the +character of Wilkes. + +"It is not human nature!" cried the second disputant, folding his arms +doggedly, in preparation for a discussion. + +"Contemptible human nature!" exclaimed the third disputant, +soliloquizing with a supercilious expression of hateful disdain. + +"Poor human nature!" murmured Castleton, looking upward with a sigh; +and though we have not given to that gentleman other words than these, +we think they are almost sufficient to let our readers into his +character. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIV. + + Silvis, ubi passim + Palantes error certo de tramite pellit, + Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit; unus utrique + Error, sed variis illudit partibus.--HORACE. + + ["Wandering in those woods where error evermore forces life's + stragglers from the beaten path,--this one deflects to the left, + his fellow chooses the exact contrary. The fault is all the same + in each, but it excuses itself by a thousand different reasons."] + + +As Wolfe strode away from the inn, he muttered to himself,-- + +"Can it be that Mordaunt has suddenly grown rich? If so, I rejoice at +it. True, that he was not for our cause, but he had the spirit and +the heart which belonged to it. Had he not been bred among the +prejudices of birth, or had he lived in stormier times, he might have +been the foremost champion of freedom. As it is, I rather lament than +condemn. Yet I would fain see him once more. Perhaps prosperity may +have altered his philosophy. But can he, indeed, be the same Mordaunt +of whom that trading itinerant spoke? Can he have risen to the +pernicious eminence of a landed aristocrat? Well, it is worth the +journey; for if he have power in the neighbourhood, I am certain that +he will exert it for our protection; and, at the worst, I shall escape +from the idle words of my compatriots. Oh! if it were possible that +the advocates could debase the glory of the cause, how long since +should I have flinched from the hardship and the service to which my +life is devoted! Self-interest; Envy, that snarls at all above it, +without even the beast's courage to bite; Folly, that knows not the +substance of Freedom, but loves the glitter of its name; Fear, that +falters; Crime, that seeks in licentiousness an excuse; +Disappointment, only craving occasion to rail; Hatred; Sourness, +boasting of zeal, but only venting the blackness of rancour and evil +passion,--all these make our adherents, and give our foes the handle +and the privilege to scorn and to despise. But man chooses the +object, and Fate only furnishes the tools. Happy for our posterity, +that when the object is once gained, the frailty of the tools will be +no more!" + +Thus soliloquizing, the republican walked rapidly onwards, till a turn +of the road brought before his eye the form of Mr. Brown, seated upon +a little rough pony, and "whistling as he went for want of thought." + +Wolfe quickened his pace, and soon overtook him. + +"You must forgive me, my good man," said he, soothingly; "I meant not +to impeach your honesty or your calling. Perhaps I was hasty and +peevish; and, in sad earnest, I have much to tease and distract me." + +"Well, sir, well," answered Mr. Brown, greatly mollified; "I am sure +no Christian can be more forgiving than I am; and, since you are sorry +for what you were pleased to say, let us think no more about it. But +touching the umbrella, Mr. Wolfe, have you a mind for that interesting +and useful relic of the late Lady Waddilove?" + +"Not at present, I thank you," said Wolfe, mildly; "I care little for +the inclemencies of the heavens, and you may find many to whom your +proffered defence from them may be more acceptable. But tell me if +the Mr. Mordaunt you mentioned was ever residing in town, and in very +indifferent circumstances?" + +"Probably he was," said the cautious Brown, who, as we before said, +had been bribed into silence, and who now grievously repented that +passion had betrayed him into the imprudence of candour; "but I really +do not busy myself about other people's affairs. 'Brown,' said the +late Lady Waddilove to me, 'Brown, you are a good creature, and never +talk of what does not concern you.' Those, Mr. Wolfe, were her +ladyship's own words." + +"As you please," said the reformer, who did not want shrewdness, and +saw that his point was already sufficiently gained; "as you please. +And now, to change the subject, I suppose we shall have your +attendance at the meeting at W---- to-morrow?" + +"Ay," replied the worthy Brown: "I thought it likely I should meet +many of my old customers in the town on such a busy occasion; so I +went a little out of my way home to London, in order to spend a night +or two there. Indeed, I have some valuable articles for Mr. Glumford, +the magistrate, who will be in attendance to-morrow." + +"They say," observed Wolfe, "that the magistrates, against all law, +right, and custom, will dare to interfere with and resist the meeting. +Think you report says true?" + +"Nay," returned Brown, prudently, "I cannot exactly pretend to decide +the question: all I know is that Squire Glumford said to me, at his +own house, five days ago, as he was drawing on his boots, 'Brown,' +said he, 'Brown, mark my words, we shall do for those rebellious +dogs!'" + +"Did he say so?" muttered Wolfe, between his teeth. "Oh, for the old +times, or those yet to come, when our answer would have been, or shall +be, the sword!" + +"And you know," pursued Mr. Brown, "that Lord Ulswater and his +regiment are in town, and have even made great preparations against +the meeting a week ago." + +"I have heard this," said Wolfe; "but I cannot think that any body of +armed men dare interrupt or attack a convocation of peaceable +subjects, met solely to petition Parliament against famine for +themselves and slavery for their children." + +"Famine!" quoth Mr. Brown. "Indeed it is very true, very! times are +dreadfully bad. I can scarcely get my own living; Parliament +certainly ought to do something: but you must forgive me, Mr. Wolfe; +it may be dangerous to talk with you on these matters; and, now I +think of it, the sooner I get to W---- the better; good morning; a +shower's coming on. You won't have the umbrella, then?" + +"They dare not," said Wolfe to himself, "no, no,--they dare not attack +us; they dare not;" and clenching his fist, he pursued, with a quicker +step, and a more erect mien, his solitary way. + +When he was about the distance of three miles from W----, he was +overtaken by a middle-aged man of a frank air and a respectable +appearance. "Good day, sir," said he; "we seem to be journeying the +same way: will it be against your wishes to join company?" + +Wolfe assented, and the stranger resumed:-- + +"I suppose, sir, you intend to be present at the meeting at W---- +to-morrow? There will be an immense concourse, and the entrance of a +new detachment of soldiers, and the various reports of the likelihood +of their interference with the assembly, make it an object of some +interest and anxiety to look forward to." + +"True, true," said Wolfe, slowly, eying his new acquaintance with a +deliberate and scrutinizing attention. "It will, indeed, be +interesting to see how far an evil and hardy government will venture +to encroach upon the rights of the people, which it ruins while it +pretends to rule." + +"Of a truth," rejoined the other, "I rejoice that I am no politician. +I believe my spirit is as free as any cooped in the narrow dungeon of +earth's clay can well be; yet I confess that it has drawn none of its +liberty from book, pamphlet, speech, or newspaper, of modern times." + +"So much the worse for you, sir," said Wolfe, sourly: "the man who has +health and education can find no excuse for supineness or indifference +to that form of legislation by which his country decays or prospers." + +"Why," said the other, gayly, "I willingly confess myself less of a +patriot than a philosopher; and as long as I am harmless, I strive +very little to be useful, in a public capacity; in a private one, as a +father, a husband, and a neighbour, I trust I am not utterly without +my value." + +"Pish!" cried Wolfe; "let no man who forgets his public duties prate +of his private merits. I tell you, man, that he who can advance by a +single hair's-breadth the happiness or the freedom of mankind has done +more to save his own soul than if he had paced every step of the +narrow circle of his domestic life with the regularity of clockwork." + +"You may be right," quoth the stranger, carelessly; "but I look on +things in the mass, and perhaps see only the superficies, while you, I +perceive already, are a lover of the abstract. For my part, Harry +Fielding's two definitions seem to me excellent. 'Patriot,--a +candidate for a place!' 'Politics,--the art of getting such a place!' +Perhaps, sir, as you seem a man of education, you remember the words +of our great novelist." + +"No!" answered Wolfe, a little contemptuously; "I cannot say that I +burden my memory with the deleterious witticisms and shallow remarks +of writers of fancy. It has been a mighty and spreading evil to the +world that the vain fictions of the poets or the exaggerations of +novelists have been hitherto so welcomed and extolled. Better had it +been for us if the destruction of the lettered wealth at Alexandria +had included all the lighter works which have floated, from their very +levity, down the stream of time, an example and a corruption to the +degraded geniuses of later days." + +The eyes of the stranger sparkled. "Why, you outgoth the Goth!" +exclaimed he, sharply. "But you surely preach against what you have +not studied. Confess that you are but slightly acquainted with +Shakspeare, and Spenser, and noble Dan Chaucer. Ay, if you knew them +as well as I do, you would, like me, give-- + + 'To hem faith and full credence, + And in your heart have hem in reverence.'" + +"Pish!" again muttered Wolfe; and then rejoined aloud, "It grieves me +to see time so wasted, and judgment so perverted, as yours appears to +have been; but it fills me with pity and surprise, as well as grief, +to find that, so far from shame at the effeminacy of your studies, you +appear to glory and exult in them." + +"May the Lord help me, and lighten thee," said Cole; for it was he. +"You are at least not a novelty in human wisdom, whatever you may be +in character; for you are far from the only one proud of being +ignorant, and pitying those who are not so." + +Wolfe darted one of his looks of fire at the speaker, who, nothing +abashed, met the glance with an eye, if not as fiery, at least as +bold. + +"I see," said the republican, "that we shall not agree upon the topics +you have started. If you still intrude your society upon me, you +will, at least, choose some other subject of conversation." + +"Pardon me," said Cole, whose very studies, while they had excited, in +their self-defence, his momentary warmth, made him habitually +courteous and urbane, "pardon me for my hastiness of expression. I +own myself in fault." And, with this apology, our ex-king slid into +the new topics which the scenery and the weather afforded him. + +Wolfe, bent upon the object of his present mission, made some +inquiries respecting Mordaunt; and though Cole only shared the +uncertain information of the country gossips as to the past history of +that person, yet the little he did know was sufficient to confirm the +republican in his belief of Algernon's identity; while the ex-gypsy's +account of his rank and reputation in the country made Wolfe doubly +anxious to secure, if possible, his good offices and interference on +behalf of the meeting. But the conversation was not always restricted +to neutral and indifferent ground, but ever and anon wandered into +various allusions or opinions from the one, certain to beget retort or +controversy in the other. + +Had we time and our reader patience, it would have been a rare and +fine contrast to have noted more at large the differences of thought +and opinion between the companions: each in his several way so ardent +for liberty, and so impatient of the control and customs of society; +each so enthusiastic for the same object, yet so coldly contemptuous +to the enthusiasm of the other. The one guided only by his poetical +and erratic tastes, the other solely by dreams, seeming to the world +no less baseless, yet, to his own mind, bearing the name of stern +judgment and inflexible truth. Both men of active and adventurous +spirits, to whom forms were fetters and ceremonies odious; yet, +deriving from that mutual similarity only pity for mutual perversion, +they were memorable instances of the great differences congeniality +itself will occasion, and of the never-ending varieties which minds, +rather under the influence of imagination than judgment, will create. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXV. + + Gratis anhelans, multa agendo, nihil agens.--PHAEDRUS. + ["Panting and labouring in vain; doing much,--effecting nothing."] + +Upon entering the town, the streets displayed all the bustle and +excitement which the approaching meeting was eminently calculated to +create in a place ordinarily quiescent and undisturbed: groups of men +were scattered in different parts, conversing with great eagerness; +while here and there some Demosthenes of the town, impatient of the +coming strife, was haranguing his little knot of admiring friends, and +preparing his oratorical organs by petty skirmishing for the grand +battle of the morrow. Now and then the eye roved upon the gaunt forms +of Lord Ulswater's troopers, as they strolled idly along the streets, +in pairs, perfectly uninterested by the great event which set all the +more peaceable inmates of the town in a ferment, and returning, with a +slighting and supercilious glance, the angry looks and muttered +anathemas which, ever and anon, the hardier spirits of the petitioning +party liberally bestowed upon them. + +As Wolfe and his comrade entered the main street, the former was +accosted by some one of his compatriots, who, seizing him by the arm, +was about to apprise the neighbouring idlers, by a sudden exclamation, +of the welcome entrance of the eloquent and noted republican. But +Wolfe perceived and thwarted his design. + +"Hush!" said he, in a low voice; "I am only now on my way to an old +friend, who seems a man of influence in these parts, and may be of +avail to us on the morrow; keep silence, therefore, with regard to my +coming till I return. I would not have my errand interrupted." + +"As you will," said the brother spirit: "but whom have you here, a +fellow-labourer?" and the reformer pointed to Cole, who, with an +expression of shrewd humour, blended with a sort of philosophical +compassion, stood at a little distance waiting for Wolfe, and eying +the motley groups assembled before him. + +"No," answered Wolfe; "he is some vain and idle sower of unprofitable +flowers; a thing who loves poetry, and, for aught I know, writes it: +but that reminds me that I must rid myself of his company; yet stay; +do you know this neighbourhood sufficiently to serve me as a guide?" + +"Ay," quoth the other; "I was born within three miles of the town." + +"Indeed!" rejoined Wolfe; "then perhaps you can tell me if there is +any way of reaching a place called Mordaunt Court without passing +through the more public and crowded thoroughfares." + +"To be sure," rejoined the brother spirit; "you have only to turn to +the right up yon hill, and you will in an instant be out of the +purlieus and precincts of W----, and on your shortest road to Mordaunt +Court; but surely it is not to its owner that you are bound?" + +"And why not?" said Wolfe. + +"Because," replied the other, "he is the wealthiest, the highest, and, +as report says, the haughtiest aristocrat of these parts." + +"So much the better, then," said Wolfe, "can he aid us in obtaining a +quiet hearing to-morrow, undisturbed by those liveried varlets of +hire, who are termed, in sooth, Britain's defence! Much better, when +we think of all they cost us to pamper and to clothe, should they be +termed Britain's ruin: but farewell for the present; we shall meet to- +night; your lodgings--?" + +"Yonder," said the other, pointing to a small inn opposite; and Wolfe, +nodding his adieu, returned to Cole, whose vivacious and restless +nature had already made him impatient of his companion's delay. + +"I must take my leave of you now," said Wolfe, "which I do with a +hearty exhortation that you will change your studies, fit only for +effeminate and enslaved minds." + +"And I return the exhortation," answered Cole. "Your studies seem to +me tenfold more crippling than mine: mine take all this earth's +restraints from me, and yours seem only to remind you that all earth +is restraint: mine show me whatever worlds the fondest fancy could +desire; yours only the follies and chains of this. In short, while +'my mind to me a kingdom is,' yours seems to consider the whole +universe itself nothing but a great meeting for the purpose of abusing +ministers and demanding reform!" + +Not too well pleased by this answer, and at the same time indisposed +to the delay of further reply, Wolfe contented himself with an iron +sneer of disdain, and, turning on his heel, strode rapidly away in the +direction his friend had indicated. + +Meanwhile, Cole followed him with his eye till he was out of sight, +and then muttered to himself, "Never was there a fitter addition to +old Barclay's 'Ship of Fools'! I should not wonder if this man's +patriotism leads him from despising the legislature into breaking the +law; and, faith, the surest way to the gallows is less through vice +than discontent: yet I would fain hope better things for him; for, +methinks, he is neither a common declaimer nor an ordinary man." + +With these words the honest Cole turned away, and, strolling towards +the Golden Fleece, soon found himself in the hospitable mansion of +Mistress and Mister Merrylack. + +While the ex-king was taking his ease at his inn, Wolfe proceeded to +Mordaunt Court. The result of the meeting that there ensued was a +determination on the part of Algernon to repair immediately to W----. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVI. + +The commons here in Kent are up in arms.--Second Part of Henry VI. + +When Mordaunt arrived at W----, he found that the provincial deities +(who were all assembled at dinner with the principal inhabitants of +the town), in whose hands the fate of the meeting was placed, were in +great doubt and grievous consternation. He came in time, first to +balance the votes, and ultimately to decide them. His mind, prudent +and acute, when turned to worldly affairs, saw at a glance the +harmless though noisy nature of the meeting; and he felt that the +worst course the government or the county could pursue would be to +raise into importance, by violence, what otherwise would meet with +ridicule from most and indifference from the rest. + +His large estates, his ancient name, his high reputation for talent, +joined to that manner, half eloquent and half commanding, which rarely +fails of effect when deliberation only requires a straw on either side +to become decision,--all these rendered his interference of immediate +avail; and it was settled that the meeting should, as similar +assemblies had done before, proceed and conclude, undisturbed by the +higher powers, so long as no positive act of sedition to the +government or danger to the town was committed. + +Scarcely was this arrangement agreed upon, before Lord Ulswater, who +had hitherto been absent, entered the room in which the magisterial +conclave was assembled. Mr. Glumford (whom our readers will possibly +remember as the suitor to Isabel St. Leger, and who had at first +opposed, and then reluctantly subscribed to, Mordaunt's interference) +bustled up to him. + +"So, so, my lord," said he, "since I had the honour of seeing your +lordship, quite a new sort of trump has been turned up." + +"I do not comprehend your metaphorical elegances of speech, Mr. +Glumford," said Lord Ulswater. + +Mr. Glumford explained. Lord Ulswater's cheek grew scarlet. "So Mr. +Mordaunt has effected this wise alteration," said he. + +"Nobody else, my lord, nobody else: and I am sure, though your +lordship's estates are at the other end of the county, yet they are +much larger than his; and since your lordship has a troop at your +command, and that sort of thing, I would not, if I were your lordship, +suffer any such opposition to your wishes." + +Without making a reply to this harangue, Lord Ulswater stalked +haughtily up to Mordaunt, who was leaning against the wainscot and +conversing with those around him. + +"I cannot but conceive, Mr. Mordaunt," said he, with a formal bow, +"that I have been misinformed in the intelligence I have just +received." + +"Lord Ulswater will perhaps inform me to what intelligence he +alludes." + +"That Mr. Mordaunt, the representative of one of the noblest families +in England, has given the encouragement and influence of his name and +rank to the designs of a seditious and turbulent mob." + +Mordaunt smiled slightly, as he replied, "Your lordship rightly +believes that you are misinformed. It is precisely because I would +not have the mob you speak of seditious or turbulent that I have made +it my request that the meeting of to-morrow should be suffered to pass +off undisturbed." + +"Then, sir," cried Lord Ulswater, striking the table with a violence +which caused three reverend potentates of the province to start back +in dismay, "I cannot but consider such interference on your part to +the last degree impolitic and uncalled for: these, sir, are times of +great danger to the State, and in which it is indispensably requisite +to support and strengthen the authority of the law." + +"I waive, at present," answered Mordaunt, "all reply to language +neither courteous nor appropriate. I doubt not but that the +magistrates will decide as is most in accordance with the spirit of +that law which, in this and in all times, should be supported." + +"Sir," said Lord Ulswater, losing his temper more and more, as he +observed that the bystanders, whom he had been accustomed to awe, all +visibly inclined to the opinion of Mordaunt, "sir, if your name has +been instrumental in producing so unfortunate a determination on the +part of the magistrates, I shall hold you responsible to the +government for those results which ordinary prudence may calculate +upon." + +"When Lord Ulswater," said Mordaunt, sternly, "has learned what is due +not only to the courtesies of society, but to those legitimate +authorities of his country, who (he ventures to suppose) are to be +influenced contrary to their sense of duty by any individual, then he +may perhaps find leisure to make himself better acquainted with the +nature of those laws which he now so vehemently upholds." + +"Mr. Mordaunt, you will consider yourself answerable to me for those +words," said Lord Ulswater, with a tone of voice unnaturally calm; and +the angry flush of his countenance gave place to a livid paleness. +Then, turning on his heel, he left the room. + +As he repaired homeward he saw one of his soldiers engaged in a loud +and angry contest with a man in the plain garb of a peaceful citizen; +a third person, standing by, appeared ineffectually endeavouring to +pacify the disputants. A rigid disciplinarian, Lord Ulswater allowed +not even party feeling, roused as it was, to conquer professional +habits. He called off the soldier, and the man with whom the latter +had been engaged immediately came up to Lord Ulswater, with a step as +haughty as his own. The third person, who had attempted the +peacemaker, followed him. + +"I presume, sir," said he, "that you are an officer of this man's +regiment." + +"I am the commanding officer, sir," said Lord Ulswater, very little +relishing the air and tone of the person who addressed him. + +"Then," answered the man (who was, indeed, no other than Wolfe, who, +having returned to W---- with Mordaunt, had already succeeded in +embroiling himself in a dispute), "then, sir, I look to you for his +punishment and my redress;" and Wolfe proceeded in his own exaggerated +language to detail a very reasonable cause of complaint. The fact was +that Wolfe, meeting one of his compatriots and conversing with him +somewhat loudly, had uttered some words which attracted the spleen of +the soldier, who was reeling home very comfortably intoxicated; and +the soldier had most assuredly indulged in a copious abuse of the d--d +rebel who could not walk the streets without chattering sedition. + +Wolfe's friend confirmed the statement. + +The trooper attempted to justify himself; but Lord Ulswater saw his +intoxication in an instant, and, secretly vexed that the complaint was +not on the other side, ordered the soldier to his quarters, with a +brief but sure threat of punishment on the morrow. Not willing, +however, to part with the "d--d rebel" on terms so flattering to the +latter, Lord Ulswater, turning to Wolfe with a severe and angry air, +said,-- + +"As for you, fellow, I believe the whole fault was on your side; and +if you dare again give vent to your disaffected ravings, I shall have +you sent to prison to tame your rank blood upon bread and water. +Begone, and think yourself fortunate to escape now!" + +The fierce spirit of Wolfe was in arms on the instant; and his reply, +in subjecting him to Lord Ulswater's threat, might at least have +prevented his enlightening the public on the morrow, had not his +friend, a peaceable, prudent man, seized him by the arm, and +whispered, "What are you about? Consider for what you are here: +another word may rob the assembly of your presence. A man bent on a +public cause must not, on the eve of its trial, enlist in a private +quarrel." + +"True, my friend, true," said Wolfe, swallowing his rage and eying +Lord Ulswater's retreating figure with a menacing look; "but the time +may yet come when I shall have license to retaliate on the upstart." + +"So be it," quoth the other; "he is our bitterest enemy. You know, +perhaps, that he is Lord Ulswater of the ---- regiment? It has been +at his instigation that the magistrates proposed to disturb the +meeting. He has been known publicly to say that all who attended the +assembly ought to be given up to the swords of his troopers." + +"The butchering dastard, to dream even of attacking unarmed men: but +enough of him; I must tarry yet in the street to hear what success our +intercessor has obtained." And as Wolfe passed the house in which the +magisterial conclave sat, Mordaunt came out and accosted him. + +"You have sworn to me that your purpose is peaceable." said Mordaunt. + +"Unquestionably," answered Wolfe. + +"And you will pledge yourself that no disturbance, that can either be +effected or counteracted by yourself and friends, shall take place?" + +"I will." + +"Enough!" answered Mordaunt. "Remember that if you commit the least +act that can be thought dangerous I may not be able to preserve you +from the military. As it is, your meeting will be unopposed." + +Contrary to Lord Ulswater's prediction, the meeting went off as +quietly as an elderly maiden's tea-party. The speakers, even Wolfe, +not only took especial pains to recommend order and peace, but +avoided, for the most part, all inflammatory enlargement upon the +grievances of which they complained. And the sage foreboders of evil, +who had locked up their silver spoons, and shaken their heads very +wisely for the last week, had the agreeable mortification of observing +rather an appearance of good humour upon the countenances of the +multitude than that ferocious determination against the lives and +limbs of the well-affected which they had so sorrowfully anticipated. + +As Mordaunt (who had been present during the whole time of the +meeting) mounted his horse and quitted the ground, Lord Ulswater, +having just left his quarters, where he had been all day in +expectation of some violent act of the orators or the mob demanding +his military services, caught sight of him with a sudden recollection +of his own passionate threat. There had been nothing in Mordaunt's +words which would in our times have justified a challenge; but in that +day duels were fought upon the slightest provocation. Lord Ulswater +therefore rode up at once to a gentleman with whom he had some +intimate acquaintance, and briefly saying that he had been insulted +both as an officer and gentleman by Mr. Mordaunt, requested his friend +to call upon that gentleman and demand satisfaction. + +"To-morrow," said Lord Ulswater, "I have the misfortune to be +unavoidably engaged. The next day you can appoint place and time of +meeting." + +"I must first see the gentleman to whom Mr. Mordaunt may refer me," +said the friend, prudently; "and perhaps your honour may be satisfied +without any hostile meeting at all." + +"I think not," said Lord Ulswater, carelessly, as he rode away; "for +Mr. Mordaunt is a gentleman, and gentlemen never apologize." + +Wolfe was standing unobserved near Lord Ulswater while the latter thus +instructed his proposed second. "Man of blood," muttered the +republican; "with homicide thy code of honour, and massacre thine +interpretation of law, by violence wouldst thou rule, and by violence +mayst thou perish!" + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVII. + + Jam te premet nox, fabulaeque Manes, + Et domus exilis Plutonis.--HORACE. + + ["This very hour Death shall overcome thee, and the fabled Manes, + and the shadowy Plutonian realms receive thee."] + + +The morning was dull and heavy as Lord Ulswater mounted his horse, and +unattended took his way towards Westborough Park. His manner was +unusually thoughtful and absent; perhaps two affairs upon his hands, +either of which seemed likely to end in bloodshed, were sufficient to +bring reflection even to the mind of a cavalry officer. + +He had scarcely got out of the town before he was overtaken by our +worthy friend Mr. Glumford. As he had been a firm ally of Lord +Ulswater in the contest respecting the meeting, so, when he joined and +saluted that nobleman, Lord Ulswater, mindful of past services, +returned his greeting with an air rather of condescension than +hauteur. To say truth, his lordship was never very fond of utter +loneliness, and the respectful bearing of Glumford, joined to that +mutual congeniality which sympathy in political views always +occasions, made him more pleased with the society than shocked with +the intrusion of the squire; so that when Glumford said, "If your +lordship's way lies along this road for the next five or six miles, +perhaps you will allow me the honour of accompanying you," Lord +Ulswater graciously signified his consent to the proposal, and +carelessly mentioning that he was going to Westborough Park, slid into +that conversation with his new companion which the meeting and its +actors afforded. + +Turn we for an instant to Clarence. At the appointed hour he had +arrived at Westborough Park, and, bidding his companion, the trusty +Wardour, remain within the chaise which had conveyed them, he was +ushered with a trembling heart, but a mien erect and self-composed, +into Lady Westborough's presence; the marchioness was alone. + +"I am sensible, sir," said she, with a little embarrassment, "that it +is not exactly becoming to my station and circumstances to suffer a +meeting of the present nature between Lord Ulswater and yourself to be +held within this house; but I could not resist the request of Lord +Ulswater, conscious from his character that it could contain nothing +detrimental to the--to the consideration and delicacy due to Lady +Flora Ardenne." + +Clarence bowed. "So far as I am concerned," said he, "I feel +confident that Lady Westborough will not repent of her condescension." + +There was a pause. + +"It is singular," said Lady Westborough, looking to the clock upon an +opposite table, "that Lord Ulswater has not yet arrived." + +"It is," said Clarence, scarcely conscious of his words, and wondering +whether Lady Flora would deign to appear. Another pause. Lady +Westborough felt the awkwardness of her situation. + +Clarence made an effort to recover himself. + +"I do not see," said he, "the necessity of delaying the explanation I +have to offer to your ladyship till my Lord Ulswater deems it suitable +to appear. Allow me at once to enter upon a history, told in few +words and easily proved." + +"Stay," said Lady Westborough, struggling with her curiosity; "it is +due to one who has stood in so peculiar a situation in our family to +wait yet a little longer for his coming. We will therefore, till the +hour is completed, postpone the object of our meeting." + +Clarence again bowed and was silent. Another and a longer pause +ensued: it was broken by the sound of the clock striking; the hour was +completed. + +"Now," began Clarence, when he was interrupted by a sudden and violent +commotion in the hall. Above all was heard a loud and piercing cry, +in which Clarence recognized the voice of the old steward. He rose +abruptly, and stood motionless and aghast; his eyes met those of Lady +Westborough, who, pale and agitated, lost for the moment all her +habitual self-command. The sound increased: Clarence rushed from the +room into the hall; the open door of the apartment revealed to Lady +Westborough, as to him, a sight which allowed her no further time for +hesitation. She hurried after Clarence into the hall, gave one look, +uttered one shriek of horror, and fainted. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVIII. + +Iden.--But thou wilt brave me in these saucy terms. +Cade.--Brave thee I ay, by the best blood that ever was broached, and +beard thee too.--SHAKSPEARE. + +"You see, my lord," said Mr. Glumford to Lord Ulswater, as they rode +slowly on, "that as long as those rebellious scoundrels are indulged +in their spoutings and meetings, and that sort of thing, that--that +there will be no bearing them." + +Very judiciously remarked, sir," replied Lord Ulswater. "I wish all +gentlemen of birth and consideration viewed the question in the same +calm, dispassionate, and profound light that you do. Would to Heaven +it were left to me to clear the country of those mutinous and +dangerous rascals: I would make speedy and sure work of it." + +"I am certain you would, my lord; I am certain you would. It is a +thousand pities that pompous fellow Mordaunt interfered yesterday, +with his moderation, and policy, and all that sort of thing; so +foolish, you know, my lord,--mere theory and romance, and that sort of +thing: we should have had it all our own way, if he had not." + +Lord Ulswater played with his riding-whip, but did not reply. Mr. +Glumford continued,-- + +"Pray, my lord, did your lordship see what an ugly ill-dressed set of +dogs those meetingers were; that Wolfe, above all? Oh, he's a horrid- +looking fellow. By the by, he left the town this very morning; I saw +him take leave of his friends in the street just before I set out. He +is going to some other meeting,--on foot too. Only think of the folly +of talking about the policy and prudence and humanity, and that sort +of thing, of sparing such a pitiful poor fellow as that; can't afford +a chaise, or a stage-coach even, my lord,--positively can't." + +"You see the matter exactly in its true light, Mr. Glumford," said his +lordship, patting his fine horse, which was somewhat impatient of the +slow pace of its companion. + +"A very beautiful animal of your lordship," said Mr. Glumford, +spurring his own horse,--a heavy, dull quadruped with an obstinate +ill-set tail, a low shoulder, and a Roman nose. "I am very partial to +horses myself, and love a fine horse as well as anybody." Lord +Ulswater cast a glance at his companion's steed, and seeing nothing in +its qualities to justify this assertion of attachment to fine horses +was silent: Lord Ulswater never flattered even his mistress, much less +Mr. Glumford. + +"I will tell you, my lord," continued Mr. Glumford, "what a bargain +this horse was;" and the squire proceeded, much to Lord Ulswater's +discontent, to retail the history of his craft in making the said +bargain. + +The riders were now entering a part of the road, a little more than +two miles from Westborough Park, in which the features of the +neighbouring country took a bolder and ruder aspect than they had +hitherto worn. On one side of the road, the view opened upon a +descent of considerable depth, and the dull sun looked drearily over a +valley in which large fallow fields, a distant and solitary spire, and +a few stunted and withering trees formed the chief characteristics. +On the other side of the road a narrow footpath was separated from the +highway by occasional posts; and on this path Lord Ulswater (how the +minute and daily occurrences of life show the grand pervading +principles of character!) was, at the time we refer to, riding, in +preference to the established thoroughfare for equestrian and aurigal +travellers. The side of this path farthest from the road was bordered +by a steep declivity of stony and gravelly earth, which almost +deserved the dignified appellation of a precipice; and it was with no +small exertion of dexterous horsemanship that Lord Ulswater kept his +spirited and susceptible steed upon the narrow and somewhat perilous +path, in spite of its frequent starts at the rugged descent below. + +"I think, my lord, if I may venture to say so," said Mr. Glumford, +having just finished the narration of his bargain, "that it would be +better for you to take the high road just at present; for the descent +from the footpath is steep and abrupt, and deuced crumbling! so that +if your lordship's horse shied or took a wrong step, it might be +attended with unpleasant consequences,--a fall, or that sort of +thing." + +"You are very good, sir," said Lord Ulswater, who, like most proud +people, conceived advice an insult; "but I imagine myself capable of +guiding my horse, at least upon a road so excellent as this." + +"Certainly, my lord, certainly; I beg your pardon; but--bless me, who +is that tall fellow in black, talking to himself yonder, my lord? The +turn of the road hides him from you just at present; but I see him +well. Ha! ha! what gestures he uses! I dare say he is one of the +petitioners, and--yes, my lord, by Jupiter, it is Wolfe himself! You +had better (excuse me, my lord) come down from the footpath: it is not +wide enough for two people; and Wolfe, I dare say, a d--d rascal, +would not get out of the way for the devil himself! He's a nasty, +black, fierce-looking fellow; I would not for something meet him in a +dark night, or that sort of thing!" + +"I do not exactly understand, Mr. Glumford," returned Lord Ulswater, +with a supercilious glance at that gentleman, "what peculiarities of +temper you are pleased to impute to me, or from what you deduce the +supposition that I shall move out of my way for a person like Mr. +Woolt, or Wolfe, or whatever be his name." + +"I beg your pardon, my lord, I am sure," answered Glumford: "of course +your lordship knows best, and if the rogue is impertinent, why, I'm a +magistrate, and will commit him; though, to be sure," continued our +righteous Daniel, in a lower key, "he has a right to walk upon the +footpath without being ridden over, or that sort of thing." + +The equestrians were now very near Wolfe, who, turning hastily round, +perceived, and immediately recognized Lord Ulswater. "Ah-ha!" +muttered he to himself, "here comes the insolent thirster for blood, +grudging us seemingly even the meagre comfort of the path which his +horse's hoofs are breaking up; yet, thank Heaven," added the +republican, looking with a stern satisfaction at the narrowness of the +footing, "he cannot very well pass me, and the free lion does not move +out of his way for such pampered kine as those to which this creature +belongs." + +Actuated by this thought, Wolfe almost insensibly moved entirely into +the middle of the path, so that with the posts on one side, and the +abrupt and undefended precipice, if we may so call it, on the other, +it was quite impossible for any horseman to pass the republican, +unless over his body. + +Lord Ulswater marked the motion, and did not want penetration to +perceive the cause. Glad of an opportunity to wreak some portion of +his irritation against a member of a body so offensive to his mind, +and which had the day before obtained a sort of triumph over his +exertions against them, and rendered obstinate in his intention by the +pique he had felt at Glumford's caution, Lord Ulswater, tightening his +rein and humming with apparent indifference a popular tune, continued +his progress till he was within a foot of the republican. Then, +checking his horse for a moment, he called, in a tone of quiet +arrogance, to Wolfe to withdraw himself on one side till he had +passed. + +The fierce blood of the republican, which the least breath of +oppression sufficed to kindle, and which yet boiled with the +remembrance of Lord Ulswater's threat to him two nights before, was on +fire at this command. He stopped short, and turning half round, stood +erect in the strength and power of his singularly tall and not +ungraceful form. "Poor and proud fool," said he, with a voice of the +most biting scorn, and fixing an eye eloquent of ire and menaced +danger upon the calmly contemptuous countenance of the patrician, +"poor and proud fool, do you think that your privileges have already +reached so pleasant a pitch that you may ride over men like dust? +Off, fool! the basest peasant in England, degraded as he is, would +resist while he ridiculed your arrogance." + +Without deigning any reply, Lord Ulswater spurred his horse; the +spirited animal bounded forward almost on the very person of the +obstructer of the path; with uncommon agility Wolfe drew aside from +the danger, seized with a powerful grasp the bridle, and abruptly +arresting the horse backed it fearfully towards the descent. Enraged +beyond all presence of mind, the fated nobleman, raising his whip, +struck violently at the republican. The latter, as he felt the blow, +uttered a single shout of such ferocity that it curdled the timorous +blood of Glumford, and with a giant and iron hand he backed the horse +several paces down the precipice. The treacherous earth crumbled +beneath the weight, and Lord Ulswater spurring his steed violently at +the same instant that Wolfe so sharply and strongly curbed it, the +affrighted animal reared violently, forced the rein from Wolfe, stood +erect for a moment of horror to the spectator, and then, as its +footing and balance alike failed, it fell backward, and rolled over +and over its unfortunate and helpless rider. + +"Good heavens!" cried Glumford, who had sat quietly upon his dozing +horse, watching the result of the dispute, "what have you done? you +have killed his lordship,--positively killed him,--and his horse, too, +I dare say. You shall be hanged for this, sir, as sure as I am a +magistrate, and that sort of thing." + +Unheeding this denunciation, Wolfe had made to the spot where rider +and horse lay blent together at the foot of the descent; and assisting +the latter to rise, bent down to examine the real effect of his +violence. "Methinks," said he, as he looked upon the hueless but +still defying features of the horseman, "methinks I have seen that +face years before,--but where? Perhaps my dreams have foretold me +this." + +Lord Ulswater was utterly senseless; and as Wolfe raised him, he saw +that the right side of the head was covered with blood, and that one +arm seemed crushed and broken. Meanwhile a carriage had appeared, was +hailed by Glumford, stopped; and on being informed of the circumstance +and the rank of the sufferer, the traveller, a single gentleman, +descended, assisted to raise the unhappy nobleman, placed him in the +carriage, and, obeying Glumford's instructions, proceeded slowly to +Westborough Park. + +"But the ruffian, the rebel, the murderer?" said Mr. Glumford, both +querulously and inquiringly, looking towards Wolfe, who, without +having attempted to assist his victim, stood aloof, with arms folded, +and an expression of sated ferocity upon his speaking features. + +"Oh! as to him," quoth the traveller, stepping into his carriage, in +order to support the mangled man, "you, sir, and my valet can bring +him along with you, or take him to the next town, or do, in short, +with him just as you please, only be sure he does not escape; drive +on, post-boy, very gently." And poor Mr. Glumford found the muscular +form of the stern Wolfe consigned to the sole care of himself and a +very diminutive man in pea-green silk stockings, who, however +excellently well he might perform the office of valet, was certainly +by no means calculated in physical powers for the detention of a +criminal. + +Wolfe saved the pair a world of trouble and anxiety. + +"Sir," said he, gravely, turning to Glumford, "you beheld the affray, +and whatever its consequences will do me the common justice of +witnessing as to the fact of the first aggressor. It will, however, +be satisfactory to both of us to seize the earliest opportunity of +putting the matter upon a legal footing, and I shall therefore return +to W----, to which town you will doubtless accompany me." + +"With all my heart!" cried Mr. Glumford, feeling as if a mountain of +responsibility were taken from his breast. "And I wish to Heaven you +may be transported instead of hanged." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIX. + + But gasping heaved the breath that Lara drew, + And dull the film along his dim eye grew.--BYRON. + +The light broke partially through the half-closed shutters of the room +in which lay Lord Ulswater, who, awakened to sense and pain by the +motion of the carriage, had now relapsed into insensibility. By the +side of the sofa on which he was laid, knelt Clarence, bathing one +hand with tears violent and fast; on the opposite side leaned over, +with bald front, and an expression of mingled fear and sorrow upon his +intent countenance, the old steward; while, at a little distance, Lord +Westborough, who had been wheeled into the room, sat mute in his +chair, aghast with bewilderment and horror, and counting every moment +to the arrival of the surgeon, who had been sent for. The stranger to +whom the carriage belonged stood by the window, detailing in a low +voice to the chaplain of the house what particulars of the occurrence +he was acquainted with, while the youngest scion of the family, a boy +of about ten years, and who in the general confusion had thrust +himself unnoticed into the room, stood close to the pair, with open +mouth and thirsting ears and a face on which childish interest at a +fearful tale was strongly blent with the more absorbed feeling of +terror at the truth. + +Slowly Lord Ulswater opened his eyes; they rested upon Clarence. + +"My brother! my brother!" cried Clarence, in a voice of powerful +anguish, "is it thus--thus that you have come hither to--" He stopped +in the gushing fulness of his heart. Extricating from Clarence the +only hand he was able to use, Lord Ulswater raised it to his brow, as +if in the effort to clear remembrance; and then, turning to Wardour, +seemed to ask the truth of Clarence's claim,--at least so the old man +interpreted the meaning of his eye, and the faint and scarce +intelligible words which broke from his lips. + +"It is; it is, my honoured lord," cried he, struggling with his +emotion; "it is your brother, your lost brother, Clinton L'Estrange." +And as he said these words, Clarence felt the damp chill hand of his +brother press his own, and knew by that pressure and the smile--kind, +though brief from exceeding pain--with which the ill-fated nobleman +looked upon him, that the claim long unknown was at last acknowledged, +and the ties long broken united, though in death. + +The surgeon arrived: the room was cleared of all but Clarence; the +first examination was sufficient. Unaware of Clarence's close +relationship to the sufferer, the surgeon took him aside. "A very +painful operation," said he, "might be performed, but it would only +torture, in vain, the last moments of the patient; no human skill can +save or even protract his life." + +The doomed man, who, though in great pain, was still sensible, +stirred. His brother flew towards him. "Flora," he murmured, "let me +see her, I implore." + +Curbing, as much as he was able, his emotion, and conquering his +reluctance to leave the sufferer even for a moment, Clarence flew in +search of Lady Flora. He found her; in rapid and hasty words, he +signified the wish of the dying man, and hurried her, confused, +trembling, and scarce conscious of the melancholy scene she was about +to witness, to the side of her affianced bridegroom. + +I have been by the death-beds of many men, and I have noted that +shortly before death, as the frame grows weaker and weaker, the +fiercer passions yield to those feelings better harmonizing with the +awfulness of the hour. Thoughts soft and tender, which seem little to +belong to the character in the health and vigour of former years, +obtain then an empire, brief, indeed, but utter for the time they +last; and this is the more impressive because (as in the present +instance I shall have occasion to portray) in the moments which +succeed and make the very latest of life, the ruling passion, +suppressed for an interval by such gentler feelings, sometimes again +returns to take its final triumph over that frail clay, which, through +existence, it has swayed, agitated, and moulded like wax unto its +will. + +When Lord Ulswater saw Flora approach and bend weepingly over him, a +momentary softness stole over his face. Taking her hand he extended +it towards Clarence, and turning to the latter faltered out, "Let +this--my--brother--atone--for--;" apparently unable to finish the +sentence, he then relaxed his hold and sank upon the pillow; and so +still, so apparently breathless did he remain for several minutes, +that they thought the latest agony was over. + +As, yielding to this impression, Clarence was about to withdraw the +scarce conscious Flora from the chamber, words, less tremulous and +indistinct than aught which he had yet uttered, broke from Lord +Ulswater's lips. Clarence hastened to him; and bending over his +countenance saw that even through the rapid changes and shades of +death, it darkened with the peculiar characteristics of the unreleased +soul within: the brow was knit into more than its wonted sternness and +pride; and in the eye which glared upon the opposite wall, the light +of the waning life broke into a momentary blaze,--that flash, so rapid +and evanescent, before the air drinks in the last spark of the being +it has animated, and night--the starless and eternal--falls over the +extinguished lamp! The hand of the right arm (which was that +unshattered by the fall) was clenched and raised; but, when the words +which came upon Clarence's ear had ceased, it fell heavily by his +side, like a clod of that clay which it had then become. In those +words it seemed as if, in the confused delirium of passing existence, +the brave soldier mingled some dim and bewildered recollection of +former battles with that of his last most fatal though most ignoble +strife. + +"Down, down with them!" he muttered between his teeth, though in a +tone startlingly deep and audible; "down with them! No quarter to the +infidels! strike for England and Effingham. Ha!--who strives for +flight there!--kill him! no mercy, I say,--none!--there, there, I have +despatched him; ha! ha! What, still alive?--off, slave, off! Oh, +slain! slain in a ditch, by a base-born hind; oh, bitter! bitter! +bitter!" And with these words, of which the last, from their piercing +anguish and keen despair, made a dread contrast with the fire and +defiance of the first, the jaw fell, the flashing and fierce eye +glazed and set, and all of the haughty and bold patrician which the +earth retained was--dust! + + + + +CHAPTER LXXX. + +Il n'est jamais permis de deteriorer une ame humaine pour l'avantage +des autres, ni de faire un scelerat pour le service des honnetes +gens.--ROUSSEAU. + +["It is not permitted us to degrade one single soul for the sake of +conferring advantage on others, nor to make a rogue for the good of +the honest."] + + +As the reader approaches the termination of this narrative, and looks +back upon the many scenes he has passed, perhaps, in the mimic +representation of human life, he may find no unfaithful resemblance to +the true. + +As, amongst the crowd of characters jostled against each other in +their course, some drop off at the first, the second, or the third +stage, and leave a few only continuing to the last, while Fate chooses +her agents and survivors among those whom the bystander, perchance, +least noticed as the objects of her selection; and they who, haply, +seemed to him, at first, among the most conspicuous as characters, +sink, some abruptly, some gradually, into actors of the least +importance in events; as the reader notes the same passion, in +different strata, producing the most opposite qualities, and gathers +from that notice some estimate of the vast perplexity in the code of +morals, deemed by the shallow so plain a science; when he finds that a +similar and single feeling will produce both the virtue we love and +the vice we detest, the magnanimity we admire and the meanness we +despise; as the feeble hands of the author force into contrast +ignorance and wisdom, the affectation of philosophy and its true +essence, coarseness and refinement, the lowest vulgarity of sentiment +with an exaltation of feeling approaching to morbidity, the reality of +virtue with the counterfeit, the glory of the Divinity with the +hideousness of the Idol, sorrow and eager joy, marriage and death, +tears and their young successors, smiles; as all, blent together, +these varieties of life form a single yet many-coloured web, leaving +us to doubt whether, in fortune the bright hue or the dark, in +character the base material or the rich, predominate,--the workman of +the web could almost reconcile himself to his glaring and great +deficiency in art by the fond persuasion that he has, at least in his +choice of tint and texture, caught something of the likeness of +Nature: but he knows, to the abasement of his vanity, that these +enumerated particulars of resemblance to life are common to all, even +to the most unskilful of his brethren; and it is not the mere act of +copying a true original, but the rare circumstance of force and +accuracy in the copy, which can alone constitute a just pretension to +merit, or flatter the artist with the hope of a moderate success. + +The news of Lord Ulswater's untimely death soon spread around the +neighbourhood, and was conveyed to Mordaunt by the very gentleman whom +that nobleman had charged with his hostile message. Algernon repaired +at once to W----, to gather from Wolfe some less exaggerated account +of the affray than that which the many tongues of Rumour had brought +to him. + +It was no difficult matter to see the precise share of blame to be +attached to Wolfe; and, notwithstanding the biased account of Glumford +and the strong spirit of party then existing in the country, no +rational man could for a moment term the event of a sudden fray a +premeditated murder, or the violence of the aggrieved the black +offence of a wilful criminal. Wolfe, therefore, soon obtained a +release from the confinement to which he had been at first committed; +and with a temper still more exasperated by the evident disposition of +his auditors to have treated him, had it been possible, with the +utmost rigour, he returned to companions well calculated by their +converse and bent of mind to inflame the fester of his moral +constitution. + +It happens generally that men very vehement in any particular opinion +choose their friends, not for a general similarity of character, but +in proportion to their mutual congeniality of sentiment upon that +particular opinion; it happens, also, that those most audibly violent, +if we may so speak, upon any opinion, moral or political, are rarely +the wisest or the purest of their party. Those with whom Wolfe was +intimate were men who shared none of the nobler characteristics of the +republican; still less did they participate in or even comprehend the +enlightened and benevolent views for which the wise and great men of +that sect--a sect to which all philanthropy is, perhaps too fondly, +inclined to lean--have been so conspicuously eminent. On the +contrary, Wolfe's comrades, without education and consequently without +principle, had been driven to disaffection by desperate fortunes and +ruined reputations acting upon minds polluted by the ignorance and +hardened among the dross of the populace. But the worst can by +constant intercourse corrupt the best; and the barriers of good and +evil, often confused in Wolfe's mind by the blindness of his passions, +seemed, as his intercourse with these lawless and ruffian associates +thickened, to be at last utterly broken down and swept away. + +Unhappily too--soon after Wolfe's return to London--the popular +irritation showed itself in mobs, perhaps rather to be termed +disorderly than seditious. The ministers, however, thought otherwise; +the military were summoned, and much injury, resulting, it is to be +hoped, from accident, not design, ensued to many of the persons +assembled. Some were severely wounded by the swords of the soldiers; +others maimed and trampled upon by the horses, which shared the +agitation or irritability of their riders; and a few, among whom were +two women and three children, lost their lives. Wolfe had been one of +the crowd; and the scene, melancholy as it really was, and appearing +to his temper unredeemed and inexcusable on the part of the soldiers, +left on his mind a deep and burning impression of revenge. Justice +(as they termed it) was demanded by strong bodies of the people upon +the soldiers; but the administration, deeming it politic rather to awe +than to conciliate, so far from censuring the military, approved their +exertions. + +From that time Wolfe appears to have resolved upon the execution of a +design which he had long imperfectly and confusedly meditated. + +This was no less a crime (and to him did conscientiously seem no less +a virtue) than to seize a favourable opportunity for assassinating the +most prominent member of the administration, and the one who, above +all the rest, was the most odious to the disaffected. It must be +urged, in extenuation of the atrocity of this design, that a man +perpetually brooding over one scheme, which to him has become the very +sustenance of existence, and which scheme, perpetually frustrated, +grows desperate by disappointment, acquires a heat of morbid and +oblique enthusiasm, which may be not unreasonably termed insanity; and +that, at the very time Wolfe reconciled it to his conscience to commit +the murder of his fellow creature, he would have moved out of his path +for a worm. Assassination, indeed, seemed to him justice; and a +felon's execution the glory of martyrdom. And yet, O Fanatic, thou +didst anathematize the Duellist as the Man of blood: what is the +Assassin? + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXI. + + And thou that, silent at my knee, + Dost lift to mine thy soft, dark, earnest eyes, + Filled with the love of childhood, which I see + Pure through its depths,--a thing without disguise. + Thou that hast breathed in slumber on my breast, + When I have checked its throbs to give thee rest, + Mine own, whose young thoughts fresh before me rise, + Is it not much that I may guide thy prayer, + And circle thy young soul with free and healthful air?--HEMANS. + +The events we have recorded, from the time of Clarence's visit to +Mordaunt to the death of Lord Ulswater, took place within little more +than a week. We have now to pass in silence over several weeks; and +as it was the commencement of autumn when we introduced Clarence and +Mordaunt to our reader, so it is the first opening of winter in which +we will resume the thread of our narration. + +Mordaunt had removed to London; and, although he had not yet taken any +share in public business, he was only watching the opportunity to +commence a career the brilliancy of which those who knew aught of his +mind began already to foretell. But he mixed little, if at all, with +the gayer occupants of the world's prominent places. Absorbed +alternately in his studies and his labours of good, the halls of +pleasure were seldom visited by his presence; and they who in the +crowd knew nothing of him but his name, and the lofty bearing of his +mien, recoiled from the coldness of his exterior; and, while they +marvelled at his retirement and reserve, saw in both but the +moroseness of the student and the gloom of the misanthropist. + +But the nobleness of his person; the antiquity of his birth; his +wealth, his unblemished character, and the interest thrown over his +name by the reputation of talent and the unpenetrated mystery of his +life, all powerfully spoke in his favour to those of the gentler sex, +who judge us not only from what we are to others, but from what they +imagine we can be to them. From such allurements, however, as from +all else, the mourner turned only the more deeply to cherish the +memory of the dead; and it was a touching and holy sight to mark the +mingled excess of melancholy and fondness with which he watched over +that treasure in whose young beauty and guileless heart his departed +Isabel had yet left the resemblance of her features and her love. +There seemed between them to exist even a dearer and closer tie than +that of daughter and sire; for, in both, the objects which usually +divide the affections of the man or the child had but a feeble charm: +Isabel's mind had expanded beyond her years, and Algernon's had +outgrown his time; so that neither the sports natural to her age, nor +the ambition ordinary to his, were sufficient to wean or to distract +the unity of their love. When, after absence, his well-known step +trod lightly in the hall, her ear, which had listened and longed and +thirsted for the sound, taught her fairy feet to be the first to +welcome his return; and when the slightest breath of sickness menaced +her slender frame, it was his hand that smoothed her pillow, and his +smile that cheered away her pain; and when she sank into sleep she +knew that a father's heart watched over her through the long but +untiring night; that a father's eye would be the first which, on +waking, she would meet. + +"Oh! beautiful, and rare as beautiful," was that affection; in the +parent no earthlier or harder sternness in authority, nor weakness in +doting, nor caprice in love; in the child no fear debasing reverence, +yet no familiarity diminishing respect. But Love, whose pride is in +serving, seemed to make at once soft and hallowed the offices mutually +rendered; and Nature, never counteracted in her dictates, wrought, +without a visible effort, the proper channels into which those offices +should flow; and that Charity which not only covers sins, but lifts +the veil from virtues, whose beauty might otherwise have lain +concealed, linked them closer and closer, and threw over that link the +sanctity of itself. For it was Algernon's sweetest pleasure to make +her young hands the ministers of good to others, and to drink at such +times from the rich glow of her angel countenance the purified +selfishness of his reward. And when after the divine joy of blessing, +which, perhaps, the youngest taste yet more vividly than their sires, +she threw her arms around his neck and thanked him with glad tears for +the luxury he had bestowed upon her, how could they, in that gushing +overflow of heart, help loving each other the more, or feeling that in +that love there was something which justified the excess? + +Nor have we drawn with too exaggerating a pencil, nor, though Isabel's +mind was older than her years, extended that prematureness to her +heart. For, where we set the example of benevolence, and see that the +example is in nought corrupted, the milk of human kindness will flow +not the less readily from the youngest breast, and out of the mouths +of babes will come the wisdom of charity and love! + +Ever since Mordaunt's arrival in town, he had sought out Wolfe's +abode, for the purpose of ministering to the poverty under which he +rightly conjectured that the republican laboured. But the habitation +of one, needy, distressed, seldom living long in one place, and far +less notorious of late than he had formerly been, was not easy to +discover; nor was it till after long and vain search that he +ascertained the retreat of his singular acquaintance. The day in +which he effected this object we shall have hereafter occasion to +specify. Meanwhile we return to Mr. Crauford. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXII. + + Plot on thy little hour, and skein on skein + Weave the vain mesh, in which thy subtle soul + Broods on its venom! Lo! behind, before, + Around thee, like an armament of cloud, + The black Fate labours onward--ANONYMOUS. + +The dusk of a winter's evening gathered over a room in Crauford's +house in town, only relieved from the closing darkness by an expiring +and sullen fire, beside which Mr. Bradley sat, with his feet upon the +fender, apparently striving to coax some warmth into the icy palms of +his spread hands. Crauford himself was walking up and down the room +with a changeful step, and ever and anon glancing his bright, shrewd +eye at the partner of his fraud, who, seemingly unconscious of the +observation he underwent, appeared to occupy his attention solely with +the difficulty of warming his meagre and withered frame. + +"Ar'n't you very cold there, sir?" said Bradley, after a long pause, +and pushing himself farther into the verge of the dying embers, "may I +not ring for some more coals?" + +"Hell and the--: I beg your pardon, my good Bradley, but you vex me +beyond patience; how can you think of such trifles when our very lives +are in so imminent a danger?" + +"I beg your pardon, my honoured benefactor, they are indeed in +danger!" + +"Bradley, we have but one hope,--fidelity to each other. If we +persist in the same story, not a tittle can be brought home to us,-- +not a tittle, my good Bradley; and though our characters may be a +little touched, why, what is a character? Shall we eat less, drink +less, enjoy less, when we have lost it? Not a whit. No, my friend, +we will go abroad: leave it to me to save from the wreck of our +fortunes enough to live upon like princes." + +"If not like peers, my honoured benefactor." + +"'Sdeath!--yes, yes, very good,--he! he! he! if not peers. Well, all +happiness is in the senses, and Richard Crauford has as many senses as +Viscount Innisdale; but had we been able to protract inquiry another +week, Bradley, why, I would have been my Lord, and you Sir John." + +"You bear your losses like a hero, sir," said Mr. Bradley. To be +sure: there is no loss, man, but life,--none; let us preserve that-- +and it will be our own fault if we don't--and the devil take all the +rest. But, bless me, it grows late, and, at all events, we are safe +for some hours; the inquiry won't take place till twelve to-morrow, +why should we not feast till twelve to-night? Ring, my good fellow: +dinner must be nearly ready." + +"Why, honoured sir," said Bradley, "I want to go home to see my wife +and arrange my house. Who knows but I may sleep in Newgate to- +morrow?" + +Crauford, who had been still walking to and fro, stopped abruptly at +this speech; and his eye, even through the gloom, shot out a livid and +fierce light, before which the timid and humble glance of Mr. Bradley +quailed in an instant. + +"Go home!--no, my friend, no: I can't part with you tonight, no, not +for an instant. I have many lessons to give you. How are we to learn +our parts for to-morrow, if we don't rehearse them beforehand? Do you +not know that a single blunder may turn what I hope will be a farce +into a tragedy? Go home!--pooh! pooh! why, man, I have not seen my +wife, nor put my house to rights, and if you do but listen to me I +tell you again and again that not a hair of our heads can be touched." + +"You know best, honoured sir; I bow to your decision." + +"Bravo, honest Brad! and now for dinner. I have the most glorious +champagne that ever danced in foam to your lip. No counsellor like +the bottle, believe me!" + +And the servant entering to announce dinner, Crauford took Bradley's +arm, and leaning affectionately upon it, passed through an obsequious +and liveried row of domestics to a room blazing with light and plate. +A noble fire was the first thing which revived Bradley's spirit; and, +as he spread his hands over it before he sat down to the table, he +surveyed, with a gleam of gladness upon his thin cheeks, two vases of +glittering metal formerly the boast of a king, in which were immersed +the sparkling genii of the grape. + +Crauford, always a gourmand, ate with unusual appetite, and pressed +the wine upon Bradley with an eager hospitality, which soon somewhat +clouded the senses of the worthy man. The dinner was removed, the +servants retired, and the friends were left alone. + +"A pleasant trip to France!" cried Crauford, filling a bumper. +"That's the land for hearts like ours. I tell you what, little Brad, +we will leave our wives behind us, and take, with a new country and +new names, a new lease of life. What will it signify to men making +love at Paris what fools say of them in London? Another bumper, +honest Brad,--a bumper to the girls! What say you to that, eh?" + +"Lord, sir, you are so facetious, so witty! It must be owned that a +black eye is a great temptation,--Lira-lira, la-la!" and Mr. Bradley's +own eyes rolled joyously. + +"Bravo, Brad!--a song, a song! but treason to King Burgundy! Your +glass is--" + +"Empty, honoured sir, I know it!--Lira-lira la!--but it is easily +filled! We who have all our lives been pouring from one vessel into +another know how to keep it up to the last! + + 'Courage then, cries the knight, we may yet be forgiven, + Or at worst buy the bishop's reversion in heaven; + Our frequent escapes in this world show how true 't is + That gold is the only Elixir Salutis. + Derry down, Derry down.' + + 'All you who to swindling conveniently creep, + Ne'er piddle; by thousands the treasury sweep + Your safety depends on the weight of the sum, + For no rope was yet made that could tie up a plum. + Derry down, etc.'" + [From a ballad called "The Knight and the Prelate."] + +"Bravissimo, little Brad!--you are quite a wit! See what it is to +have one's faculties called out. Come, a toast to old England, the +land in which no man ever wants a farthing who has wit to steal it,-- +'Old England forever!' your rogue is your only true patriot!" and +Crauford poured the remainder of the bottle, nearly three parts full, +into a beaker, which he pushed to Bradley. That convivial gentleman +emptied it at a draught, and, faltering out, "Honest Sir John!--room +for my Lady Bradley's carriage," dropped down on the floor insensible. + +Crauford rose instantly, satisfied himself that the intoxication was +genuine, and giving the lifeless body a kick of contemptuous disgust, +left the room, muttering, "The dull ass, did he think it was on his +back that I was going to ride off? He! he! he! But stay, let me feel +my pulse. Too fast by twenty strokes! One's never sure of the mind +if one does not regulate the body to a hair! Drank too much; must +take a powder before I start." + +Mounting by a back staircase to his bedroom, Crauford unlocked a +chest, took out a bundle of clerical clothes, a large shovel hat, and +a huge wig. Hastily, but not carelessly, induing himself in these +articles of disguise, he then proceeded to stain his fair cheeks with +a preparation which soon gave them a swarthy hue. Putting his own +clothes in the chest, which he carefully locked (placing the key in +his pocket), he next took from a desk on his dressing-table a purse; +opening this, he extracted a diamond of great size and immense value, +which, years before, in preparation of the event that had now taken +place, he had purchased. + +His usual sneer curled his lip as he gazed at it. "Now," said he, "is +it not strange that this little stone should supply the mighty wants +of that grasping thing, man? Who talks of religion, country, wife, +children? This petty mineral can purchase them all! Oh, what a +bright joy speaks out in your white cheek, my beauty! What are all +human charms to yours? Why, by your spell, most magical of talismans, +my years may walk, gloating and revelling, through a lane of beauties, +till they fall into the grave! Pish! that grave is an ugly thought,-- +a very, very ugly thought! But come, my sun of hope, I must eclipse +you for a while! Type of myself, while you hide, I hide also; and +when I once more let you forth to the day, then shine out Richard +Crauford,--shine out!" So saying, he sewed the diamond carefully in +the folds of his shirt; and, rearranging his dress, took the cooling +powder, which he weighed out to a grain, with a scrupulous and +untrembling hand; descended the back stairs; opened the door, and +found himself in the open street. + +The clock struck ten as he entered a hackney-coach and drove to +another part of London. "What, so late!" thought he; "I must be at +Dover in twelve hours: the vessel sails then. Humph! some danger yet! +What a pity that I could not trust that fool! He! he! he!--what will +he think tomorrow, when he wakes and finds that only one is destined +to swing!" + +The hackney-coach stopped, according to his direction, at an inn in +the city. Here Crauford asked if a note had been left for Dr. +Stapylton. One (written by himself) was given to him. + +"Merciful Heaven!" cried the false doctor, as he read it, "my daughter +is on a bed of death!" + +The landlord's look wore anxiety; the doctor seemed for a moment +paralyzed by silent woe. He recovered, shook his head piteously, and +ordered a post-chaise and four on to Canterbury without delay. + +"It is an ill wind that blows nobody good!" thought the landlord, as +he issued the order into the yard. + +The chaise was soon out; the doctor entered; off went the post-boys; +and Richard Crauford, feeling his diamond, turned his thoughts to +safety and to France. + +A little, unknown man, who had been sitting at the bar for the last +two hours sipping brandy and water, and who from his extreme +taciturnity and quiet had been scarcely observed, now rose. +"Landlord," said he, "do you know who that gentleman is?" + +"Why," quoth Boniface, "the letter to him was directed, 'For the Rev. +Dr. Stapylton; will be called for.'" + +"Ah," said the little man, yawning, "I shall have a long night's work +of it. Have you another chaise and four in the yard?" + +"To be sure, sir, to be sure!" cried the landlord in astonishment. + +"Out with it, then! Another glass of brandy and water,--a little +stronger, no sugar!" + +The landlord stared; the barmaid stared; even the head-waiter, a very +stately person, stared too. + +"Hark ye," said the little man, sipping his brandy and water, "I am a +deuced good-natured fellow, so I'll make you a great man to-night; for +nothing makes a man so great as being let into a great secret. Did +you ever hear of the rich Mr. Crauford?" + +"Certainly: who has not?" + +"Did you ever see him?" + +"No! I can't say I ever did." + +"You lie, landlord: you saw him to-night." + +"Sir!" cried the landlord, bristling up. + +The little man pulled out a brace of pistols, and very quietly began +priming them out of a small powder-flask. + +The landlord started back; the head-waiter cried "Rape!" and the +barmaid "Murder!" + +"Who the devil are you, sir?" cried the landlord. + +"Mr. Tickletrout! the celebrated officer,--thief-taker, as they call +it. Have a care, ma'am, the pistols are loaded. I see the chaise is +out; there's the reckoning, landlord." + +"O Lord! I'm sure I don't want any reckoning: too great an honour for +my poor house to be favoured with your company; but [following the +little man to the door] whom did you please to say you were going to +catch?" + +"Mr. Crauford, alias Dr. Stapylton." + +"Lord! Lord! to think of it,--how shocking! What has he done?" + +"Swindled, I believe." + +"My eyes! And why, sir, did not you catch him when he was in the +bar?" + +"Because then I should not have got paid for my journey to Dover. +Shut the door, boy; first stage on to Canterbury." And, drawing a +woollen nightcap over his ears, Mr. Tickletrout resigned himself to +his nocturnal excursion. + +On the very day on which the patent for his peerage was to have been +made out, on the very day on which he had afterwards calculated on +reaching Paris, on that very day was Mr. Richard Crauford lodged in +Newgate, fully committed for a trial of life and death. + + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIII. + + There, if, O gentle love! I read aright + The utterance that sealed thy sacred bond, + 'T was listening to those accents of delight + She hid upon his breast those eyes, beyond + Expression's power to paint, all languishingly fond.--CAMPBELL. + +"And you will positively leave us for London," said Lady Flora, +tenderly, "and to-morrow too!" This was said to one who under the name +of Clarence Linden has played the principal part in our drama, and +whom now, by the death of his brother succeeding to the honours of his +house, we present to our reader as Clinton L'Estrange, Earl of +Ulswater. + +They were alone in the memorable pavilion; and though it was winter +the sun shone cheerily into the apartment; and through the door, which +was left partly open, the evergreens, contrasting with the leafless +boughs of the oak and beech, could be just descried, furnishing the +lover with some meet simile of love, and deceiving the eyes of those +willing to be deceived with a resemblance to the departed summer. The +unusual mildness of the day seemed to operate genially upon the +birds,--those children of light and song; and they grouped blithely +beneath the window and round the door, where the hand of the kind +young spirit of the place had so often ministered to their wants. +Every now and then, too, you might hear the shrill glad note of the +blackbird keeping measure to his swift and low flight, and sometimes a +vagrant hare from the neighbouring preserves sauntered fearlessly by +the half-shut door, secure, from long experience, of an asylum in the +vicinity of one who had drawn from the breast of Nature a tenderness +and love for all its offspring. + +Her lover sat at Flora's feet; and, looking upward, seemed to seek out +the fond and melting eyes which, too conscious of their secret, turned +bashfully from his gaze. He had drawn her arm over his shoulder; and +clasping that small and snowy hand, which, long coveted with a miser's +desire, was at length won, he pressed upon it a thousand kisses, +sweeter beguilers of time than even words. All had been long +explained; the space between their hearts annihilated; doubt, anxiety, +misconstruction, those clouds of love, had passed away, and left not a +wreck to obscure its heaven. + +"And you will leave us to-morrow; must it be to-morrow?" + +"Ah! Flora, it must; but see, I have your lock of hair--your +beautiful, dark hair--to kiss, when I am away from you, and I shall +have your letters, dearest,--a letter every day; and oh! more than +all, I shall have the hope, the certainty, that when we meet again, +you will be mine forever." + +"And I, too, must, by seeing it in your handwriting, learn to +reconcile myself to your new name. Ah! I wish you had been still +Clarence,--only Clarence. Wealth, rank, power,--what are all these +but rivals to poor Flora?" + +Lady Flora sighed, and the next moment blushed; and, what with the +sigh and the blush, Clarence's lips wandered from the hands to the +cheek, and thence to a mouth on which the west wind seemed to have +left the sweets of a thousand summers. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIV. + +A Hounsditch man, one of the devil's near kinsmen,--a broker.--Every +Man in His Humour. + +We have here discovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever +was known in the commonwealth.--Much Ado about Nothing. + + +It was an evening of mingled rain and wind, the hour about nine, when +Mr. Morris Brown, under the shelter of that admirable umbrella of sea- +green silk, to which we have before had the honour to summon the +attention of our readers, was, after a day of business, plodding +homeward his weary way. The obscure streets through which his course +was bent were at no time very thickly thronged, and at the present +hour the inclemency of the night rendered them utterly deserted. It +is true that now and then a solitary female, holding up, with one +hand, garments already piteously bedraggled, and with the other +thrusting her umbrella in the very teeth of the hostile winds, might +be seen crossing the intersected streets, and vanishing amid the +subterranean recesses of some kitchen area, or tramping onward amidst +the mazes of the metropolitan labyrinth, till, like the cuckoo, +"heard," but no longer "seen," the echo of her retreating pattens made +a dying music to the reluctant ear; or indeed, at intervals of +unfrequent occurrence, a hackney vehicle jolted, rumbling, bumping +over the uneven stones, as if groaning forth its gratitude to the +elements for which it was indebted for its fare. Sometimes also a +chivalrous gallant of the feline species ventured its delicate paws +upon the streaming pavement, and shook, with a small but dismal cry, +the raindrops from the pyramidal roofs of its tender ears. + +But, save these occasional infringements on its empire, solitude, +dark, comfortless, and unrelieved, fell around the creaking footsteps +of Mr. Morris Brown. "I wish," soliloquized the worthy broker, "that +I had been able advantageously to dispose of this cursed umbrella of +the late Lady Waddilove; it is very little calculated for any but a +single lady of slender shape, and though it certainly keeps the rain +off my hat, it only sends it with a double dripping upon my shoulders. +Pish, deuce take the umbrella! I shall catch my death of cold." + +These complaints of an affliction that was assuredly sufficient to +irritate the naturally sweet temper of Mr. Brown, only ceased as that +industrious personage paused at the corner of the street, for the +purpose of selecting the driest path through which to effect the +miserable act of crossing to the opposite side. Occupied in +stretching his neck over the kennel, in order to take the fullest +survey of its topography which the scanty and agitated lamps would +allow, the unhappy wanderer, lowering his umbrella, suffered a cross +and violent gust of wind to rush, as if on purpose, against the +interior. The rapidity with which this was done, and the sudden +impetus, which gave to the inflated silk the force of a balloon, +happening to occur exactly at the moment Mr. Brown was stooping with +such wistful anxiety over the pavement, that gentleman, to his +inexpressible dismay, was absolutely lifted, as it were, from his +present footing, and immersed in a running rivulet of liquid mire, +which flowed immediately below the pavement. Nor was this all: for +the wind, finding itself somewhat imprisoned in the narrow receptacle +it had thus abruptly entered, made so strenuous an exertion to +extricate itself, that it turned Lady Waddilove's memorable relic +utterly inside out; so that when Mr. Brown, aghast at the calamity of +his immersion, lifted his eyes to heaven, with a devotion that had in +it more of expostulation than submission, he beheld, by the melancholy +lamps, the apparition of his umbrella,--the exact opposite to its +legitimate conformation, and seeming, with its lengthy stick and +inverted summit, the actual and absolute resemblance of a gigantic +wineglass. + +"Now," said Mr. Brown, with that ironical bitterness so common to +intense despair, "now, that's what I call pleasant." + +As if the elements were guided and set on by all the departed souls of +those whom Mr. Brown had at any time overreached in his profession, +scarcely had the afflicted broker uttered this brief sentence, before +a discharge of rain, tenfold more heavy than any which had yet fallen, +tumbled down in literal torrents upon the defenceless head of the +itinerant. + +"This won't do," said Mr. Brown, plucking up courage and splashing out +of the little rivulet once more into terra firma, "this won't do: I +must find a shelter somewhere. Dear, dear, how the wet runs down me! +I am for all the world like the famous dripping well in Derbyshire. +What a beast of an umbrella! I'll never buy one again of an old lady: +hang me if I do." + +As the miserable Morris uttered these sentences, which gushed out, one +by one, in a broken stream of complaint, he looked round and round-- +before, behind, beside--for some temporary protection or retreat. In +vain: the uncertainty of the light only allowed him to discover houses +in which no portico extended its friendly shelter, and where even the +doors seemed divested of the narrow ledge wherewith they are, in more +civilized quarters, ordinarily crowned. + +"I shall certainly have the rheumatism all this winter," said Mr. +Brown, hurrying onward as fast as he was able. Just then, glancing +desperately down a narrow lane, which crossed his path, he perceived +the scaffolding of a house in which repair or alteration had been at +work. A ray of hope flashed across him; he redoubled his speed, and, +entering the welcome haven, found himself entirely protected from the +storm. The extent of the scaffolding was, indeed, rather +considerable; and though the extreme narrowness of the lane and the +increasing gloom of the night left Mr. Brown in almost total darkness, +so that he could not perceive the exact peculiarities of his +situation, yet he was perfectly satisfied with the shelter he had +obtained; and after shaking the rain from his hat, squeezing his coat +sleeves and lappets, satisfying himself that it was only about the +shoulders that he was thoroughly wetted, and thrusting two pocket- +handkerchiefs between his shirt and his skin, as preventives to the +dreaded rheumatism, Mr. Brown leaned luxuriously back against the wall +in the farthest corner of his retreat, and busied himself with +endeavouring to restore his insulted umbrella to its original utility +of shape. + +Our wanderer had been about three minutes in this situation; when he +heard the voices of two men, who were hastening along the lane. + +"But do stop," said one; and these were the first words distinctly +audible to the ear of Mr. Brown, "do stop, the rain can't last much +longer, and we have a long way yet to go." + +"No, no," said the other, in a voice more imperious than the first, +which was evidently plebeian and somewhat foreign in its tone, "no, we +have no time. What signify the inclemencies of weather to men feeding +upon an inward and burning thought, and made, by the workings of the +mind, almost callous to the contingencies of the frame?" + +"Nay, my very good friend," said the first speaker, with positive +though not disrespectful earnestness, "that may be all very fine for +you, who have a constitution like a horse; but I am quite a--what call +you it--an invalid, eh? and have a devilish cough ever since I have +been in this d--d country; beg your pardon, no offence to it; so I +shall just step under cover of this scaffolding for a few minutes, and +if you like the rain so much, my very good friend, why, there is +plenty of room in the lane to--(ugh! ugh! ugh!) to enjoy it." + +As the speaker ended, the dim light, just faintly glimmering at the +entrance of the friendly shelter, was obscured by his shadow, and +presently afterwards his companion, joining him, said,-- + +"Well, if it must be so; but how can you be fit to brave all the +perils of our scheme, when you shrink, like a palsied crone, from the +sprinkling of a few water-drops?" + +"A few water-drops, my very good friend," answered the other, "a few-- +what call you them, ay, water-falls rather; (ugh! ugh!) but let me +tell you, my brother citizen, that a man may not like to get his skin +wet with waters and would yet thrust his arm up to the very elbow in +blood! (ugh! ugh!)" + +"The devil!" mentally ejaculated Mr. Brown, who at the word "scheme" +had advanced one step from his retreat, but who now at the last words +of the intruder drew back as gently as a snail into his shell; and +although his person was far too much enveloped in shade to run the +least chance of detection, yet the honest broker began to feel a +little tremor vibrate along the chords of his thrilling frame, and a +new anathema against the fatal umbrella rise to his lips. + +"Ah!" quoth the second, "I trust that it may be so; but, to return to +our project, are you quite sure that these two identical ministers are +in the regular habit of walking homeward from that Parliament which +their despotism has so degraded?" + +"Sure? ay, that I am; Davidson swears to it!" + +"And you are also sure of their persons, so that, even in the dusk, +you can recognize them? for you know I have never seen them." + +"Sure as fivepence!" returned the first speaker, to whose mind the +lives of the persons referred to were of considerably less value than +the sum elegantly specified in his metaphorical reply. + +"Then," said the other, with a deep, stern determination of tone, +"then shall this hand, by which one of the proudest of our oppressors +has already fallen, be made a still worthier instrument of the wrath +of Heaven!" + +"You are a d--d pretty shot, I believe," quoth the first speaker, as +indifferently as if he were praising the address of a Norfolk squire. + +"Never did my eye misguide me, or my aim swerve a hair's-breadth from +its target! I thought once, when I learned the art as a boy, that in +battle, rather than in the execution of a single criminal, that skill +would avail me." + +"Well, we shall have a glorious opportunity to-morrow night!" answered +the first speaker; "that is, if it does not rain so infernally as it +does this night; but we shall have a watch of many hours, I dare say." + +"That matters but little," replied the other conspirator; "nor even +if, night after night, the same vigil is renewed and baffled, so that +it bring its reward at last." + +"Right," quoth the first; I long to be at it!--ugh! ugh! ugh!--what a +confounded cough I have! it will be my death soon, I'm thinking." + +"If so," said the other, with a solemnity which seemed ludicrously +horrible, from the strange contrast of the words and object, "die at +least with the sanctity of a brave and noble deed upon your conscience +and your name!" + +"Ugh! ugh!--I am but a man of colour, but I am a patriot, for all +that, my good friend! See, the violence of the rain has ceased; we +will proceed;" and with these words the worthy pair left the place to +darkness and Mr. Brown. + +"O Lord!" said the latter, stepping forth, and throwing, as it were, +in that exclamation, a whole weight of suffocating emotion from his +chest, "what bloody miscreants! Murder his Majesty's ministers!-- +'shoot them like pigeons!'--'d--d pretty shot!' indeed. O Lord! what +would the late Lady Waddilove, who always hated even the Whigs so +cordially, say, if she were alive? But how providential that I should +have been here! Who knows but I may save the lives of the whole +administration, and get a pension or a little place in the post- +office? I'll go to the prime minister directly,--this very minute! +Pish! ar'n't you right now, you cursed thing?" upbraiding the +umbrella, which, half-right and half-wrong, seemed endued with an +instinctive obstinacy for the sole purpose of tormenting its owner. + +However, losing this petty affliction in the greatness of his present +determination, Mr. Brown issued out of his lair, and hastened to put +his benevolent and loyal intentions into effect. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXV. + + When laurelled ruffians die, the Heaven and Earth, + And the deep Air give warning. Shall the good + Perish and not a sign?--ANONYMOUS. + +It was the evening after the event recorded in our last chapter: all +was hushed and dark in the room where Mordaunt sat alone; the low and +falling embers burned dull in the grate, and through the unclosed +windows the high stars rode pale and wan in their career. The room, +situated at the back of the house, looked over a small garden, where +the sickly and hoar shrubs, overshadowed by a few wintry poplars and +grim firs, saddened in the dense atmosphere of fog and smoke, which +broods over our island city. An air of gloom hung comfortless and +chilling over the whole scene externally and within. The room itself +was large and old, and its far extremities, mantled as they were with +dusk and shadow, impressed upon the mind that involuntary and vague +sensation, not altogether unmixed with awe, which the eye, resting +upon a view that it can but dimly and confusedly define, so frequently +communicates to the heart. There was a strange oppression at +Mordaunt's breast with which he in vain endeavoured to contend. Ever +and anon, an icy but passing chill, like the shivers of a fever, shot +through his veins, and a wild and unearthly and objectless awe stirred +through his hair, and his eyes filled with a glassy and cold dew, and +sought, as by a self-impulse, the shadowy and unpenetrated places +around, which momently grew darker and darker. Little addicted by his +peculiar habits to an over-indulgence of the imagination, and still +less accustomed to those absolute conquests of the physical frame over +the mental, which seem the usual sources of that feeling we call +presentiment, Mordaunt rose, and walking to and fro along the room, +endeavoured by the exercise to restore to his veins their wonted and +healthful circulation. It was past the hour in which his daughter +retired to rest: but he was often accustomed to steal up to her +chamber, and watch her in her young slumbers; and he felt this night a +more than usual desire to perform that office of love; so he left the +room and ascended the stairs. It was a large old house that he +tenanted. The staircase was broad, and lighted from above by a glass +dome; and as he slowly ascended, and the stars gleamed down still and +ghastly upon his steps, he fancied--but he knew not why--that there +was an omen in their gleam. He entered the young Isabel's chamber: +there was a light burning within; he stole to her bed, and putting +aside the curtain, felt, as he looked upon her peaceful and pure +beauty, a cheering warmth gather round his heart. How lovely is the +sleep of childhood! What worlds of sweet, yet not utterly sweet, +associations, does it not mingle with the envy of our gaze! What +thoughts and hopes and cares and forebodings does it not excite! +There lie in that yet ungrieved and unsullied heart what unnumbered +sources of emotion! what deep fountains of passion and woe! Alas! +whatever be its earlier triumphs, the victim must fall at last! As +the hart which the jackals pursue, the moment its race is begun the +human prey is foredoomed for destruction, not by the single sorrow, +but the thousand cares: it may baffle one race of pursuers, but a new +succeeds; as fast as some drop off exhausted, others spring up to +renew and to perpetuate the chase; and the fated, though flying victim +never escapes but in death. There was a faint smile upon his +daughter's lip, as Mordaunt bent down to kiss it; the dark lash rested +on the snowy lid--ah, that tears had no well beneath its surface!--- +and her breath stole from her rich lips with so regular and calm a +motion that, like the "forest leaves," it "seemed stirred with +prayer!" [And yet the forest leaves seem stirred with prayer.-- +BYRON.] One arm lay over the coverlet, the other pillowed her head, +in the unrivalled grace of infancy. + +Mordaunt stooped once more, for his heart filled as he gazed upon his +child, to kiss her cheek again, and to mingle a blessing with the +kiss. When he rose, upon that fair smooth face there was one bright +and glistening drop; and Isabel stirred in sleep, and, as if suddenly +vexed by some painful dream, she sighed deeply as she stirred. It was +the last time that the cheek of the young and predestined orphan was +ever pressed by a father's kiss or moistened by a father's tear! He +left the room silently; no sooner had he left it, than, as if without +the precincts of some charmed and preserving circle, the chill and +presentiment at his heart returned. There is a feeling which perhaps +all have in a momentary hypochondria felt at times: it is a strong and +shuddering impression which Coleridge has embodied in his own dark and +supernatural verse, that something not of earth is behind us; that if +we turned our gaze backward we should behold that which would make the +heart as a bolt of ice, and the eye shrivel and parch within its +socket. And so intense is the fancy that when we turn, and all is +void, from that very void we could shape a spectre, as fearful as the +image our terror had foredrawn. Somewhat such feeling had Mordaunt +now, as his steps sounded hollow and echoless on the stairs, and the +stars filled the air around him with their shadowy and solemn +presence. Breaking by a violent effort from a spell of which he felt +that a frame somewhat overtasked of late was the real enchanter, he +turned once more into the room which he had left to visit Isabel. He +had pledged his personal attendance at an important motion in the +House of Commons for that night, and some political papers were left +upon his table which he had promised to give to one of the members of +his party. He entered the room, purposing to stay only a minute; an +hour passed before he left it: and his servant afterwards observed +that, on giving him some orders as he passed through the hall to the +carriage, his cheek was as white as marble, and that his step, usually +so haughty and firm, reeled and trembled like a fainting man's. Dark +and inexplicable Fate! weaver of wild contrasts, demon of this hoary +and old world, that movest through it, as a spirit moveth over the +waters, filling the depths of things with a solemn mystery and an +everlasting change! Thou sweepest over our graves, and Joy is born +from the ashes: thou sweepest over Joy, and lo, it is a grave! Engine +and tool of the Almighty, whose years cannot fade, thou changest the +earth as a garment, and as a vesture it is changed; thou makest it one +vast sepulchre and womb united, swallowing and creating life! and +reproducing, over and over, from age to age, from the birth of +creation to the creation's doom, the same dust and atoms which were +our fathers, and which are the sole heirlooms that through countless +generations they bequeath and perpetuate to their sons. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVI. + + Methinks, before the issue of our fate, + A spirit moves within us, and impels + The passion of a prophet to our lips.--ANONYMOUS. + + O vitae Philosophia dux, virtutis indagatrix!-CICERO. + ["O Philosophy, conductress of life, searcher after virtue!"] + + +Upon leaving the House of Commons, Mordaunt was accosted by Lord +Ulswater, who had just taken his seat in the Upper House. Whatever +abstraction or whatever weakness Mordaunt might have manifested before +he had left his home, he had now entirely conquered both; and it was +with his usual collected address that he replied to Lord Ulswater's +salutations, and congratulated him on his change of name and accession +of honours. + +It was a night of uncommon calm and beauty; and, although the moon was +not visible, the frosty and clear sky, "clad in the lustre of its +thousand stars," [Marlowe] seemed scarcely to mourn either the +hallowing light or the breathing poesy of her presence; and when Lord +Ulswater proposed that Mordaunt should dismiss his carriage, and that +they should walk home, Algernon consented not unwillingly to the +proposal. He felt, indeed, an unwonted relief in companionship; and +the still air and the deep heavens seemed to woo him from more +unwelcome thoughts, as with a softening and a sister's love. + +"Let us, before we return home," said Lord Ulswater, "stroll for a few +moments towards the bridge: I love looking at the river on a night +like this" + +Whoever inquires into human circumstances will be struck to find how +invariably a latent current of fatality appears to pervade them. It +is the turn of the atom in the scale which makes our safety or our +peril, our glory or our shame, raises us to the throne or sinks us to +the grave. A secret voice at Mordaunt's heart prompted him to dissent +from this proposal, trifling as it seemed and welcome as it was to his +present and peculiar mood: he resisted the voice,--the moment passed +away, and the last seal was set upon his doom; they moved onward +towards the bridge. At first both were silent, for Lord Ulswater used +the ordinary privilege of a lover and was absent and absorbed, and his +companion was never the first to break a taciturnity natural to his +habits. At last Lord Ulswater said, "I rejoice that you are now in +the sphere of action most likely to display your talents: you have not +spoken yet, I think; indeed, there has been no fitting opportunity, +but you will soon, I trust." + +"I know not," said Mordaunt, with a melancholy smile, "whether you +judge rightly in thinking the sphere of political exertion the one +most calculated for me; but I feel at my heart a foreboding that my +planet is not fated to shine in any earthly sphere. Sorrow and +misfortune have dimmed it in its birth, and now it is waning towards +its decline." + +"Its decline!" repeated his companion, "no, rather its meridian. You +are in the vigor of your years, the noon of your prosperity, the +height of your intellect and knowledge; you require only an effort to +add to these blessings the most lasting of all,--Fame!" + +"Well," said Mordaunt, and a momentary light flashed over his +countenance, "the effort will be made. I do not pretend not to have +felt ambition. No man should make it his boast, for it often gives to +our frail and earth-bound virtue both its weapon and its wings; but +when the soil is exhausted its produce fails; and when we have forced +our hearts to too great an abundance, whether it be of flowers that +perish or of grain that endures, the seeds of after hope bring forth +but a languid and scanty harvest. My earliest idol was ambition; but +then came others, love and knowledge, and afterwards the desire to +bless. That desire you may term ambition: but we will suppose them +separate passions; for by the latter I would signify the thirst for +glory, either in evil or in good; and the former teaches us, though by +little and little, to gain its object, no less in secrecy than for +applause; and Wisdom, which opens to us a world, vast, but hidden from +the crowd, establishes also over that world an arbiter of its own, so +that its disciples grow proud, and, communing with their own hearts, +care for no louder judgment than the still voice within. It is thus +that indifference not to the welfare but to the report of others grows +over us; and often, while we are the most ardent in their cause, we +are the least anxious for their esteem." + +"And yet," said Lord Ulswater, "I have thought the passion for esteem +is the best guarantee for deserving it." + +"Nor without justice: other passions may supply its place, and produce +the same effects; but the love of true glory is the most legitimate +agent of extensive good, and you do right to worship and enshrine it. +For me it is dead: it Survived--ay, the truth shall out!--poverty, +want, disappointment, baffled aspirations,--all, all, but the +deadness, the lethargy of regret when no one was left upon this +altered earth to animate its efforts, to smile upon its success, then +the last spark quivered and died; and--and--but forgive me--on this +subject I am not often wont to wander. I would say that ambition is +for me no more; not so are its effects: but the hope of serving that +race whom I have loved as brothers, but who have never known me,--who, +by the exterior" (and here something bitter mingled with his voice), +"pass sentence upon the heart; in whose eyes I am only the cold, the +wayward, the haughty, the morose,--the hope of serving them is to me, +now, a far stronger passion than ambition was heretofore; and whatever +for that end the love of fame would have dictated, the love of mankind +will teach me still more ardently to perform." + +They were now upon the bridge. Pausing, they leaned over, and looked +along the scene before them. Dark and hushed, the river flowed +sullenly on, save where the reflected stars made a tremulous and +broken beam on the black surface of the water, or the lights of the +vast City, which lay in shadow on its banks, scattered at capricious +intervals a pale but unpiercing wanness rather than lustre along the +tide, or save where the stillness was occasionally broken by the faint +oar of the boatman or the call of his rude voice, mellowed almost into +music by distance and the element. + +But behind them, as they leaned, the feet of passengers on the great +thoroughfare passed not oft,--but quick; and that sound, the commonest +of earth's, made rarer and rarer by the advancing night, contrasted +rather than destroyed the quiet of the heaven and the solemnity of the +silent stars. + +"It is an old but a just comparison," said Mordaunt's companion, +"which has likened life to a river such as we now survey, gliding +alternately in light or in darkness, in sunshine or in storm, to that +great ocean in which all waters meet." + +"If," said Algernon, with his usual thoughtful and pensive smile, "we +may be allowed to vary that simile, I would, separating the universal +and eternal course of Destiny from the fleeting generations of human +life, compare the river before us to that course, and not it, but the +city scattered on its banks, to the varieties and mutability of life. +There (in the latter) crowded together in the great chaos of social +union, we herd in the night of ages, flinging the little lustre of our +dim lights over the sullen tide which rolls beside us,--seeing the +tremulous ray glitter on the surface, only to show us how profound is +the gloom which it cannot break, and the depths which it is too faint +to pierce. There Crime stalks, and Woe hushes her moan, and Poverty +couches, and Wealth riots,--and Death, in all and each, is at his +silent work. But the stream of Fate, unconscious of our changes and +decay, glides on to its engulfing bourne; and, while it mirrors the +faintest smile or the lightest frown of heaven, beholds, without a +change upon its surface, the generations of earth perish, and be +renewed, along its banks!" + +There was a pause; and by an involuntary and natural impulse, they +turned from the waves beneath to the heaven which, in its breathing +contrast, spread all eloquently, yet hushed, above. They looked upon +the living and intense stars, and felt palpably at their hearts that +spell--wild, but mute--which nothing on or of earth can inspire; that +pining of the imprisoned soul, that longing after the immortality on +high, which is perhaps no imaginary type of the immortality ourselves +are heirs to. + +"It is on such nights as these," said Mordaunt, who first broke the +silence, but with a low and soft voice, "that we are tempted to +believe that in Plato's divine fancy there is as divine a truth; that +'our souls are indeed of the same essence as the stars,' and that the +mysterious yearning, the impatient wish which swells and soars within +us to mingle with their glory, is but the instinctive and natural +longing to re-unite the divided portion of an immortal spirit, stored +in these cells of clay, with the original lustre of the heavenly and +burning whole!" + +And hence then," said his companion, pursuing the idea, "might we also +believe in that wondrous and wild influence which the stars have been +fabled to exercise over our fate; hence might we shape a visionary +clew to their imagined power over our birth, our destinies, and our +death." + +"Perhaps," rejoined Mordaunt, and Lord Ulswater has since said that +his countenance as he spoke wore an awful and strange aspect, which +lived long and long afterwards in the memory of his companion, +"perhaps they are tokens and signs between the soul and the things of +Heaven which do not wholly shame the doctrine of him [Socrates, who +taught the belief in omens.] from whose bright wells Plato drew (while +he coloured with his own gorgeous errors) the waters of his sublime +lore." As Mordaunt thus spoke, his voice changed: he paused abruptly, +and, pointing to a distant quarter of the heavens, said,-- + +"Look yonder; do you see, in the far horizon, one large and solitary +star, that, at this very moment, seems to wax pale and paler, as my +hand points to it?" + +"I see it; it shrinks and soars, while we gaze into the farther depths +of heaven, as if it were seeking to rise to some higher orbit." + +"And do you see," rejoined Mordaunt, "yon fleecy but dusky cloud which +sweeps slowly along the sky towards it? What shape does that cloud +wear to your eyes?" + +"It seems to me," answered Lord Ulswater, "to assume the exact +semblance of a funeral procession: the human shape appears to me as +distinctly moulded in the thin vapours as in ourselves; nor would it +perhaps ask too great indulgence from our fancy to image amongst the +darker forms in the centre of the cloud one bearing the very +appearance of a bier,--the plume, and the caparison, and the steeds, +and the mourners! Still, as I look, the likeness seems to me to +increase!" + +"Strange!" said Mordaunt, musingly, "how strange is this thing which +we call the mind! Strange that the dreams and superstitions of +childhood should cling to it with so inseparable and fond a strength! +I remember, years since, that I was affected even as I am now, to a +degree which wiser men might shrink to confess, upon gazing on a cloud +exactly similar to that which at this instant we behold. But see: +that cloud has passed over the star; and now, as it rolls away, look, +the star itself has vanished into the heavens." + +"But I fear," answered Lord Ulswater, with a slight smile, "that we +can deduce no omen either from the cloud or the star: would, indeed, +that Nature were more visibly knit with our individual existence! +Would that in the heavens there were a book, and in the waves a voice, +and on the earth a token of the mysteries and enigmas of our fate!" + +"And yet," said Mordaunt, slowly, as his mind gradually rose from its +dream-like oppression to its wonted and healthful tone, "yet, in +truth, we want neither sign nor omen from other worlds to teach us all +that it is the end of existence to fulfil in this; and that seems to +me a far less exalted wisdom which enables us to solve the riddles, +than that which elevates us above the chances, of the future." + +"But can we be placed above those chances;--can we become independent +of that fate to which the ancients taught that even their deities were +submitted?" + +"Let us not so wrong the ancients," answered Mordaunt; "their poets +taught it, not their philosophers. Would not virtue be a dream, a +mockery indeed, if it were, like the herb of the field, a thing of +blight and change, of withering and renewal, a minion of the sunbeam +and the cloud? Shall calamity deject it? Shall prosperity pollute? +then let it not be the object of our aspiration, but the byword of our +contempt. No: let us rather believe, with the great of old, that when +it is based on wisdom, it is throned above change and chance! throned +above the things of a petty and sordid world! throned above the +Olympus of the heathen! throned above the Stars which fade, and the +Moon which waneth in her course! Shall we believe less of the +divinity of Virtue than an Athenian Sage? Shall we, to whose eyes +have been revealed without a cloud the blaze and the glory of Heaven, +make Virtue a slave to those chains of earth which the Pagan subjected +to her feet? But if by her we can trample on the ills of life, are we +not a hundredfold more by her the vanquishers of death? All creation +lies before us: shall we cling to a grain of dust? All immortality is +our heritage: shall we gasp and sicken for a moment's breath? What if +we perish within an hour?--what if already the black cloud lowers over +us?--what if from our hopes and projects, and the fresh woven ties +which we have knit around our life, we are abruptly torn?--shall we be +the creatures or the conquerors of fate? Shall we be the exiled from +a home, or the escaped from a dungeon? Are we not as birds which look +into the Great Air only through a barred cage? Shall we shrink and +mourn when the cage is shattered, and all space spreads around us,-- +our element and our empire? No; it was not for this that, in an elder +day, Virtue and Valour received but a common name! The soul, into +which that Spirit has breathed its glory, is not only above Fate,--it +profits by her assaults! Attempt to weaken it, and you nerve it with +a new strength; to wound it, and you render it more invulnerable; to +destroy it, and you make it immortal! This, indeed, is the Sovereign +whose realm every calamity increases, the Hero whose triumph every +invasion augments; standing on the last sands of life, and encircled +by the advancing waters of Darkness and Eternity, it becomes in its +expiring effort doubly the Victor and the King!" + +Impressed by the fervour of his companion, with a sympathy almost +approaching to awe, Lord Ulswater pressed Mordaunt's hand, but offered +no reply; and both, excited by the high theme of their conversation, +and the thoughts which it produced, moved in silence from their post +and walked slowly homeward. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVII. + + Is it possible? + Is't so? I can no longer what I would + No longer draw back at my liking! I + Must do the deed because I thought of it. + . . . . . . + What is thy enterprise,--thy aim, thy object? + Hast honestly confessed it to thyself? + O bloody, frightful deed! + . . . . . . + Was that my purpose when we parted? + O God of Justice!--COLERIDGE: Wallenstein. + +We need scarcely say that one of the persons overheard by Mr. Brown +was Wolfe, and the peculiar tone of oratorical exaggeration, +characteristic of the man, has already informed the reader with which +of the two he is identified. + +On the evening after the conversation--the evening fixed for the +desperate design on which he had set the last hazard of his life--the +republican, parting from the companions with whom he had passed the +day, returned home to compose the fever of his excited thoughts, and +have a brief hour of solitary meditation, previous to the committal of +that act which he knew must be his immediate passport to the jail and +the gibbet. On entering his squalid and miserable home, the woman of +the house, a blear-eyed and filthy hag, who was holding to her +withered breast an infant, which, even in sucking the stream that +nourished its tainted existence, betrayed upon its haggard countenance +the polluted nature of the mother's milk, from which it drew at once +the support of life and the seeds of death,--this woman, meeting him +in the narrow passage, arrested his steps to acquaint him that a +gentleman had that day called upon him and left a letter in his room +with strict charge of care and speed in its delivery. The visitor had +not, however, communicated his name, though the curiosity excited by +his mien and dress had prompted the crone particularly to demand it. + +Little affected by this incident, which to the hostess seemed no +unimportant event, Wolfe pushed the woman aside with an impatient +gesture, and, scarcely conscious of the abuse which followed this +motion, hastened up the sordid stairs to his apartment. He sat +himself down upon the foot of his bed, and, covering his face with his +hands, surrendered his mind to the tide of contending emotions which +rushed upon it. + +What was he about to commit? Murder!--murder in its coldest and most +premeditated guise! "No!" cried he aloud, starting from the bed, and +dashing his clenched hand violently against his brow, "no! no! no! it +is not murder: it is justice! Did not they, the hirelings of +Oppression, ride over their crushed and shrieking countrymen, with +drawn blades and murderous hands? Was I not among them at the hour? +Did I not with these eyes see the sword uplifted and the smiter +strike? Were not my ears filled with the groans of their victims and +the savage yells of the trampling dastards?--yells which rang in +triumph over women and babes and weaponless men! And shall there be +no vengeance? Yes, it shall fall, not upon the tools, but the master; +not upon the slaves, but the despot. Yet," said he, suddenly pausing, +as his voice sank into a whisper, "assassination!--in another hour +perhaps; a deed irrevocable; a seal set upon two souls,--the victim's +and the judge's! Fetters and the felon's cord before me! the shouting +mob! the stigma!--no, no, it will not be the stigma; the gratitude, +rather, of future times, when motives will be appreciated and party +hushed! Have I not wrestled with wrong from my birth? have I not +rejected all offers from the men of an impious power? have I made a +moment's truce with the poor man's foe? have I not thrice purchased +free principles with an imprisoned frame? have I not bartered my +substance, and my hopes, and the pleasures of this world for my +unmoving, unswerving faith in the Great Cause? am I not about to crown +all by one blow,--one lightning blow, destroying at once myself and a +criminal too mighty for the law? and shall not history do justice to +this devotedness,--this absence from all self, hereafter--and admire, +even if it condemn?" + +Buoying himself with these reflections, and exciting the jaded current +of his designs once more into an unnatural impetus, the unhappy man +ceased and paced with rapid steps the narrow limits of his chamber; +his eye fell upon something bright, which glittered amidst the +darkening shadows of the evening. At that sight his heart stood still +for a moment: it was the weapon of intended death; he took it up, and +as he surveyed the shining barrel, and felt the lock, a more settled +sternness gathered at once over his fierce features and stubborn +heart. The pistol had been bought and prepared for the purpose with +the utmost nicety, not only for use but show; nor is it unfrequent to +find in such instances of premeditated ferocity in design a fearful +kind of coxcombry lavished upon the means. + +Striking a light, Wolfe reseated himself deliberately, and began with +the utmost care to load the pistol; that scene would not have been an +unworthy sketch for those painters who possess the power of giving to +the low a force almost approaching to grandeur, and of augmenting the +terrible by a mixture of the ludicrous. The sordid chamber, the damp +walls, the high window, in which a handful of discoloured paper +supplied the absence of many a pane; the single table of rough oak, +the rush-bottomed and broken chair, the hearth unconscious of a fire, +over which a mean bust of Milton held its tutelary sway; while the +dull rushlight streamed dimly upon the swarthy and strong countenance +of Wolfe, intent upon his work,--a countenance in which the deliberate +calmness that had succeeded the late struggle of feeling had in it a +mingled power of energy and haggardness of languor,--the one of the +desperate design, the other of the exhausted body; while in the knit +brow, and the iron lines, and even in the settled ferocity of +expression, there was yet something above the stamp of the vulgar +ruffian,--something eloquent of the motive no less than the deed, and +significant of that not ignoble perversity of mind which diminished +the guilt, yet increased the dreadness of the meditated crime, by +mocking it with the name of virtue. + +As he had finished his task, and hiding the pistol on his person +waited for the hour in which his accomplice was to summon him to the +fatal deed, he perceived, close by him on the table, the letter which +the woman had spoken of, and which till then, he had, in the +excitement of his mind, utterly forgotten. He opened it mechanically; +an enclosure fell to the ground. He picked it up; it was a bank-note +of considerable amount. The lines in the letter were few, anonymous, +and written in a hand evidently disguised. They were calculated +peculiarly to touch the republican, and reconcile him to the gift. In +them the writer professed to be actuated by no other feeling than +admiration for the unbending integrity which had characterized Wolfe's +life, and the desire that sincerity in any principles, however they +might differ from his own, should not be rewarded only with indigence +and ruin. + +It is impossible to tell how far, in Wolfe's mind, his own desperate +fortunes might insensibly have mingled with the motives which led him +to his present design: certain it is that wherever the future is +hopeless the mind is easily converted from the rugged to the criminal; +and equally certain it is that we are apt to justify to ourselves many +offences in a cause where we have made great sacrifices; and, perhaps, +if this unexpected assistance had come to Wolfe a short time before, +it might, by softening his heart and reconciling him in some measure +to fortune, have rendered him less susceptible to the fierce voice of +political hatred and the instigation of his associates. Nor can we, +who are removed from the temptations of the poor,--temptations to +which ours are as breezes which woo to storms which "tumble towers,"-- +nor can we tell how far the acerbity of want, and the absence of +wholesome sleep, and the contempt of the rich, and the rankling memory +of better fortunes, or even the mere fierceness which absolute hunger +produces in the humours and veins of all that hold nature's life, nor +can we tell how far these madden the temper, which is but a minion of +the body, and plead in irresistible excuse for the crimes which our +wondering virtue--haughty because unsolicited--stamps with its +loftiest reprobation! + +The cloud fell from Wolfe's brow, and his eye gazed, musingly and +rapt, upon vacancy. Steps were heard ascending; the voice of a +distant clock tolled with a distinctness which seemed like strokes +palpable as well as audible to the senses; and, as the door opened and +his accomplice entered, Wolfe muttered, "Too late! too late!"--and +first crushing the note in his hands, then tore it into atoms, with a +vehemence which astonished his companion, who, however, knew not its +value. + +"Come," said he, stamping his foot violently upon the floor, as if to +conquer by passion all internal relenting, "come, my friend, not +another moment is to be lost; let us hasten to our holy deed!" + +"I trust," said Wolfe's companion, when they were in the open street, +"that we shall not have our trouble in vain; it is a brave night for +it! Davidson wanted us to throw grenades into the ministers' +carriages, as the best plan; and, faith, we can try that if all else +fails!" + +Wolfe remained silent: indeed he scarcely heard his companion; for a +sullen indifference to all things around him had wrapped his spirit,-- +that singular feeling, or rather absence from feeling, common to all +men, when bound on some exciting action, upon which their minds are +already and wholly bent; which renders them utterly without thought, +when the superficial would imagine they were the most full of it, and +leads them to the threshold of that event which had before engrossed +all their most waking and fervid contemplation with a blind and +mechanical unconsciousness, resembling the influence of a dream. + +They arrived at the place they had selected for their station; +sometimes walking to and fro in order to escape observation, sometimes +hiding behind the pillars of a neighbouring house, they awaited the +coming of their victims. The time passed on; the streets grew more +and more empty; and, at last, only the visitation of the watchman or +the occasional steps of some homeward wanderer disturbed the solitude +of their station. + +At last, just after midnight, two men were seen approaching towards +them, linked arm in arm, and walking very slowly. + +"Hist! hist!" whispered Wolfe's comrade, "there they are at last; is +your pistol cocked?" + +"Ay," answered Wolfe, "and yours: man, collect yourself your hand +shakes." + +"It is with the cold then," said the ruffian, using, unconsciously, a +celebrated reply; "let us withdraw behind the pillar." + +They did so: the figures approached them; the night, though star-lit, +was not sufficiently clear to give the assassins more than the outline +of their shapes and the characters of their height and air. + +"Which," said Wolfe, in a whisper,--for, as he had said, he had never +seen either of his intended victims,--"which is my prey?" + +"Oh, the nearest to you," said the other, with trembling accents; "you +know his d--d proud walk, and erect head that is the way he answers +the people's petitions, I'll be sworn. The taller and farther one, +who stoops more in his gait, is mine." + +The strangers were now at hand. + +"You know you are to fire first, Wolfe," whispered the nearer ruffian, +whose heart had long failed him, and who was already meditating +escape. + +"But are you sure, quite sure, of the identity of our prey?" said +Wolfe, grasping his pistol. + +"Yes, yes," said the other; and, indeed, the air of the nearest person +approaching them bore, in the distance, a strong resemblance to that +of the minister it was supposed to designate. His companion, who +appeared much younger and of a mien equally patrician, but far less +proud, seemed listening to the supposed minister with the most earnest +attention. Apparently occupied with their conversation, when about +twenty yards from the assassins they stood still for a few moments. + +"Stop, Wolfe, stop," said the republican's accomplice, whose Indian +complexion, by fear, and the wan light of the lamps and skies, faded +into a jaundiced and yellow hue, while the bony whiteness of his teeth +made a grim contrast with the glare of his small, black, sparkling +eyes. "Stop, Wolfe, hold your hand. I see, now, that I was mistaken; +the farther one is a stranger to me, and the nearer one is much +thinner than the minister: pocket your pistol,--quick! quick!--and let +us withdraw." + +Wolfe dropped his hand, as if dissuaded from his design but as he +looked upon the trembling frame and chattering teeth of his terrified +accomplice, a sudden, and not unnatural, idea darted across his mind +that he was wilfully deceived by the fears of his companion; and that +the strangers, who had now resumed their way, were indeed what his +accomplice had first reported them to be. Filled with this +impression, and acting upon the momentary spur which it gave, the +infatuated and fated man pushed aside his comrade, with a muttered +oath at his cowardice and treachery, and taking a sure and steady, +though quick, aim at the person, who was now just within the certain +destruction of his hand, he fired the pistol. The stranger reeled and +fell into the arms of his companion. + +"Hurrah!" cried the murderer, leaping from his hiding place, and +walking with rapid strides towards his victim, "hurrah! for liberty +and England!" + +Scarce had he uttered those prostituted names, before the triumph of +misguided zeal faded suddenly and forever from his brow and soul. + +The wounded man leaned back in the supporting arms of his chilled and +horror-stricken friend; who, kneeling on one knee to support him, +fixed his eager eyes upon the pale and changing countenance of his +burden, unconscious of the presence of the assassin. + +"Speak, Mordaunt; speak! how is it with you?" he said. Recalled from +his torpor by the voice, Mordaunt opened his eyes, and muttering, "My +child, my child," sank back again; and Lord Ulswater (for it was he) +felt, by his increased weight, that death was hastening rapidly on its +victim. + +"Oh!" said he, bitterly, and recalling their last conversation--"oh! +where, where, when this man--the wise, the kind, the innocent, almost +the perfect--falls thus in the very prime of existence, by a sudden +blow from an obscure hand, unblest in life, inglorious in death,--oh! +where, where is this boasted triumph of Virtue, or where is its +reward?" + +True to his idol at the last, as these words fell upon his dizzy and +receding senses, Mordaunt raised himself by a sudden though momentary +exertion, and, fixing his eyes full upon Lord Ulswater, his moving +lips (for his voice was already gone) seemed to shape out the answer, +"It is here!" + +With this last effort, and with an expression upon his aspect which +seemed at once to soften and to hallow the haughty and calm character +which in life it was wont to bear, Algernon Mordaunt fell once more +back into the arms of his companion and immediately expired. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVIII. + + Come, Death, these are thy victims, and the axe + Waits those who claimed the chariot.--Thus we count + Our treasures in the dark, and when the light + Breaks on the cheated eye, we find the coin + Was skulls-- + . . . . . . + Yet the while + Fate links strange contrasts, and the scaffold's gloom + Is neighboured by the altar.--ANONYMOUS. + +When Crauford's guilt and imprisonment became known; when inquiry +developed, day after day, some new maze in the mighty and intricate +machinery of his sublime dishonesty; when houses of the most reputed +wealth and profuse splendour, whose affairs Crauford had transacted, +were discovered to have been for years utterly undermined and +beggared, and only supported by the extraordinary genius of the +individual by whose extraordinary guilt, now no longer concealed, they +were suddenly and irretrievably destroyed; when it was ascertained +that, for nearly the fifth part of a century, a system of villany had +been carried on throughout Europe, in a thousand different relations, +without a single breath of suspicion, and yet which a single breath of +suspicion could at once have arrested and exposed; when it was proved +that a man whose luxury had exceeded the pomp of princes, and whose +wealth was supposed more inexhaustible than the enchanted purse of +Fortunatus, had for eighteen years been a penniless pensioner upon the +prosperity of others; when the long scroll of this almost incredible +fraud was slowly, piece by piece, unrolled before the terrified +curiosity of his public, an invading army at the Temple gates could +scarcely have excited such universal consternation and dismay. + +The mob, always the first to execute justice, in their own inimitable +way took vengeance upon Crauford by burning the house no longer his, +and the houses of his partners, who were the worst and most innocent +sufferers for his crime. No epithet of horror and hatred was too +severe for the offender; and serious apprehension for the safety of +Newgate, his present habitation, was generally expressed. The more +saintly members of that sect to which the hypocrite had ostensibly +belonged, held up their hands, and declared that the fall of the +Pharisee was a judgment of Providence. Nor did they think it worth +while to make, for a moment, the trifling inquiry how far the judgment +of Providence was also implicated in the destruction of the numerous +and innocent families he had ruined! + +But, whether from that admiration for genius, common to the vulgar, +which forgets all crime in the cleverness of committing it, or from +that sagacious disposition peculiar to the English, which makes a hero +of any person eminently wicked, no sooner did Crauford's trial come on +than the tide of popular feeling experienced a sudden revulsion. It +became, in an instant, the fashion to admire and to pity a gentleman +so talented and so unfortunate. Likenesses of Mr. Crauford appeared +in every print-shop in town; the papers discovered that he was the +very fac-simile of the great King of Prussia. The laureate made an +ode upon him, which was set to music; and the public learned, with +tears of compassionate regret at so romantic a circumstance, that +pigeon-pies were sent daily to his prison, made by the delicate hands +of one of his former mistresses. Some sensation, also, was excited by +the circumstance of his poor wife (who soon afterwards died of a +broken heart) coming to him in prison, and being with difficulty torn +away; but then, conjugal affection is so very commonplace, and there +was something so engrossingly pathetic in the anecdote of the pigeon- +pies! + +It must be confessed that Crauford displayed singular address and +ability upon his trial; and fighting every inch of ground, even to the +last, when so strong a phalanx of circumstances appeared against him +that no hope of a favourable verdict could for a moment have supported +him, he concluded the trial with a speech delivered by himself, so +impressive, so powerful, so dignified, yet so impassioned, that the +whole audience, hot as they were, dissolved into tears. + +Sentence was passed,--Death! But such was the infatuation of the +people that every one expected that a pardon, for crime more +complicated and extensive than half the "Newgate Calendar" could +equal, would of course be obtained. Persons of the highest rank +interested themselves in his behalf; and up to the night before his +execution, expectations, almost amounting to certainty, were +entertained by the criminal, his friends, and the public. On that +night was conveyed to Crauford the positive and peremptory assurance +that there was no hope. Let us now enter his cell, and be the sole +witnesses of his solitude. + +Crauford was, as we have seen, a man in some respects of great moral +courage, of extraordinary daring in the formation of schemes, of +unwavering resolution in supporting them, and of a temper which rather +rejoiced in, than shunned, the braving of a distant danger for the +sake of an adequate reward. But this courage was supported and fed +solely by the self-persuasion of consummate genius, and his profound +confidence both in his good fortune and the inexhaustibility of his +resources. Physically he was a coward! immediate peril to be +confronted by the person, not the mind, had ever appalled him like a +child. He had never dared to back a spirited horse. He had been +known to remain for days in an obscure ale-house in the country, to +which a shower had accidentally driven him, because it had been idly +reported that a wild beast had escaped from a caravan and been seen in +the vicinity of the inn. No dog had ever been allowed in his +household lest it might go mad. In a word, Crauford was one to whom +life and sensual enjoyments were everything,--the supreme blessings, +the only blessings. + +As long as he had the hope, and it was a sanguine hope, of saving +life, nothing had disturbed his mind from its serenity. His gayety +had never forsaken him; and his cheerfulness and fortitude had been +the theme of every one admitted to his presence. But when this hope +was abruptly and finally closed; when Death, immediate and +unavoidable,--Death, the extinction of existence, the cessation of +sense,--stood bare and hideous before him, his genius seemed at once +to abandon him to his fate, and the inherent weakness of his nature to +gush over every prop and barrier of his art. + +No hope!" muttered he, in a voice of the keenest anguish, "no hope; +merciful God! none, none? What, I, I, who have shamed kings in +luxury,--I to die on the gibbet, among the reeking, gaping, swinish +crowd with whom--O God, that I were one of them even! that I were the +most loathsome beggar that ever crept forth to taint the air with +sores! that I were a toad immured in a stone, sweltering in the +atmosphere of its own venom! a snail crawling on these very walls, and +tracking his painful path in slime!--anything, anything, but death! +And such death! The gallows, the scaffold, the halter, the fingers of +the hangman paddling round the neck where the softest caresses have +clung and sated. To die, die, die! What, I whose pulse now beats so +strongly! whose blood keeps so warm and vigorous a motion! in the very +prime of enjoyment and manhood; all life's million paths of pleasure +before me,--to die, to swing to the winds, to hang,--ay, ay--to hang! +to be cut down, distorted and hideous; to be thrust into the earth +with worms; to rot, or--or--or hell! is there a hell?--better that +even than annihilation!" + +"Fool! fool!--damnable fool that I was" (and in his sudden rage he +clenched his own flesh till the nails met in it); "had I but got to +France one day sooner! Why don't you save me, save me, you whom I +have banqueted and feasted, and lent money to! one word from you might +have saved me; I will not die! I don't deserve it! I am innocent! I +tell you, Not guilty, my lord,--not guilty! Have you no heart, no +consciences? Murder! murder! murder!" and the wretched man sank upon +the ground, and tried with his hands to grasp the stone floor, as if +to cling to it from some imaginary violence. + +Turn we from him to the cell in which another criminal awaits also the +awful coming of his latest morrow. + +Pale, motionless, silent, with his face bending over his bosom and +hands clasped tightly upon his knees, Wolfe sat in his dungeon, and +collected his spirit against the approaching consummation of his +turbulent and stormy fate. His bitterest punishment had been already +past; mysterious Chance, or rather the Power above chance, had denied +to him the haughty triumph of self-applause. No sophistry, now, could +compare his doom to that of Sidney, or his deed to the act of the +avenging Brutus. + +Murder--causeless, objectless, universally execrated--rested, and +would rest (till oblivion wrapped it) upon his name. It had appeared, +too, upon his trial, that he had, in the information he had received, +been the mere tool of a spy in the ministers' pay; and that, for weeks +before his intended deed, his design had been known, and his +conspiracy only not bared to the public eye because political craft +awaited a riper opportunity for the disclosure. He had not then +merely been the blind dupe of his own passions, but, more humbling +still, an instrument in the hands of the very men whom his hatred was +sworn to destroy. Not a wreck, not a straw, of the vain glory for +which he had forfeited life and risked his soul, could he hug to a +sinking heart, and say, "This is my support." + +The remorse of gratitude embittered his cup still further. On +Mordaunt's person had been discovered a memorandum of the money +anonymously inclosed to Wolfe on the day of the murder; and it was +couched in words of esteem which melted the fierce heart of the +republican into the only tears he had shed since childhood. From that +time, a sullen, silent spirit fell upon him. He spoke to none,-- +heeded none; he made no defence on trial, no complaint of severity, no +appeal from judgment. The iron had entered into his soul; but it +supported, while it tortured. Even now as we gaze upon his inflexible +and dark countenance, no transitory emotion; no natural spasm of +sudden fear for the catastrophe of the morrow; no intense and working +passions, struggling into calm; no sign of internal hurricanes, rising +as it were from the hidden depths, agitate the surface, or betray the +secrets of the unfathomable world within. The mute lip; the rigid +brow; the downcast eye; a heavy and dread stillness, brooding over +every feature,--these are all we behold. + +Is it that thought sleeps, locked in the torpor of a senseless and +rayless dream; or that an evil incubus weighs upon it, crushing its +risings, but deadening not its pangs? Does Memory fly to the green +fields and happy home of his childhood, or the lonely studies of his +daring and restless youth, or his earliest homage to that Spirit of +Freedom which shone bright and still and pure upon the solitary +chamber of him who sang of heaven [Milton]; or (dwelling on its last +and most fearful object) rolls it only through one tumultuous and +convulsive channel,--Despair? Whatever be within the silent and deep +heart, pride, or courage, or callousness, or that stubborn firmness, +which, once principle, has grown habit, cover all as with a pall; and +the strung nerves and the hard endurance of the human flesh sustain +what the immortal mind perhaps quails beneath, in its dark retreat, +but once dreamed that it would exult to bear. + +The fatal hour had come! and, through the long dim passages of the +prison, four criminals were led forth to execution. The first was +Crauford's associate, Bradley. This man prayed fervently; and, though +he was trembling and pale, his mien and aspect bore something of the +calmness of resignation. + +It has been said that there is no friendship among the wicked. I have +examined this maxim closely, and believe it, like most popular +proverbs,--false. In wickedness there is peril, and mutual terror is +the strongest of ties. At all events, the wicked can, not unoften, +excite an attachment in their followers denied to virtue. Habitually +courteous, caressing, and familiar, Crauford had, despite his own +suspicions of Bradley, really touched the heart of one whom weakness +and want, not nature, had gained to vice; and it was not till +Crauford's guilt was by other witnesses undeniably proved that Bradley +could be tempted to make any confession tending to implicate him. + +He now crept close to his former partner, and frequently clasped his +hand, and besought him to take courage and to pray. But Crauford's +eye was glassy and dim, and his veins seemed filled with water: so +numbed and cold and white was his cheek. Fear, in him, had passed its +paroxysms, and was now insensibility; it was only when they urged him +to pray that a sort of benighted consciousness strayed over his +countenance and his ashen lips muttered something which none heard. + +After him came the Creole, who had been Wolfe's accomplice. On the +night of the murder, he had taken advantage of the general loneliness +and the confusion of the few present, and fled. He was found, +however, fast asleep in a garret, before morning, by the officers of +justice; and, on trial, he had confessed all. This man was in a rapid +consumption. The delay of another week would have given to Nature the +termination of his life. He, like Bradley, seemed earnest and +absorbed in prayer. + +Last came Wolfe, his tall, gaunt frame worn by confinement and +internal conflict into a gigantic skeleton; his countenance, too, had +undergone a withering change; his grizzled hair seemed now to have +acquired only the one hoary hue of age; and, though you might trace in +his air and eye the sternness, you could no longer detect the fire, of +former days. Calm, as on the preceding night, no emotion broke over +his dark but not defying features. He rejected, though not +irreverently, all aid from the benevolent priest, and seemed to seek +in the pride of his own heart a substitute for the resignation of +Religion. + +"Miserable man!" at last said the good clergyman, in whom zeal +overcame kindness, "have you at this awful hour no prayer upon your +lips?" + +A living light shot then for a moment over Wolfe's eye and brow. "I +have!" said he; and raising his clasped hands to Heaven, he continued +in the memorable words of Sidney, "Lord, defend Thy own cause, and +defend those who defend it! Stir up such as are faint; direct those +that are willing; confirm those that waver; give wisdom and integrity +to all: order all things so as may most redound to Thine own glory! + +"I had once hoped," added Wolfe, sinking in his tone, "I had once +hoped that I might with justice have continued that holy prayer; +["Grant that I may die glorifying Thee for all Thy mercies, and that +at the last Thou hast permitted me to be singled out as a witness of +Thy truth, and even by the confession of my opposers for that OLD +CAUSE in which I was from my youth engaged, and for which Thou hast +often and wonderfully declared Thyself."--ALGERNON SIDNEY.] but--" he +ceased abruptly; the glow passed from his countenance, his lip +quivered, and the tears stood in his eyes; and that was the only +weakness he betrayed, and those were his last words. + +Crauford continued, even while the rope was put round him, mute and +unconscious of everything. It was said that his pulse (that of an +uncommonly strong and healthy man on the previous day) had become so +low and faint that, an hour before his execution, it could not be +felt. He and the Creole were the only ones who struggled; Wolfe died, +seemingly, without a pang. + +From these feverish and fearful scenes, the mind turns, with a feeling +of grateful relief, to contemplate the happiness of one whose candid +and high nature, and warm affections, Fortune, long befriending, had +at length blessed. + +It was on an evening in the earliest flush of returning spring that +Lord Ulswater, with his beautiful bride, entered his magnificent +domains. It had been his wish and order, in consequence of his +brother's untimely death, that no public rejoicings should be made on +his marriage: but the good old steward could not persuade himself +entirely to enforce obedience to the first order of his new master; +and as the carriage drove into the park-gates, crowds on crowds were +assembled to welcome and to gaze. + +No sooner had they caught a glimpse of their young lord, whose +affability and handsome person had endeared him to all who remembered +his early days, and of the half-blushing, half-smiling countenance +beside him, than their enthusiasm could be no longer restrained. The +whole scene rang with shouts of joy; and through an air filled with +blessings, and amidst an avenue of happy faces, the bridal pair +arrived at their home. + +"Ah! Clarence (for so I must still call you)," said Flora, her +beautiful eyes streaming with delicious tears, "let us never leave +these kind hearts; let us live amongst them, and strive to repay and +deserve the blessings which they shower upon us! Is not Benevolence, +dearest, better than Ambition?" + +"Can it not rather, my own Flora, be Ambition itself?" + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + So rest you, merry gentlemen.--Monsieur Thomas. + +The Author has now only to take his leave of the less important +characters whom he has assembled together; and then, all due courtesy +to his numerous guests being performed, to retire himself to repose. + +First, then, for Mr. Morris Brown: In the second year of Lord +Ulswater's marriage, the worthy broker paid Mrs. Minden's nephew a +visit, in which he persuaded that gentleman to accept, "as presents," +two admirable fire screens, the property of the late Lady Waddilove: +the same may be now seen in the housekeeper's room at Borodaile Park +by any person willing to satisfy his curiosity and--the housekeeper. +Of all further particulars respecting Mr. Morris Brown, history is +silent. + +In the obituary for 1792, we find the following paragraph: + +"Died at his house in Putney, aged seventy-three, Sir Nicholas +Copperas, Knt., a gentleman well known on the Exchange for his +facetious humour. Several of his bons-mots are still recorded in the +Common Council. When residing many years ago in the suburbs of +London, this worthy gentleman was accustomed to go from his own house +to the Exchange in a coach called 'the Swallow,' that passed his door +just at breakfast-time; upon which occasion he was wont wittily to +observe to his accomplished spouse, 'And now, Mrs. Copperas, having +swallowed in the roll, I will e'en roll in the Swallow!' His whole +property is left to Adolphus Copperas, Esq., banker." + +And in the next year we discover,-- + +"Died, on Wednesday last, at her jointure house, Putney, in her sixty- +eighth year, the amiable and elegant Lady Copperas, relict of the late +Sir Nicholas, Knt." + +Mr. Trollolop, having exhausted the whole world of metaphysics, died +like Descartes, "in believing he had left nothing unexplained." + +Mr. Callythorpe entered the House of Commons at the time of the French +Revolution. He distinguished himself by many votes in favour of Mr. +Pitt, and one speech which ran thus: "Sir, I believe my right +honourable friend who spoke last (Mr. Pitt) designs to ruin the +country: but I will support him through all. Honourable Gentlemen may +laugh; but I'm a true Briton, and will not serve my friend the less +because I scorn to flatter him." + +Sir Christopher Findlater lost his life by an accident arising from +the upsetting of his carriage, his good heart not having suffered him +to part with a drunken coachman. + +Mr. Glumford turned miser in his old age; and died of want, and an +extravagant son. + +Our honest Cole and his wife were always among the most welcome +visitors at Lord Ulswater's. In his extreme old age, the ex-king took +a journey to Scotland, to see the Author of "The Lay of the Last +Minstrel." Nor should we do justice to the chief's critical +discernment if we neglected to record that, from the earliest dawn of +that great luminary of our age, he predicted its meridian splendour. +The eldest son of the gypsy-monarch inherited his father's spirit, and +is yet alive, a general, and G.C.B. + +Mr. Harrison married Miss Elizabeth, and succeeded to the Golden +Fleece. + +The Duke of Haverfield and Lord Ulswater continued their friendship +through life; and the letters of our dear Flora to her correspondent, +Eleanor, did not cease even with that critical and perilous period to +all maiden correspondents,--Marriage. If we may judge from the +subsequent letters which we have been permitted to see, Eleanor never +repented her brilliant nuptials, nor discovered (as the Duchess of +---- once said from experience) "that Dukes are as intolerable for +husbands as they are delightful for matches." + +And Isabel Mordaunt?--Ah! not in these pages shall her history be told +even in epitome. Perhaps for some future narrative, her romantic and +eventful fate may be reserved. Suffice it for the present, that the +childhood of the young heiress passed in the house of Lord Ulswater, +whose proudest boast, through a triumphant and prosperous life, was to +have been her father's friend; and that as she grew up, she inherited +her mother's beauty and gentle heart, and seemed to bear in her deep +eyes and melancholy smile some remembrance of the scenes in which her +infancy had been passed. + +But for Him, the husband and the father, whose trials through this +wrong world I have portrayed,--for him let there be neither murmurs at +the blindness of Fate, nor sorrow at the darkness of his doom. Better +that the lofty and bright spirit should pass away before the petty +business of life had bowed it, or the sordid mists of this low earth +breathed a shadow on its lustre! Who would have asked that spirit to +have struggled on for years in the intrigues, the hopes, the objects +of meaner souls? Who would have desired that the heavenward and +impatient heart should have grown insured to the chains and toil of +this enslaved state, or hardened into the callousness of age? Nor +would we claim the vulgar pittance of compassion for a lot which is +exalted above regret! Pity is for our weaknesses: to our weaknesses +only be it given. It is the aliment of love; it is the wages of +ambition; it is the rightful heritage of error! But why should pity +be entertained for the soul which never fell? for the courage which +never quailed? for the majesty never humbled? for the wisdom which, +from the rough things of the common world, raised an empire above +earth and destiny? for the stormy life?--it was a triumph! for the +early death?--it was immortality! + +I have stood beside Mordaunt's tomb: his will had directed that he +should sleep not in the vaults of his haughty line; and his last +dwelling is surrounded by a green and pleasant spot. The trees shadow +it like a temple; and a silver though fitful brook wails with a +constant yet not ungrateful dirge at the foot of the hill on which the +tomb is placed. I have stood there in those ardent years when our +wishes know no boundary and our ambition no curb; yet, even then, I +would have changed my wildest vision of romance for that quiet grave, +and the dreams of the distant spirit whose relics reposed beneath it. + +THE END. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, COMPLETE *** + +********* This file should be named b067w10.txt or b067w10.zip ********** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, b067w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, b067w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +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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