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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9391-8.txt b/9391-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3c4f31 --- /dev/null +++ b/9391-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9188 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, +1859, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #9391] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 28, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NOVEMBER 1859 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. IV.--NOVEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXV. + + + + +E. FELICE FORESTI. + + +Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the +harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such +exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers +who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not +the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy +of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor the +fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new +country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees +of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and +breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and +self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the +bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud +consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and +being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when +first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of +the lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to +watch their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest +thought or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its +spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were +extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open. +Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple +facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and +cordial greeting. + +Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose +high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man of +moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul. Traces +of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent; but +with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave and +ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE FORESTI,--subsequently, and for +years, the favorite professor of his beautiful native language and +literature in New York,--the favorite guest and the cherished friend in +her most cultivated homes and among her best citizens,--the Italian +patriot, which title he vindicated by consistency, self-respect, and +the most genial qualities. The vocation he adopted, because of its +availability, only served to make apparent comprehensive endowments and +an independent spirit; the lady with whom he read Tasso, beside the +chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem Delivered," learned to appreciate +modern knighthood; and the scholar to whom he expounded Dante, from the +political chart of the Middle Ages, turned to an incarnation of +existent patriotism. Not only by the arguments of Gioberti, the graphic +pictures of Manzoni, and the terse pathos of Leopardi, did he +illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius; but through his own +eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her achievements and faith in +her destiny. The savings of years of patient toil were sacrificed to +the subsistence of his poor countrymen who came hither after bravely +fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara, to have their fruits of +victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity, consequent upon +early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn chains, laid the +stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed of pain. He +uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which no courage +can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious privilege of +being independent": yet his American friends must have surmised the +truth; for, one day, he received a letter stating that a sum, fully +adequate for two years' support, remained to his credit on the books of +a merchant,--one of those mysterious provisions, such as once redeemed +a note of Henry Clay's, and of which no explanation can be given, +except that "it is a way they have" among the merchant princes of New +York. By a providential coincidence, surgical skill, at this juncture, +essentially improved his physical condition; but it became +indispensable, at the same time, that he should exchange our rigorous +clime for one more congenial; and he sailed five years ago for Italy, +taking up his residence in Piedmont, where dwell so many of the eminent +adherents of the cause he loved, and where the institutions, polity, +and social life include so many elements of progress and of faith. It +was now that those who knew him best, including some of the leading +citizens of his adopted city, applied to the Executive for his +appointment as United States Consul at Genoa. There was a singular +propriety in the request. Having passed and honored the ordeal of +American citizenship, and being then a popular resident of the city +which gave birth to the discoverer of this continent,--familiar with +our institutions, and endeared to so many of the wise and brave in +America and Italy,--illustrious through suffering, a veteran disciple +and martyr of freedom,--he was eminently a representative man, whom +freemen should delight to honor; and while it then gratified our sense +of the appropriate that this distinction and resource should cheer his +declining years, we are impelled, now that death has canonized +misfortune and integrity, to avail ourselves of the occasion to +rehearse the incidents and revive the lessons of his life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is to be lamented that Foresti had not anticipated our +purpose with that consecutive detail possible only in an autobiography. +"_Le Scene del Carcere Duro in Austria_," writes the Marquis +Pallavicino, "non sono ancora la storia del Ventuno. Un uomo potrebbe +scriverla e svelare molte infamie tuttavia occulte del governo +Austriaco. Quest' uomo è Felice Foresti. Il quale abbandonò gli agi +Americani per combattere un' altra volta, guerriero canuto, le gloriose +battaglie dell' Italico risorgimento. Il martire scriva: e la sua +penna, come quella d' un altro martire,--Silvio Pellico,--sarà una +spada nel cuoro dell' Austria."--Notes to _Spielbergo e Gradisca_.] + +Underlying the external apathy and apparently frivolous life of the +Italian peninsula, there has ever been a resolute, clear, earnest +patriotism, fed in the scholar by memories of past glory, in the +peasant by intense local attachment, and kindled from time to time in +all by the reaction of gross wrongs and moral privations. Sometimes in +conversation, oftener in secret musing, now in the eloquent outburst of +the composer, and now in the adjuration of the poet or the vow of the +revolutionist, this latent spirit has found expression. Again and +again, spasmodic and abortive _émeutes_, the calm protest of a +D'Azeglio and the fanaticism of an Orsini, sacrifices of property, +freedom, and life,--all the more pathetic, because to human vision +useless,--have made known to the oppressor the writhings of the +oppressed, and to the world the arbitrary rule which conceals injustice +by imposing silence. The indirect, but most emphatic utterance of this +deep, latent self-respect of the nation we find in Alfieri, whose stern +muse revived the terse energy of Dante; and in our own day, this +identical inspiration fired the melancholy verse of Leopardi, the +letters of Foscolo, the novels of Guerrazzi, and the tender melody of +Bellini. Recent literature has exhibited the conditions under which +Italian Liberals strive, and the method of expiating their +self-devotion. The novels of Ruffini, the letters of the Countess +d'Ossoli, the rhetoric of Gavazzi, and the parliamentary reports of +Gladstone, the leading reviews, the daily journals, intercourse with +political refugees, and the personal observations of travel, have, more +or less definitely, caused the problem called the "Italian Question" to +come nearer to our sympathies than any other European exigency apart +from practical interests. Moreover, the complicated and dubious aspect +of the subject, viewed by transatlantic eyes, has, within the last ten +years, been in a great measure dispelled by experimental facts. That +Italy needs chiefly to be _let alone_, to achieve independence and +realize a noble development, civic, economical, and social, every +intelligent traveller who crosses the Austrian frontier and enters the +Sardinian state, knows. + +A greater contrast, as regards productive industry, intellectual +enterprise, religious progress, comfort, and happiness, no adjacent +countries ever exhibited; constitutional freedom, an unrestricted +press, toleration, and public education on the one hand, and foreign +bayonets, espionage, and priestcraft on the other, explain the anomaly. +In Venice the very trophies of national life are labelled in a foreign +tongue, the _caffès_ of Milan resound with Teutonic gutturals, and +under the arcades of Bologna every other face wears the yellow beard of +the North; yet the family portraits in the vast palace-chambers, the +eyes and dialect of the people, the monumental inscriptions, announce +an indigenous and superseded race; their industry, civil rights, +property, and free expression in art, literature, and even speech, +being forcibly and systematically repressed: while in the mountains of +Savoy, the streets of Turin, and the harbor of Genoa, the stir and +zest, the productiveness, and the felicity of national life greet the +senses and gladden the soul. Statistics evidence what observation +hints; Cavour wins the respect of Europe; D'Azeglio illustrates the +inspiration which liberty yields to genius; journalism ventilates +political rancor; debate neutralizes aggressive prejudice; physical +resources become available; talent finds scope, character +self-assertion; Protestantism builds altars, patriotism shrines; and +genuine Italian nationality has a vital existence so palpably +reproachful of circumjacent stagnation, ruin, and wrong, that no laws +or material force can interpose a permanent obstacle to its indefinite +extension and salutary reign. + +In his first youth, Foresti imbibed the creative spirit breathed into +the social and civic life of Italy by Napoleon's victories and +administration; it was at that vivid epoch when the military, +political, artistic, and literary talent of the land, so long repressed +and thwarted by superstition and despotism, broke forth, that his +studies were achieved. We have only to compare what was done, thought, +and felt in the Peninsula, during the ten years between the coronation +of Bonaparte at Milan and his overthrow at Waterloo, with the +subsequent dearth of national triumphs in every sphere, and with the +inert, apprehensive, baffled existence of the Italians in the grasp of +reinstated and reinforced imbecile, yet tyrannic governments, to +appreciate the feelings of a young, well-born, gifted citizen, when +suddenly checked in a liberal and progressive career, and remanded, as +it were, from the bracing atmosphere of modern civilization and +enlightened activity, to the passive, silent endurance of obsolete +feudalism. It was the inevitable and deliberate protest against this +wicked and absurd reaction which gave birth to the political +organization of the _Carbonari_; wherein the noblest men and the wisest +princes of that day enrolled themselves; and the inefficiency of whose +far-reaching, secret, and solemn aims can be accounted for only by the +fatal error of trusting in the magnanimity of an order born to +hereditary power, and overlooking, in their municipal fraternities, the +vast importance of the more scattered, but not less capable and +patriotic agricultural class. + +Foresti was born at Conselice in the Ferrarese. Few American travellers +linger in Ferrara. Fresh from the more imposing attractions of Florence +or Venice, this ancient Italian city offers little in comparison to +detain the eager pilgrim; and yet to one cognizant of its history and +alive to imaginative associations, this neglect might increase the +charm of a brief sojourn. It is pleasant to explore the less hackneyed +stories of history and tradition, to enjoy an isolated scene fraught +with grand or tender sentiment, to turn aside from the trampled highway +and the crowded resort, to listen to some plaintive whisper from the +Past amid the deserted memorials of its glory and grief. Such a place +is Ferrara. The broad and regular streets and the massive palaces +emphatically declare its former splendor; and its actual decadence is +no less manifest in the grass-grown pavement of the one and the +crumbling and dreary aspect of the other. It requires no small effort +of fancy, as we walk through some deserted by-way, wherein our +footsteps echo audibly at noonday, to realize that this was the +splendid arena where the House of Este so long held sway, limited in +extent, but in its palmy days the centre of a brilliant court, a famous +school of pictorial art, the seat of a university whose fame drew +scholars from distant Britain, and whose ducal family gave birth to the +Brunswick dynasty, whence descended the royalty of England. The city +dates its origin from the fifth century, when its marshy site gave +refuge from the pursuing Huns, and the ambition of its rulers gradually +concentrated around the unpromising domain those elements of +ecclesiastical prestige, knightly valor, artistic and literary +resources which enriched and signalized the Italian cities of the +Middle Ages. Enlightened, though capricious patronage made this +halting-place between Bologna and Venice, Padua and Rome, the nucleus +of talent, enterprise, and diplomacy, the fruits whereof are permanent. +But there are two hallowed associations which in a remarkable degree +consecrated Ferrara and endeared her to the memory of later +generations: she gave an asylum to the persecuted Christian Reformers, +and was the home and haunt of poets. It is this recollection which +stays the feet and warms the heart of the transatlantic visitor, as he +roams at twilight around the venerable castle "flanked with towers," +traces the dim fresco in a church Giotto decorated, reads "Parisina" in +Byron's paraphrase near the dungeons where she and her lover were +slain, or gazes with mingled curiosity and love on the chirography of +St. Chrysostom, the original manuscripts of Tasso, Ariosto, and +Guarini, or the inscription of Victor Alfieri in the Studio Publico. It +is because Calvin was here sheltered, and Olympia Morata found sympathy +and respect,--because the author of "Jerusalem Delivered" here loved, +triumphed, and despaired, and the author of the "Orlando Furioso" so +assiduously labored for his orphaned family, the exacting Cardinal +Ippolito, and the cause of learning, and strung a lyre which has for +centuries vibrated in the popular heart and fancy,--because, in a word, +Ferrara contains the prison of Tasso, and the home of Ariosto, who +called her "_città bene avventurosa_," as did Tassoni the "_gran donna +del Po_,"--that the desolate old city is revived to the imagination, +with its hundred thousand people, its gay courtiers and brave knights, +the romance of its feats of minstrelsy and arms whereat noble beauties +and immortal bards assisted, and Art, Chivalry, Learning, Church, and +State held festival with the Muses to adorn and perpetuate the +transient pageant, the loveliness, and the rule,--otherwise since +consigned to the monotonous record of vanished pomp and arbitrary sway. + +When Napoleon fell, Foresti was a student at the University of Bologna, +whence he returned to his native capital, after obtaining the degree of +Doctor of Laws. His earliest forensic labors, like those of our young +advocates, were in the defence of accused criminals; and, limited as is +this sphere, he must have displayed unusual maturity of judgment and +natural eloquence, to have received successively the eminent +appointments of Provisory Assistant Judge in the Court of Justice of +Ferrara, Supplementary Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the +Lyceum, and Judge of the Peace, by virtue of which latter office he +crossed the Po to practise at Polesino,--wisely preferring the Austrian +to the Papal jurisdiction. In Crespino, in the province of Rovigo, in +the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, Foresti was made Praetor under the +Emperor's warrant. Coincident with this recognition of his judicial +knowledge and skill, was a kindred appreciation on the part of his +liberal and patriotic countrymen; they beheld in the vigorous and +disciplined mind and generous heart of Foresti, in his civic wisdom and +courage, the representative and ally they sought in this portion of +their beautiful and unhappy land. To disseminate the principles and +secure the cooperation of Venice became the special office of the +Carbonari leaders of Ferrara, and they had only to reveal the high and +holy object they cherished, to one who so well knew the wants and woes +of his country as Foresti, to enlist his adventurous sympathy. The +delicate and difficult mission, fraught with the dearest prospects of +Italy, was nearly consummated, when a treacherous colleague revealed to +the accredited agents both of Austria and the Pope the system of this +mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara. The latter +shrank from extreme measures, and was content with an oath of +retraction; but the Austrian government gave instant orders to the +chiefs of police, both there and at Venice, to arrest those whom the +perjured Count Villa named as adherents of Carbonarism. The decree was +executed with military force; and, without warning, preparation, or +even a parting interview with their families and friends, the suspected +were hurried off to the Piombi, that Venetian prison so graphically +described by Pellico. All correspondence and personal intercourse was +denied. Meantime, an ingenious and persevering investigation went on, +to ascertain the scope of the enterprise thus summarily baffled, the +means proposed, and the individuals implicated. To complicate still +further the situation of the victims, in other quarters the flame they +had secretly fed burst forth conspicuously; Naples and Piedmont were in +arms; and Austria conceived an alarming idea of the national spirit she +had partially contravened. The rigor of espionage towards the +imprisoned and their friends increased; the prosecution was insidiously +prolonged; privation and solitude, vigilance and suspense were made +instruments for subduing the resolution and invading the confidence of +the captives; they pined in desolation, ignorant of their fate, +uninformed of the welfare of those most dear to them, without resources +of defence or consolation, except what the strength of individual +character yields; physically weakened, morally isolated; sometimes +roused from sleep and bewildered with questions; at other times told +they were to die, that some companion had confessed, or that some loved +one had ceased to exist;--and all these crises of feeling and anxiety, +of surprise and despair, induced with a fiendish deliberation, to +startle honor into self-betrayal, wring from exhausted Nature what +conscious rectitude would not divulge, or agonize human love into +inadvertent disloyalty. + +At length their fate was decided. Foresti's companion in prison was the +son of a judge of Ferrara; and, one November midnight, their +conversation was interrupted by the unexpected entrance of the jailer, +who bade Foresti follow him. The hour and the manner of the official +convinced both him and his comrade that his sacrifice was resolved +upon; they embraced, and he left the cell to find himself strictly +guarded by six soldiers. This nocturnal procession marched silently +through the vast, lonely, and magnificent rooms of the Ducal Palace to +the door which leads to the Bridge of Sighs: it was the old road to +destruction,--the mysterious process, made familiar by novelists and +poets, by which the ancient and sinister republic made more fearful the +vengeance of government. As the unfortunate youth passed through a +labyrinth of gloomy corridors, he recognized the haunts of the ancient +Inquisition; the atmosphere was clogged with damp; moisture dripped +from the stones. A dungeon, lighted only by a lamp suspended from the +vault, and narrow, humid, and unfurnished, except with a pile of straw +and a rude table, proved the dreary goal of their heavy steps. Left to +his own reflections, Foresti contemplated his prospects with deliberate +anguish; that he had been found guilty was apparent; if the fact of his +direct agency in initiating the oath of self-emancipation, the sacred +compact of national self-assertion in the Austrian dominions, had +transpired, he felt that his prominence as a judicial officer, and the +firmness with which he had refused to explain the purposes or betray +the associates of this memorable league, made him the most probable +victim of extreme measures, should one be chosen from the Carbonari of +Ferrara. At that period of his life he entertained the opinion that +suicide was justifiable to avoid an ignominious death at the hands of +arbitrary power. Believing his fate sealed, he gave a few moments of +tender reminiscence to his dead mother and his living father and +sisters, to the dreams of his youth, and the patriotic aspirations to +which he was about to fall a sacrifice. The jailer returned, bringing a +book and a bottle of wine, for which he had asked; a few tears were +shed, a prayer for forgiveness breathed, and then he plunged a knife +into his breast; the blade broke; he shattered the bottle at his side +and swallowed the fragments, and then fell bleeding and exhausted on +the straw. If left long alone, life would have ebbed away; but, +probably in anticipation of such a catastrophe, the officer ere many +hours revisited the cell to put chains upon the prisoner. Discovering +his condition, a surgeon was called, remedies were applied, and two +Austrian sentinels carried Foresti into the presence of the judge. It +was scarcely dawn; the venerable and courteous, but inflexible +representative of the Emperor expressed solicitude and sympathy; a +secretary and physician, with the guard and their prisoner, confronted +each other by the dim light of two candles. Irritated by the +conventional politeness of this arbiter of his destiny at such a +crisis, having vainly sought death, and bitterly conscious of the long +outrages perpetrated under the name of justice, Foresti burst forth +into stern invectives, and boldly declared his liberal sentiments, his +allegiance to the principles for the sake of which he thus suffered, +and his absolute enmity to the usurpers of his country's freedom. The +Cavalier Mazzetti treated this overflow of emotion as the ebullition of +a youthful mind, romantic and intrepid, but unreasonable; he professed +the sincerest pity for so gifted and brave a youth, lamented his +delusion, painted in emphatic words his want of gratitude and +allegiance, treated his political creed and organization as chimerical, +and wound up by informing Foresti that he was condemned to die on the +public square of Venice, and that nothing would save him but a complete +revelation of the true plan, arrangements, and members of the secret +conclave to which he belonged. Threats and blandishments failed to move +the prisoner; he was silent, accepted his doom, and was remanded with +two allies,--one of whom purchased a remission by treason to his vows. +Such was the climax of two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by +ingenious moral torture. + +If the modern history of liberty is written by a comprehensive +humanitarian, he will not look exclusively to the battle-field for +picturesque and impressive _tableaux_; in that record most signally +will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of +victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler +will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that +which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve, +1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more +distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,--the only +spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous +old city of the sea,--the gay centre of a recreative population, where +the costumes and physiognomies of the Orient and the West mingle in +dramatic contrast,--the nucleus of historical and romantic +associations, singularly domesticated in two hemispheres by the +household lore of Shakspeare and Otway, Byron and Rogers, Cooper and +Ruskin. The ancient temple of St. Mark, the bronze horses of Lysippus, +the arched galleries of the Palace, the waters of the Adriatic, the +firmament above, and the stones beneath seem instinct with the fame of +commercial grandeur, maritime triumphs, and diplomatic prowess; the +cheerful arcades that shade the _caffès_ remind us of the "harmless +comedy of life" which Goldoni recorded; the flush of sunset on dome, +balcony, and canal seems warm with the peerless tints which Titian here +caught and transmitted; the crowd of pleasure-seekers recall the music, +love, and chivalry, of which this was once the splendid centre; while +the shadow of a dark _façade_ whispers of the mysterious oligarchy, the +anonymous accusers, the secret council, and the venerable Doge;--a more +remarkable union of gloom and gayety, of romance and reality, of the +beautiful and the tragic, directly suggested by inevitable local +associations, cannot be found in the whole range of European travel. +Imagine this memorable square, on the afternoon of a great Christmas +festival;--fair faces at every window,--the adjacent roofs crowded with +spectators,--an Austrian regiment drawn up around a scaffold,--the +Viceroy, brother of the Emperor, standing in the large balcony of the +Palace,--two cannon placed between the columns of San Marco and San +Teodoro,--every inch of the vast Piazza, without the circle of +soldiery, occupied by eager spectators. Over this vast assemblage, amid +the impending thoughts which the incidents of the hour and the memory +of the Past inspired, reigned a profound silence; no laugh or jest, +such as bespeaks a holiday, no heartless curiosity, such as accompanies +a mere public show, no vulgar excitement was evident; on many faces +dwelt an expression of awe and pity,--on others an indignant frown,--on +all painful and sympathetic expectancy. Every class was represented, +from the swarthy fishermen of the lagoons to the dark-eyed countess of +the Palazzo,--pale students, venerable citizens, the shopkeeper and the +marquis, the priest and the advocate. It was not merely the fate of the +few prisoners on the scaffold, deep as was the public sympathy, which +occasioned this profound suspense; they represented the national cause, +and in every city of the land there were scores of the bravest and the +best equally involved in the patriotic sacrifice, and whose destiny +had, for long and weary months, agonized their relations, friends, and +countrymen. The anomalous tyranny under which the nation had collapsed +was demonstrated not so much by the outward aspect as by the moral +facts of that fatal day in the Piazza of San Marco. On the scaffold +were a group of educated, courageous, honest Italians, guarded by +Austrian soldiers and overlooked by the official representative of +imperial despotism; their attitude was criminal, their acts sublime; +ostensibly condemned, they were in reality glorified. Not a being in +that vast multitude, except the official creatures of Austria, but +gazed with respect, love, sorrow, pride, tenderness, and admiration +upon her noble victims; it was the apparent triumph of physical force, +and the actual realization of moral superiority: the silence of that +multitude was the eloquent protest of humanity. + +And this ominous silence was all at once broken by the clear, +well-emphasized voice of a judicial officer, reading the sentence; it +was listened to with such breathless attention, that, when the phrase, +_condemned to death_, was uttered, a visible shudder vibrated, like an +electric shock, through the dense mass of human beings, and upturned +faces flushed or grew pallid in an instant; but scarcely were these +simultaneous emotions recognized, when another phrase, _life granted_, +called forth a cry as of one mighty voice. All were spared: but a +sentence, to such as understood its meaning, of living death,--_carcere +duro_ in Spielberg and the Castle of Lubiano,--some for ten, others for +fifteen, and the remainder for twenty years,--was substituted. + +This entire ceremony was characteristic of Austrian despotism, aware of +the profound sympathy among the Italians for their patriot martyrs, of +the widespread disaffection, of the necessity of exciting vague and +terrible apprehension,--and at the same time conscious that policy +forbade arousing the fury of despair. The accused were thus kept more +than two years alternating from hope to desperation, the people in +ignorance of the issue, and then, when led out, as they supposed, to +die, they served as a warning to those who dared imperial vengeance, +while, by a sudden act of apparent clemency, the government at once rid +itself of formidable opponents and assumed the character of merciful +executors of law! It was rumored that the consideration of his youth +saved the life of Foresti;--he was sentenced to twenty years' +imprisonment. + +From, the scaffold the prisoners were transferred to the Island of St. +Michael. Their transit was more like an ovation than a disgrace. The +better class of spectators embarked in gondolas and followed the +_cortége_ with shouts of encouragement and waving of handkerchiefs; +"Courage, courage, brave patriots!" was their salutation; and when +night fell upon the scene, there rose from the lagoons strains of +instrumental and vocal melody, and improvised recitations breathing +honor, compassion, and hope; so that in spite of bayonets and police, +terrorism and espionage, the voice of their fettered country wafted to +every captive the assurance that he had not striven and been faithful +unto death in vain. + +These scenes in Venice were reenacted, with unimportant modifications, +within a few months, at Rome and Turin, at Modena, Parma, and Naples. +The rolls of victims embraced the most highly endowed and heroic men of +the day. Many of them, after years of incarceration, distinguished +themselves in civil and literary life; some perished miserably in +durance; and a few yet survive and enjoy social consideration or +European fame. Among them were representatives of every rank, vocation, +and section of the land,--noblemen, professors, military officers, +advocates, physicians, priests, men of wealth, of genius, and of +character. Those known in America, either personally or by their +writings, are Count Gonfalonieri of Milan, Silvio Pellico, Castilla, +Borsieri, Maroncelli, and Foresti. The abortive revolutions of 1831 and +1848 sent other refugees to our shores, and canonized other saintly +heroes in the Calendar of Freedom; but these were the original, and, as +a body, the remarkable men, who, imbued with the intelligent and +progressive Liberalism of the nineteenth century, practically +established in Italy by Napoleon, bravely initiated the vital reaction +invoked by humanity as well as patriotism, before which European +despotism has never ceased to tremble, and which, however baffled, +postponed, and misunderstood, by the law of God as well as the +development of man, is absolutely destined to an ultimate triumph. + +The show of justice and clemency was made at noonday with every +circumstance of pomp and authority to give it popular effect; the trial +and punishment were enacted in darkness and isolation. On a cold, still +night of January came police commissioners to the island, whither the +condemned patriots had been conveyed amid tears and benedictions, and +chained them in couples like galley-slaves. By the light of torches +they were placed in boats which glided noiselessly by sleeping Venice +to Mestre, and there they were transferred to carriages, two prisoners +and four guards to each vehicle, and in this manner, for four dreary +weeks, borne through the winter days farther and farther from country +and home,--sleeping at night in town-jails, by-way fortresses, or, when +neither were available, in the worst apartments of lonely inns. Who can +adequately describe the wretchedness of that journey, the bitterness of +soul, the prospective desolation, the tender regrets of those unhappy +prisoners,--torn from the embrace of kindred, the dignity and motive of +a high career, the most beautiful of countries, and the most sacred of +ties and duties, to bury their youth, with all its high dreams and +noble fervor and consecrated gifts, in a distant dungeon? Even the +strangers through whose domain they passed testified by looks, signs, +respectful greetings, and, when possible, kind attentions, their +sympathy and esteem; people of rank continued to approach them in +disguise merely to indicate their humane recognition; the very +commissioners sent to attest the execution of the sentence parted from +their charge with tearful respect. Grief, privation, and fatigue, +greatly aggravated by the shackles which bound them in pairs, had +exhausted body and mind at the end of the journey. From the city of +Brunn, the capital of Moravia, their wan looks sought the mountain +prison above, where frowned the bastions of Spielberg, once a mediaeval +castle, then a fortress, built by the Emperor Charles, and, just before +the battle of Austerlitz, dismantled by Napoleon, and now the place of +confinement for the most degraded criminals of Austria, nearly a +thousand of whom there expiate their offences. Into this herd of +malefactors were thrust gentlemen, scholars, citizens, for the crime of +patriotism. To each was assigned a cell, twelve feet in length and +eight in breadth, with a small iron-barred window, a plank with, a +mattress and blanket, an iron chair secured to the wall, and an earthen +jug for water. Arrayed in convict uniform, here the brave youths were +immured. Sentinels were continually on guard in the corridors and court +and around the bastions; the food was inadequate and often loathsome; +an hour's walk in the yard daily, between two soldiers with loaded +muskets, was the only respite from solitude and inaction; "Lives of the +Saints" were the only books allowed; intercourse with the outward world +was entirely cut off; surveillance was incessant; on Sunday they were +guarded to the chapel, but kept apart; every quarter appeared a priest, +who strove, by rigid examination, to elicit political secrets; the +agents and officials maintained an unmitigated reserve; what transpired +in the world, how it fared with their country and their loved ones, was +unknown; existence so near to death itself, in passivity, "cold +obstruction," alienation from all the interests, the hopes, and the +very impressions of human life, it is impossible to imagine. +Subsequently reforms were introduced, and the rigors of this system +somewhat modified; but the era of Foresti's confinement at Spielberg +was that which has become accursed in political history as the reign of +Francesco Primo. He insisted to the last on chains, the badge of crime, +and the severest _régime_ possible to life. He had even visited Brunn, +and been within hearing of his victims, and sent his physician to +ascertain their condition; but refused any mitigation of sufferings, +moral and physical, which involved sanity, health, and almost vitality. + +The details of this experience are familiar through current European +memoirs. Silvio Pellico has made the life of an Austrian +prisoner-of-state, in its outward environment and inward struggles, as +well known as that of the Arctic explorer or the English +factory-operative. A confirmatory supplement to this dark chapter in +the history of modern civilization has recently appeared from the pen +of another of Foresti's fellow-martyrs, Pallavicino. [Footnote: +_Spielbergo e Gradisca: Scene del Carcere Duro di_ GIORGIO PALLAVICINO. +Torino. 1856.] But while they were undergoing the bitter ordeal, it was +all but unknown in Europe and undreamed of in America; literature, that +noble vantage-ground for oppressed humanity, has now broken the silence +and proclaimed the truth. There was one solace ingeniously obtained by +these buried members of the living human family,--occasional indirect +intercourse with each other: the telegraphs of eye and ear conveyed +their mutual feelings. One after another succumbed, from the vital +injuries of the _régime_; in one case the brain grew weak, in another +the blood was impoverished or fevered; this one was prostrated by +gangrene in wounds caused by chafing fetters, and that attenuated by +insufficient nourishment: yet they contrived to make known to each +other how it fared with them respectively. Pellico, through an +indulgent guard, sent Foresti verses on his birthday; Maronchelli +sounded on the wall the intimation of his continued existence after his +leg was amputated; and when marshalled for a walk or convened on Sunday +in the chapel, the devoted band had the melancholy satisfaction of +beholding each other, though the different groups were not permitted to +communicate. Andryane, a French officer, included in the original +edict, though upon most inadequate evidence, describes, with keen +interest, his first impressions when permitted to go to mass at +Spielberg. His companion speculated on the identity of each of the +captives. "That one, with dejected looks and hollow eyes, who seems so +exhausted, and, though a tall man, is bent down into a dwarf, is Villa. +Poor fellow! he has but a few months to live. As for the last one, with +the stern looks and bushy black hair, he appears to bear his fate in +such a manner as ought to make us resigned to our own." "That," +whispered a fellow-prisoner, "is Foresti, who, like Ajax, doubtless +mutters between his teeth, 'I will foil them yet, though even the gods +oppose me!'" [Footnote: "_Mémoires d'un Prisonnier d'Etat_." Par +ALEXANDRE ANDRYANE. Paris.] + +This observation was sagacious. It was by calm resolution and +philosophic self-possession, through faith in the ultimate triumph of +justice and freedom, that Foresti kept at bay the corrosive despair +which irritated less noble characters into melancholy or wasted spirits +of gentler mould to insanity. Yet his physical torture was extreme. Of +robust frame and in the plenitude of youthful vigor when arrested, the +want of food during the earlier years of his captivity made serious and +permanent inroads upon a naturally powerful constitution. We have heard +him relate, with a humorous emphasis indicative of brave endurance, yet +suggestive of the keenest pangs, how eagerly he one day seized a +pudding, thrust under his dress, as he passed the lodge of an official +in the court, by a compassionate woman,--how ingeniously he concealed +it from the sentinels, at the risk of burning his hands,--with what +triumph he unfolded and with what voracity he devoured it in the +solitude of his cell. Sometimes an indignity overcame his +self-possession, as, on one occasion, when the jailer's attendant +rudely awoke him with a kick, as he deposited a basin of hot broth, +which Foresti indignantly seized and dashed its scalding contents into +the face of the brutal menial, who thenceforward was more respectful in +his salutations. But it was the moral suffering against which all his +wisdom and courage were invoked to struggle,--the resolute maintenance +of healthful mental activity, without an object or motive underived +from will,--the repression of hopeless, vague, self-tormenting +reverie, which perverts intellect and drains moral energy,--the +habitual exercise of memory, reflection, and fancy, to preserve their +functions unimpaired. Such expedients were of special necessity at +Spielberg; for never were educated men so barbarously deprived of the +legitimate resources of mind and heart; thought and love were left +uninvited, unappeased. Sir Walter Raleigh had the materials, at the +Tower, to write a history; Lafayette, at Olmutz, lived in perpetual +expectancy of release; Moore and Byron, children, flowers, birds, and +the Muses cheered Leigh Hunt's year of durance: but in this bleak +fortress, innocent and magnanimous men beheld the seasons come and go, +night succeed day, and year follow year, with no cognizance of kindred +or the world's doings,--no works of bard or sage,--no element of +life,--but a grim, cold, deadly routine within stone walls,--all tender +sympathies, the very breath of the soul, denied,--all influx of +knowledge, the food of the mind, prohibited, experience a blank, +existence a void! + +Had we need of evidence that conscience is a normal attribute of +humanity, that the soul is endowed with relations to the Infinite, we +should find it in the self-preservation realized under such +circumstances as these. Only conscious rectitude could arm humanity +against the sense of degradation and deprivation thus surrounding and +pressing upon it for years,--only the belief in a Power above and +beyond human will and perversity,--only, in a word, the recuperative +force of moral individuality and aspiration, could keep intact and +uninvaded the integrity of conscious being. Of course, the method +thereof depends on character; a cheerful heart In one, a buoyant +imagination in another, and the sweet self-oblivion which Faith imparts +in a third, sentiment here and will there, work the same miracle. +Foresti belonged to that class of Italians who combine perspicacity and +force of reasoning with a frank, affectionate, and trustful +disposition,--types of the manly intellect, the childlike heart; +incarceration, while it failed to enfeeble the former, by seclusion +from life's game and the world's encroachments from early youth to +middle age, perhaps confirmed the latter into the candid and loving +nature which endeared him to so many friends in Europe and America. +Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress; +and Isaac Taylor has observed, that the devout heart can find in a +single blade of grass the evidence of a Divine Creator. We have all +read of Bruce testing his fate, when a captive, by the gyrations of a +spider, of Baron Trenck finding solace in a dungeon in the +companionship of a mouse, and the imaginative prisoner of Fenestrelle +absorbed in vigilant and even affectionate observation of a little +plant,--its germination, slow approach to maturity, and consummate +flowering. But there were alleviating circumstances in the situation of +these captives,--a definite hope of release or a certainty of +life-bondage, either of which alternatives is more favorable to +tranquillity of soul than absolute suspense; they enjoyed tidings from +without or indulgences within. At Spielberg, the _sistema diabolico_, +as it has been justly called, especially at the epoch of Foresti's +incarceration, retained the galling chain on the limbs, cut off the +supply of moral and intellectual vitality, refused appropriate +occupation, baffled hope, eclipsed knowledge, and kept up a vile +inquisitorial process to goad the crushed heart, sap the heroic will, +and stupefy or alienate the mental faculties; dawn ushered in the +twilight of a mausoleum, noon fell dimly on paralyzed manhood, night +canopied aggravating dreams. + + "To such sad pitch their gathering griefs were wrought, + Life seemed not life, save when convulsed by thought." + +Casual evasions of this fiendish torture, through ingenuity or the +compassion of officials, are among the few animated episodes of their +dreary experiences recorded by the victims. At length the Emperor died +(an event they had surmised from a change in the form of the public +prayer); his son Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, and signalized his +accession by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning +them to perpetual exile in America. Those long years of such captivity +did not even gain them the privilege of again enjoying civil rights, +their country, and kindred! Protests were vain, appeals disregarded. In +November, 1835, their chains were removed; the same blacksmith who had +welded Foresti's shackles fourteen years before, now severed them, and +wept with joy as they fell! One night they were all summoned to the +director's room, and he, too, announced their enfranchisement with +congratulations; the prison garb was exchanged for citizen's dress, and +they were taken in carriages to the police prison of Brunn, where +comfortable apartments, good food, free intercourse, books, and +newspapers awaited them. Imagine the vividness of their sensations, the +hilarity of feeling inspired by the first sight of scenes and objects +associated with their youth! It was like a new birth. To grasp the +hands and hear the voices of their fellow-creatures,--to behold +streets, _caffès_, and shops, the tokens of industry, the insignia of +life,--to taste viands unknown for years,--to see the horizon,--to feel +the breath of heaven,--to trace once more those charts of living +history, the journals, resume acquaintance with favorite authors, +converse together, move unchained, think aloud,--this sudden and entire +transition awakened a sensation of almost infantile joy. But privation +had too long been their lot to be instantly ignored with impunity; a +reaction followed; the weakness incident to long confinement, +prostrated faculties, and inadequate nourishment brought on illness; +they could not, at once, bear the excitement, digest the food, or +sustain the keen pleasure; and a rigorous climate quelled their +sensitive vitality. But universal sympathy now environed them; their +very custodian ministered to their wants; and the Emperor ordered them +to be removed to the Castle of Gradisca, on the confines of Italy, +where a milder atmosphere prevailed. + +How much had occurred while these years of arbitrarily imposed +monasticism crept heavily by, to excite the speculative thought and +kindle the sympathies of educated men! To what new aspects of +civilization and fresh phases of contemporaneous history their +liberation suddenly introduced them! + +Their journey from Brunn to Gradisca was a perfect contrast to that +melancholy transit, so many years before, from Venice to Spielberg. It +was near the beginning of April, 1836, when they started in carriages +with a commissary and a few guards; in every town and village through +which they passed, crowds surrounded them with gratulations; the inns +where they stopped were besieged with well-wishers; Nature, too, seemed +to hail their release with vernal beauty; and so they journeyed on, to +be received as honored guests rather than prisoners-of-state at the +Castle of Gradisca. Their sojourn here was as recreative as was +consistent with that degree of supervision necessary to prevent escape; +they were at liberty to walk about, to make and receive visits, to +bathe in the sea, to attend the fairs, and examine the local +celebrities of Friuli; a single commissary often accompanied their +excursions, and personally the most delicate consideration was paid +them. Here, too, the most affecting reunions of long-severed kindred +and friends took place; their relatives hastened hither to embrace +them. + +Foresti used to relate many anecdotes illustrative of the sympathy and +respect felt and manifested by strangers during this interlude between +prison and exile. One deserves record here. Two travelling-carriages +arrived at a village-inn, one evening, where they were resting. While +the gentlemen were inspecting the apartments, a lady of distinguished +appearance inquired of a bystander, who the strangers were towards whom +so many friendly glances were directed; soon after, the landlord bore +to them her request for an interview; they rose at her entrance; she +attempted to speak, but her voice faltered, and, with tears, she turned +to her little boys and said, "Kneel, my darlings, to these brave +Italian patriots; they are illustrious victims in the great cause of +Liberty; and you, gentlemen, bless my sons; your blessing will be +fruitful to them of good; it will make them love their country and die +for it, if need be. I am a Pole. My country is oppressed like yours. I +have two brothers compromised in the last insurrection in Cracow. May +God preserve them!"--and weeping bitterly, she retired. They afterwards +learned that her husband was Counsellor of State to the King of +Prussia. + +On the 1st of August, 1836, they were transported by night to Trieste, +and, by a singular coincidence, placed on board the same brig-of-war +whence Kozsta was subsequently taken at Smyrna,--an incident memorable +in our subsequent diplomacy, as having occasioned the celebrated letter +of Webster to the Austrian envoy. Provided by that government with warm +clothing, the money they had taken to Spielberg was restored to them, +not, however, in the original gold coin, but in the Vienna bills for +which it had been then exchanged by the police, diminished nearly +two-thirds in value during the interval of fourteen years. The vessel +was uncomfortably crowded; the voyage occupied three months; but they +fared alike with the officers. Towards the close of October, they +beheld the noble bay of New York; and so intense was the satisfaction +with which they first trod American soil, the goal and terminus of such +protracted suffering, that, ever after, the Battery, where they landed, +was hallowed to their memories as consecrated ground. + +Within a few days of their arrival, a banquet was given them by their +compatriots; and from that hour, Foresti became the oracle and the +consoler, the teacher, almoner, and chief of his fellow-exiles. +Subsequent events drove many other Italian patriots to our shores; his +purse and his counsel were ever ready for the impoverished and +inexperienced, who regarded him with filial admiration; while to the +more educated he was the intimate companion or sympathetic friend. +Through his personal influence, employment was constantly obtained and +kindness enlisted for his countrymen. When the great political crisis +of 1848 occurred, Foresti hastened to Europe; Pius IX., at the urgent +prayer of his sisters and cousins, offered him free entrance to his +dominions, a favor his predecessor might have granted but for the +strong opposition of Cardinal Lambruschini. He took counsel with the +revolutionary leaders at Paris, and passed through Italy to the +frontiers of the Papal States, whence the fatal reaction, supported by +French bayonets, at Rome, sent him back once more to the land of his +adoption, whither he was soon followed by many of the heroic and +unfortunate men who redeemed the martial fame, without being able to +retrieve the fate of Italy. + +Of the many Italian exiles who have found an asylum in the United +States, Foresti was preeminently the representative man. The period of +his arrival, the circumstances of his life, and the traits of his +character united thus to distinguish him even among the best educated +and most unfortunate of the political refugees from Southern Europe. At +the time of his arrest, the vilest modern despotism of the Continent +had reached its acme; and the patriotic movements it then sought to +annihilate by a cruelty unparalleled since the Middle Ages were +justified even by conservative reformers, on account of their stringent +moral necessity, the intelligent scope of their advocates, and the high +and cultivated spirit of their illustrious martyrs. As scholars, +citizens, gentlemen, and, in more than one instance, authors of real +genius, these Liberals stand alone, and are not to be confounded with +the perverse Radicals of a subsequent epoch. Moreover, their +aspirations were, as we have seen, more reactionary than experimental; +for the rights for which they conspired had been in a great measure +enjoyed under Europe's modern conqueror, then impotent in action, but +most efficient in remembrance, although isolated on his prison-rock. +Foresti's companion in misfortune has made their mutual wrongs +"familiar as household words"; and to be associated in captivity with +the author of "Le Mie Prigioni" was of itself a passport to the +sympathy of the civilized world. + +The interest his previous history inspired was deepened and confirmed +by intimate acquaintance with Foresti. He lived for many years +domesticated in the family of a fellow-countryman; and an _habitué_ of +his apartments was transported in a moment from bustling, prosperous, +and republican New York, to the land of song, of martyrdom, and of +antiquity. The soulful ardor and childlike ingenuousness, the keen +perceptions and earnest will of Foresti suggested an obsolete, or at +least rare type of character; he belonged essentially to the olden days +of loyalty and lore which gave birth to self-reliance on the one hand, +and disinterested feeling on the other. His manner and conversation +had, as it were, an historical as well as national flavor, by virtue +whereof we were borne away from the prosaic and practical spirit of the +age, to the days of chivalry, feudal zeal, and genuine humanity,--when +faith was an inspiration, friendship a moral fact, and manhood, in its +virile simplicity, greater than wealth. Nor were the generous exile's +humble surroundings alien to these impressions: the effigies of his +country's poets were the favorite ornaments of his sitting-room; a +volume of Foscolo on the table, or a fresh letter from Silvio Pellico +under his snuffbox,--the grim, old-fashioned type of his _Sentenza_, as +it was originally distributed through Austrian Italy, and hanging in +its black frame, a memorial of startling import to a freeman's eyes,--a +landscape representing the Castle of Ferrara, the far-away scene of his +youthful life,--and a primitive engraving from one of the old masters +of that city, dedicated to him in one of those euphonious inscriptions +peculiar to Italian artists,--these and such as these tokens of his +experience and tastes gave interesting significance to his +companionship. Nor were indications of present consideration and +usefulness wanting: flowers or dainty needle-work, the offerings of his +fair pupils, applications to him, as President of the Italian +Benevolent Society, diplomas from American colleges, and invitations to +the country, to dinner, and to domestic _fêtes_, from the numerous +friends he had won in the free land of his adoption, gave evidence of +social enjoyment and genial activity. + +Whoever enjoyed Foresti's hospitality, in the conversations as well as +the viands has found an epitome and reflex of his most genial hours in +Italy: brave soldiers, like Avezzana and Garibaldi, scholars, artists, +every form of the national character, were gratefully exhibited in +reunions, of which he was the presiding genius, and to which his +American friends were admitted with fraternal cordiality. It was then +that his clear and strong mind often displayed itself with the +spontaneity of his race. + +Chastened, though unsubdued by misfortune, Foresti cherished a truly +Christian spirit of forgiveness, and the liberality which large +experience invariably fosters in enlightened minds: it was the system, +rather than its agents, which he ever held up to condemnation in +discussing the Austrian policy. Familiarity with American and English +politics and the modern history of Europe induced a wise modification +of his opinions on government; a fervent republican in sentiment, he +yet recognized the radical benefits of a constitutional monarchy, like +those of England and Sardinia. He was a natural orator, and, on several +occasions, memorably addressed the public with rare eloquence and power +on subjects of national or beneficent interest. During his long sojourn +in New York, he was not merely the acknowledged representative of +Italy, but her eloquent advocate, her wise expositor, her illustrious +son, whose literature he memorably unfolded, whose history he +sagaciously analyzed, whose misfortunes he tenderly portrayed, whose +glory he proudly vindicated, and whose nationality he incessantly +affirmed. Well did one of the leading Turin journals indicate the +prevalent graces of his character:--"A pure and just man, he knew +always how to appreciate those who dissented from him about forms of +government, because he could discover in them the true love of +nationality, to which Italy aspires. Wise without pretension, +beneficent without ostentation, chaste in deed and word, exquisitely +tender-hearted, he tempered the harsh lessons of experience by the +unchanged serenity of his bearing." + +Foresti was the most charming of correspondents; in a chirography +almost feminine, he wrote, in the old cavalier style, such quaintly +pleasant epistles, with graceful turns of expression, beautiful +epithets, and appropriate adjectives, that, to one fond of the writer +and cognizant of his native tongue, the most casual note was a prize to +be treasured. "Truly," remarks one of his friends, "he was +_squisitamente affetuoso di cuore_," and now the sweetest proof thereof +is to be found in his correspondence. In his two visits to Italy, he +used to walk daily to the shores, when within reach of the +Mediterranean, and salute, with tears, the _bandiera stellata_,--as he +called our national banner, under which his exile had been protected +and honored. + +The pleasure expressed at Foresti's consular appointment, as well as +the high order of applicants in his behalf, afforded the best evidence +of the friendship and interest he had awakened and maintained in a +foreign land. On the shores of the Hudson, by the cliffs of Newport, +under the elms of New Haven, as well as in the metropolis where he had +so long dwelt, faithful hearts rejoiced at the announcement. "Few are +aware," said Hillhouse, in his Eulogy on Lafayette, "how hallowed and +how deep are their feelings who worship Liberty as a mistress they may +never possess." And it was the constancy and intelligence of his +devotion to her which won for him such peculiar regard; for he did not +belong to the sentimental and spasmodic, but to the resolute and +philosophic devotees at her shrine; his native taste was more wedded to +the wise satire of Casti and the acute generalities of Vico than +satisfied with the soft beauties of Petrarch or the luxurious graces of +Boccaccio; the stoical Alfieri, more than the epicurean Metastasio, +breathed music to his soul. "You belong," wrote Pellico to him, "you +belong to those who to a generous disposition unite an intellect to see +things wisely; never can I forget the gifts of genius and of courage +developed in you in the days of misfortune." It was an auspicious sign +of the times when the land which protected such an exile was +represented by him in that of his nativity. + +Brief, however, was Foresti's enjoyment of the distinction and resource +thus secured for him through the considerate efforts of his American +friends. "I write to you," says his last letter to one of them, dated +immediately after the reception of his commission, "with my left hand +pressed on a heart overflowing with gratitude for the means thus +honorably afforded to solace the last years of the old prisoner of +Spielberg." Three months after, that noble heart ceased to beat; an +effusion on the chest, which ultimately defied the best medical skill +and the most assiduous friendly devotion, ended fatally on the morning +of the 14th of September, 1858, "By his death," said one of his +eulogists, "is broken one of the links that bind the New World to the +Old"; and as if to evidence the sympathy of mourners in two hemispheres +and attest the varied associations which embalm the example and memory +of Foresti, his funeral was typical of his life, and so illustrative of +his character, that we can imagine no peculiar honor wanting, grateful +to the patriot, the liberal, the martyr, or the man. In that ancient +city of Genoa, of old renowned for commercial glory and maritime valor, +the birthplace of the discoverer of the land of his adoption, now the +refuge of more who had sacrificed all for their country, and the state +where that country's best prospects are centred and her highest +aspirations cherished, in the home of the moral, civic, and social +vanguard of modern Italy, he found a grave. The American flag was his +pall; American mariners carried his bier; before it was borne the +Cross. His remains were followed from the Piazza della Maddelena, +through the principal streets and the Porta Romana to the Campo Santo, +by the officers and crew of the United States frigate "Wabash," the +captains of the American merchantmen in port, the Society of +Operatives, the industrial representative of a progressive state, of +which he was an honorary member, a vast multitude of emigrants from the +less favored Italian provinces, and a numerous body of literary, +official, and private gentlemen who enjoyed his personal friendship. + + + * * * * * + + +LARVAE. + + +My little maiden of four years old + (No myth, but a genuine child is she, +With her bronze-brown eyes, and her curls of gold) + Came, quite in disgust, one day, to me. + +Rubbing her shoulder with rosy palm,-- + As the loathsome touch seemed yet to thrill her, +She cried,--"Oh, mother, I found on my arm + A horrible, crawling caterpillar!" + +And with mischievous smile she could scarcely smother, + Yet a glance, in its daring, half-awed and shy, +She added,--"While they were about it, mother, + I wish they'd just finished the butterfly!" + +They were words to the thought of the soul that turns + From the coarser form of a partial growth, +Reproaching the Infinite Patience that yearns + With an unknown glory to crown them both. + +Ah, look thou largely, with lenient eyes, + On whatso beside thee may creep and cling, +For the possible beauty that underlies + The passing phase of the meanest thing! + +What if God's great angels, whose waiting love + Beholdeth our pitiful life below, +From the holy height of their heaven above, + Couldn't bear with the worm till the wings should grow? + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING.[*] + +[Footnote *: Copyright secured by the Author in Great Britain and +France.] + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE QUILTING. + +By six o'clock in the morning, Miss Prissy came out of the best room to +the breakfast-table, with the air of a general who has arranged a +campaign,--her face glowing with satisfaction. All sat down together to +their morning meal. The outside door was open into the green, turfy +yard, and the apple-tree, now nursing stores of fine yellow jeannetons, +looked in at the window. Every once in a while, as a breeze shook the +leaves, a fully ripe apple might be heard falling to the ground, at +which Miss Prissy would bustle up from the table and rush to secure the +treasure. + +As the meal waned to its close, the rattling of wheels was heard at the +gate, and Candace was discerned, seated aloft in the one-horse wagon, +with her usual complement of baskets and bags. + +"Well, now, dear me! if there isn't Candace!" said Miss Prissy; "I do +believe Miss Marvyn has sent her with something for the quilting!" and +out she flew as nimble as a humming-bird, while those in the house +heard various exclamations of admiration, as Candace, with stately +dignity, disinterred from the wagon one basket after another, and +exhibited to Miss Prissy's enraptured eyes sly peeps under the white +napkins with which they were covered. And then, hanging a large basket +on either arm, she rolled majestically towards the house, like a +heavy-laden Indiaman, coming in after a fast voyage. + +"Good-mornin', Miss Scudder! good-mornin', Doctor!" she said, dropping +her curtsy on the door-step; "good-mornin', Miss Mary! Ye see our folks +was stirrin' pootty 'arly dis mornin', an' Miss Marvyn sent me down wid +two or tree little tings." + +Setting down her baskets on the floor, and seating herself between +them, she proceeded to develop their contents with ill-concealed +triumph. One basket was devoted to cakes of every species, from the +great Mont-Blanc loaf-cake, with its snowy glaciers of frosting, to the +twisted cruller and puffy doughnut. In the other basket lay pots of +golden butter curiously stamped, reposing on a bed of fresh, green +leaves,--while currants, red and white, and delicious cherries and +raspberries, gave a final finish to the picture. From a basket which +Miss Prissy brought in from the rear appeared cold fowl and tongue +delicately prepared, and shaded with feathers of parsley. Candace, +whose rollicking delight in the good things of this life was +conspicuous in every emotion, might have furnished to a painter, as she +sat in her brilliant turban, an idea for an African Genius of Plenty. + +"Why, really, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder, "you are overwhelming us!" + +"Ho! ho! ho!" said Candace, "I's tellin' Miss Marvyn folks don't git +married but once in der lives, (gin'ally speakin', dat is,) an' den dey +oughter hab plenty to do it wid." + +"Well, I must say," said Miss Prissy, taking out the loaf-cake with +busy assiduity,--"I must say, Candace, this does beat all!" + +"I should rader tink it oughter," said Candace, bridling herself with +proud consciousness; "ef it don't, 'ta'n't 'cause ole Candace ha'n't +put enough into it. I tell ye, I didn't do nothin' all day yisterday +but jes' make dat ar cake. Cato, when he got up, he begun to talk +someh'n' 'bout his shirt-buttons, an' I jes' shet him right up. Says I, +'Cato, when I's r'ally got cake to make for a great 'casion, I wants my +mind _jest_ as quiet an' _jest_ as serene as ef I was a-goin' to de +sacrament. I don't want no 'arthly cares on't. Now,' says I, 'Cato, de +ole Doctor's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's his quiltin'-cake,--an' +Miss Mary, she's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's _her_ +quiltin'-cake. An' dar'll be eberybody to dat ar quiltin'; an' ef de +cake a'n't right, why, 'twould be puttin' a candle under a bushel. An' +so,' says I, 'Cato, your buttons mus' wait' An' Cato, he sees de +'priety ob it, 'cause, dough he can't make cake like me, he's a 'mazin' +good judge on't, an' is dre'ful tickled when I slips out a little loaf +for his supper." + +"How is Mrs. Marvyn?" said Mrs. Scudder. + +"Kinder thin and shimmery; but she's about,--habin' her eyes eberywar, +'n' lookin' into eberyting. She jes' touches tings wid de tips ob her +fingers an' dey seem to go like. She'll be down to de quiltin' dis +arternoon. But she tole me to take de tings an' come down an' spen' de +day here; for Miss Marvyn an' I both knows how many steps mus' be taken +sech times, an' we agreed you oughter favor yourselves all you could." + +"Well, now," said Miss Prissy, lifting up her hands, "if that a'n't +what 'tis to have friends! Why, that was one of the things I was +thinking of, as I lay awake last night; because, you know, at times +like these, people run their feet off before the time begins, and then +they are all limpsey and lop-sided when the time comes. Now, I say, +Candace, all Miss Scudder and Mary have to do is to give everything up +to us, and we'll put it through straight." + +"Dat's what we will!" said Candace. "Jes' show me what's to be done, +an' I'll do it." + +Candace and Miss Prissy soon disappeared together into the pantry with +the baskets, whose contents they began busily to arrange. Candace shut +the door, that no sound might escape, and began a confidential +outpouring to Miss Prissy. + +"Ye see," she said, "I's _feelin's_ all de while for Miss Marvyn; +'cause, ye see, she was expectin', ef eber Mary was married,--well--dat +'twould be to somebody else, ye know." + +Miss Prissy responded with a sympathetic groan. + +"Well," said Candace, "ef't had been anybody but de Doctor, _I_ +wouldn't 'a' been resigned. But arter all he's done for my color, dar +a'n't nothin' I could find it in my heart to grudge him. But den I was +tellin' Cato t'oder day, says I, 'Cato, I dunno 'bout de rest o' de +world, but I ha'n't neber felt it in my bones dat Mass'r James is +r'ally dead, for sartin.' Now I feels tings _gin'ally_, but _some_ +tings I feels _in my bones_, an' dem allers comes true. An' dat ar's a +feelin' I ha'n't had 'bout Mass'r Jim yit, an' dat ar's what I'm +waitin' for 'fore I clar make up my mind. Though I know, 'cordin' to +all white folks' way o' tinkin', dar a'n't no hope, 'cause Squire +Marvyn he had dat ar Jeduth Pettibone up to his house, a-questionin' on +him, off an' on, nigh about tree hours. An' r'ally I didn't see no hope +no way, 'xcept jes' dis yer, as I was tellin' Cato,--_I can't feel it +in my bones_." + +Candace was not versed enough in the wisdom of the world to know that +she belonged to a large and respectable school of philosophers in this +particular mode of testing evidence, which, after all, the reader will +perceive has its conveniences. + +"Anoder ting," said Candace; "as much as a dozen times, dis yer last +year, when I's been a-scourin' knives, a fork has fell an' stuck +straight up in de floor; an' de las' time I pinted it out to Miss +Marvyn, an' she on'y jes' said, 'Why, what o' dat, Candace?'" + +"Well," said Miss Prissy, "I don't believe in _signs_, but then strange +things do happen. Now about dogs howling under windows,--why, I don't +believe in it a bit, but I never knew it fail that there was a death in +the house after." + +"Ah, I tell ye what," said Candace, looking mysterious, "dogs knows a +heap more'n dey likes to tell!" + +"Jes' so," said Miss Prissy. "Now I remember, one night, when. I was +watching with Miss Colonel Andrews, after Marthy Ann was born, that we +heard the _mournfulest_ howling that ever you did hear. It seemed to +come from right under the front stoop; and Miss Andrews she just +dropped the spoon in her gruel, and says she, 'Miss Prissy, do, for +pity's sake, just go down and see what that noise is.' And I went down +and lifted up one of the loose boards of the stoop, and what should I +see there but their Newfoundland pup?--there that creature had dug a +grave, and was a-sitting by it, crying!" + +Candace drew near to Miss Prissy, dark with expressive interest, as her +voice, in this awful narration, sank to a whisper. + +"Well," said Candace, after Miss Prissy had made something of a pause. + +"Well, I told Miss Andrews I didn't think there was anything in it," +said Miss Prissy; "but," she added, impressively, "she lost a very dear +brother, six months after, and I laid him out with my own hands,--yes, +laid him out in white flannel." + +"Some folks say," said Candace, "dat dreamin' 'bout white horses is a +sartin sign. Jinny Styles is bery strong 'bout dat. Now she come down +one mornin' cryin', 'cause she'd been dreamin' 'bout white horses, an' +she was sure she should hear some friend was dead. An' sure enough, a +man come in dat bery day an' tole her her son was drownded out in de +harbor. An' Jinny said, 'Dar! she was sure dat sign neber would fail.' +But den, ye see, dat night he come home. Jinny wa'n't r'ally +disappinted, but she allers insisted he was _as good as drownded_, any +way, 'cause he sunk tree times." + +"Well, I tell you," said Miss Prissy, "there are a great many more +things in this world than folks know about." + +"So dey are," said Candace. "Now, I ha'n't neber opened my mind to +nobody; but dar's a dream I's had, tree mornin's runnin', lately. I +dreamed I see Jim Marvyn a-sinkin' in de water, an' stretchin' up his +hands. An' den I dreamed I see de Lord Jesus come a-walkin' on de +water, an' take hold ob his hand, an' says he, 'O thou of little faith, +wherefore didst thou doubt?' An' den he lifted him right out. An' I +ha'n't said nothin' to nobody, 'cause, you know, de Doctor, he says +people mus'n't mind nothin' 'bout der dreams, 'cause dreams belongs to +de ole 'spensation." + +"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I am sure I don't know what to +think. What time in the morning was it that you dreamed it?" + +"Why," said Candace, "it was jest arter bird-peep. I kinder allers +wakes myself den, an' turns ober, an' what comes arter dat is apt to +run clar." + +"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I don't know what to think. You +see, it may have reference to the state of his soul." + +"I know dat," said Candace; "but as nigh as I could judge in my dream," +she added, sinking her voice and looking mysterious, "as nigh as I can +judge, _dat boy's soul was in his body!_" + +"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Prissy, looking astonished at the +confidence with which Candace expressed her opinion. + +"Well, ye see," said Candace, rather mysteriously, "de Doctor, he don't +like to hab us talk much 'bout dese yer tings, 'cause he tinks it's +kind o' heathenish. But den, folks as is used to seein' sech tings +knows de look ob a sperit _out_ o' de body from de look ob a sperit +_in_ de body, jest as easy as you can tell Mary from de Doctor." + +At this moment Mrs. Scudder opened the pantry-door and put an end to +this mysterious conversation, which had already so affected Miss +Prissy, that, in the eagerness of her interest, she had rubbed up her +cap border and ribbon into rather an elfin and goblin style, as if they +had been ruffled up by a breeze from the land of spirits; and she flew +around for a few moments in a state of great nervous agitation, +upsetting dishes, knocking down plates, and huddling up contrary +suggestions as to what ought to be done first, in such impossible +relations that Mrs. Katy Scudder stood in dignified surprise at this +strange freak of conduct in the wise woman of the parish. + +A dim consciousness of something not quite canny in herself seemed to +strike her, for she made a vigorous effort to appear composed; and +facing Mrs. Scudder, with an air of dignified suavity, inquired if it +would not be best to put Jim Marvyn in the oven now, while Candace was +getting the pies ready,--meaning, of course, a large turkey, which was +to be the first in an indefinite series to be baked that morning; and +discovering, by Mrs. Scudder's dazed expression and a vigorous pinch +from Candace, that somehow she had not improved matters, she rubbed her +spectacles into a diagonal position across her eyes, and stood glaring, +half through, half over them, with a helpless expression, which in a +less judicious person might have suggested the idea of a state of +slight intoxication. + +But the exigencies of an immediate temporal dispensation put an end to +Miss Prissy's unwonted vagaries, and she was soon to be seen flying +round like a meteor, dusting, shaking curtains, counting napkins, +wiping and sorting china, all with such rapidity as to give rise to the +notion that she actually existed in forty places at once. + +Candace, whom the limits of her corporeal frame restricted to an +altogether different style of locomotion, often rolled the whites of +her eyes after her and gave vent to her views of her proceedings in +sententious expressions. + +"Do you know why _dat ar_ neber was married?" she said to Mary, as she +stood looking after her. Miss Prissy had made one of those rapid +transits through the apartment. + +"No," answered Mary, innocently. "Why wasn't she?" + +"'Cause neber was a man could run fast enough to cotch her," said +Candace; and then her portly person shook with the impulse of her own +wit. + +By two o'clock a goodly company began to assemble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel +arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy +Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye, and a +most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad, +expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the +cabbage-garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced +our tea-party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some +fresh butter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new +Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon +Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and +tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned. + +The quilt-pattern was gloriously drawn in oak-leaves, done in indigo; +and soon all the company, young and old, were passing busy fingers over +it; and conversation went on briskly. + +Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with +hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall +china vases on the mantel-pieces, and, departing from the usual rule of +an equal mixture of roses and asparagus-bushes, had constructed two +quaint and graceful bouquets, where garden-flowers were mingled with +drooping grasses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful +combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it. + +"It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw grass put into a +flower-pot," said Miss Prissy; "but I must say it looks as handsome as +a picture. Mary, I must say," she added, in an aside, "I think that +Madame de Frongenac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I +ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a +minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of grass, or +leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come +just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would +understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a +dress fitted here, to let me try it." + +At the quilting, Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won +the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her +needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among +the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as +being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging Papistical +opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their +minister's bed-quilt; but the younger part of the company were quite +captivated by her foreign air, and the pretty manner in which she +lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her +mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent +herself,--a declaration which arose less from native depravity than +from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young +people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of +course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with +the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a +forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the +parish, was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company. + +Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by +declaring, that, for her part, she never could see into it, how any +girl could marry a minister,--that she should as soon think of setting +up housekeeping in a meeting-house. + +"Oh, Cerinthy Ann!" exclaimed her mother, "how can you go on so?" + +"It's a fact," said the adventurous damsel; "now other men let you have +some peace,--but a minister's always round under your feet." + +"So you think, the less you see of a husband, the better?" said one of +the ladies. + +"Just my views," said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread +with her scissors; "I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four-years' +voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married, +I'm going up to have one of those fellows." + +It is to be remarked, in passing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this +very time receiving surreptitious visits from a consumptive-looking, +conscientious, young theological candidate, who came occasionally to +preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the Deacon, her +father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine +of Election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to illustrate it in a +most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the +consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison +that added vigor to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen +confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at +the demonstration. + +"You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann," said her mother; "they say that +'those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.' Girls talk +about getting married," she said, relapsing into a gentle didactic +melancholy, "without realizing its awful responsibilities." + +"Oh, as to that," said Cerinthy, "I've been practising on my pudding +now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney +with any girl." + +This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no +young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled +Indian-pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up chimney +and come down on the ground, outside, without breaking; and the +consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh. + +"Girls a'n't what they used to be in my day," sententiously remarked an +elderly lady. "I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she +could knit a long cotton stocking in a day." + +"I haven't much faith in these stories of old times,--have you, girls?" +said Cerinthy, appealing to the younger members at the frame. + +"At any rate," said Mrs. Twitchel, "our minister's wife will be a +pattern; I don't know anybody that goes beyond her either in spinning +or fine stitching." + +Mary sat as placid and disengaged as the new moon, and listened to the +chatter of old and young with the easy quietness of a young heart that +has early outlived life, and looks on everything in the world from some +gentle, restful eminence far on towards a better home. She smiled at +everybody's word, had a quick eye for everybody's wants, and was ready +with thimble, scissors, or thread, whenever any one needed them; but +once, when there was a pause in the conversation, she and Mrs. Marvyn +were both discovered to have stolen away. They were seated on the bed +in Mary's little room, with their arms around each other, communing in +low and gentle tones. + +"Mary, my dear child," said her friend, "this event is very pleasant to +me, because it places you permanently near me. I did not know but +eventually this sweet face might lead to my losing you, who are in some +respects the dearest friend I have." + +"You might be sure," said Mary, "I never would have married, except +that my mother's happiness and the happiness of so good a friend seemed +to depend on it. When we renounce self in anything, we have reason to +hope for God's blessing; and so I feel assured of a peaceful life in +the course I have taken. You will always be as a mother to me," she +added, laying her head on her friend's shoulder. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Marvyn; "and I must not let myself think a moment how +dear it might have been to have you more my own. If you feel really, +truly happy,--if you can enter on this life without any misgivings"-- + +"I can," said Mary, firmly. + +At this instant, very strangely, the string which confined a wreath of +sea-shells around her glass, having been long undermined by moths, +suddenly broke and fell down, scattering the shells upon the floor. + +Both women started, for the string of shells had been placed there by +James: and though neither was superstitious, this was one of those odd +coincidences that make hearts throb. + +"Dear boy!" said Mary, gathering the shells up tenderly; "wherever he +is, I shall never cease to love him. It makes me feel sad to see this +come down; but it is only an accident; nothing of him will ever fail +out of my heart." + +Mrs. Marvyn clasped Mary closer to her, with tears in her eyes. + +"I'll tell you what, Mary; it must have been the moths did that," said +Miss Prissy, who had been standing, unobserved, at the door for a +moment back; "moths will eat away strings just so. Last week Miss +Vernon's great family-picture fell down because the moths eat through +the cord; people ought to use twine or cotton string always. But I came +to tell you that the supper is all set, and the Doctor out of his +study, and all the people are wondering where you are." + +Mary and Mrs. Marvyn gave a hasty glance at themselves in the glass, to +be assured of their good keeping, and went into the great kitchen, +where a long table stood exhibiting all that plenitude of provision +which the immortal description of Washington Irving has saved us the +trouble of recapitulating in detail. + +The husbands, brothers, and lovers had come in, and the scene was +redolent of gayety. When Mary made her appearance, there was a moment's +pause, till she was conducted to the side of the Doctor; when, raising +his hand, he invoked a grace upon the loaded board. + +Unrestrained gayeties followed. Groups of young men and maidens chatted +together, and all the gallantries of the times were enacted. Serious +matrons commented on the cake, and told each other high and particular +secrets in the culinary art, which they drew from remote +family-archives. One might have learned in that instructive assembly +how best to keep moths out of blankets,--how to make fritters of Indian +corn undistinguishable from oysters,--how to bring up babies by +hand,--how to mend a cracked teapot,--how to take out grease from a +brocade,--how to reconcile absolute decrees with free will,--how to +make five yards of cloth answer the purpose of six,--and how to put +down the Democratic party. All were busy, earnest, and certain,--just +as a swarm of men and women, old and young, are in 1859. + +Miss Prissy was in her glory; every bow of her best cap was alive with +excitement, and she presented to the eyes of the astonished Newport +gentry an animated receipt-book. Some of the information she +communicated, indeed, was so valuable and important that she could not +trust the air with it, but whispered the most important portions in a +confidential tone. Among the crowd, Cerinthy Ann's theological admirer +was observed in deeply reflective attitude; and that high-spirited +young lady added further to his convictions of the total depravity of +the species by vexing and discomposing him in those thousand ways in +which a lively, ill-conditioned young woman will put to rout a serious, +well-disposed young man,--comforting herself with the reflection, that +by-and-by she would repent of all her sins in a lump together. + +Vain, transitory splendors! Even this evening, so glorious, so +heart-cheering, so fruitful in instruction and amusement, could not +last forever. Gradually the company broke up; the matrons mounted +soberly on horseback behind their spouses; and Cerinthy consoled her +clerical friend by giving him an opportunity to read her a lecture on +the way home, if he found the courage to do so. + +Mr. and Mrs. Marvyn and Candace wound their way soberly homeward; the +Doctor returned to his study for nightly devotions; and before long, +sleep settled down on the brown cottage. + +"I'll tell you what, Cato," said Candace, before composing herself to +sleep, "I can't feel it in my bones dat dis yer weddin's gwine to come +off yit." + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +AN ADVENTURE. + + +A day or two after, Madame de Frontignac and Mary went out to gather +shells and seaweed on the beach. It was four o'clock; and the afternoon +sun was hanging in the sultry sky of July with a hot and vaporous +stillness. The whole air was full of blue haze, that softened the +outlines of objects without hiding them. The sea lay like so much +glass; every ship and boat was double; every line and rope and spar had +its counterpart; and it seemed hard to say which was the more real, the +under or the upper world. + +Madame de Frontignac and Mary had brought a little basket with them, +which they were filling with shells and sea-mosses. The former was in +high spirits. She ran, and shouted, and exclaimed, and wondered at each +new marvel thrown out upon the shore, with the _abandon_ of a little +child. Mary could not but wonder whether this indeed were she whose +strong words had pierced and wrung her sympathies the other night, and +whether a deep life-wound could lie bleeding under those brilliant eyes +and that infantine exuberance of gayety; yet, surely, all that which +seemed so strong, so true, so real could not be gone so soon,--and it +could not be so soon consoled. Mary wondered at her, as the Anglo-Saxon +constitution, with its strong, firm intensity, its singleness of +nature, wonders at the mobile, many-sided existence of warmer races, +whose versatility of emotion on the surface is not incompatible with +the most intense persistency lower down. + +Mary's was one of those indulgent and tolerant natures which seem to +form the most favorable base for the play of other minds, rather than +to be itself salient,--and something about her tender calmness always +seemed to provoke the spirit of frolic in her friend. She would laugh +at her, kiss her, gambol round her, dress her hair with fantastic +coiffures, and call her all sorts of fanciful and poetic names in +French or English,--while Mary surveyed her with a pleased and innocent +surprise, as a revelation of character altogether new and different +from anything to which she had been hitherto accustomed. She was to her +a living pantomime, and brought into her unembellished life the charms +of opera and theatre and romance. + +After wearying themselves with their researches, they climbed round a +point of rock that stretched some way out into the sea, and attained to +a little kind of grotto, where the high cliffs shut out the rays of the +sun. They sat down to rest upon the rocks. A fresh breeze of declining +day was springing up, and bringing the rising tide landward,--each +several line of waves with its white crests coming up and breaking +gracefully on the hard, sparkling sand-beach at their feet. + +Mary's eyes fixed themselves, as they were apt to do, in a mournful +reverie, on the infinite expanse of waters, which was now broken and +chopped into a thousand incoming waves by the fresh afternoon breeze. +Madame de Frontignac noticed the expression, and began to play with her +as if she had been a child. She pulled the comb from her hair, and let +down its long silky waves upon her shoulders. + +"Now," said she, "let us make a Miranda of thee. This is our cave. I +will be Prince Ferdinand. Burr told me all about that,--he reads +beautifully, and explained it all to me. What a lovely story that +is!--you must be so happy, who know how to read Shakspeare without +learning! _Tenez!_ I will put this shell on your forehead,--it has a +hole here, and I will pass this gold chain through,--now! What a pity +this seaweed will not be pretty out of water! it has no effect; but +there is some green that will do;--let me fasten it so. Now, fair +Miranda, look at thyself!" + +Where is the girl so angelic as not to feel a slight curiosity to know +how she shall look in a new and strange costume? Mary bent over the +rock, where a little pool of water lay in a brown hollow above the +fluctuations of the tide, dark and still, like a mirror,--and saw a +fair face, with a white shell above the forehead and drooping wreaths +of green seaweed in the silken hair; and a faint blush and smile rose +on the cheek, giving the last finish to the picture. + +"How do you find yourself?" said Madame. "Confess now that I have a +true talent in coiffure. Now I will be Ferdinand." + +She turned quickly, and her eye was caught by something that Mary did +not see; she only saw the smile fade suddenly from Madame de +Frontignac's cheek, and her lips grow deadly white, while her heart +beat so that Mary could discern its flutterings under her black silk +bodice. + +"Will the sea-nymphs punish the rash presumption of a mortal who +intrudes?" said Colonel Burr, stepping before them with a grace as +invincible and assured as if he had never had any past history with +either. + +Mary started with a guilty blush, like a child detected in an unseemly +frolic, and put her hand to her head to take off the unwonted +adornments. + +"Let me protest, in the name of the Graces," said Burr, who by that +time stood with easy calmness at her side; and as he spoke, he stayed +her hand with that gentle air of authority which made it the natural +impulse of most people to obey him. "It would be treason against the +picturesque," he added, "to spoil that toilette, so charmingly uniting +the wearer to the scene." + +Mary was taken by surprise, and discomposed as every one is who finds +himself masquerading in attire foreign to his usual habits and +character; and therefore, when she would persist in taking it to +pieces, Burr found sufficient to alleviate the embarrassment of Madame +de Frontignac's utter silence in a playful run of protestations and +compliments. + +"I think, Mary," said Madame de Frontignac, "that we had better be +returning to the house." + +This was said in the haughtiest and coolest tone imaginable, looking at +the place where Burr stood, as if there were nothing there but empty +air. Mary rose to go; Madame de Frontignac offered her arm. + +"Permit me to remark, ladies," said Burr, with the quiet suavity which +never forsook him, "that your very agreeable occupations have caused +time to pass more rapidly than you are aware. I think you will find +that the tide has risen so as to intercept the path by which you came +here. You will hardly be able to get around the point of rocks without +some assistance." + +Mary looked a few paces ahead, and saw, a little before them, a fresh +afternoon breeze driving the rising tide high on to the side of the +rocks, at whose foot their course had lain. The nook in which they had +been sporting formed part of a shelving ledge which inclined over their +heads, and which it was just barely possible could be climbed by a +strong and agile person, but which would be wholly impracticable to a +frail, unaided woman. + +"There is no time to be lost," said Burr, coolly, measuring the +possibilities with that keen eye that was never discomposed by any +exigency. "I am at your service, ladies; I can either carry you in my +arms around this point, or assist you up these rocks." + +He paused and waited for their answer. + +Madame de Frontignac stood pale, cold, and silent, hearing only the +wild beating of her heart. + +"I think," said Mary, "that we should try the rocks." + +"Very well," said Burr; and placing his gloved hand on a fragment of +rock somewhat above their heads, he swung himself up to it with an easy +agility; from this he stretched himself down as far as possible towards +them, and, extending his hand, directed Mary, who stood foremost, to +set her foot on a slight projection, and give him both her hands; she +did so, and he seemed to draw her up as easily as if she had been a +feather. He placed her by him on a shelf of rock, and turned again to +Madame de Frontignac; she folded her arms and turned resolutely away +towards the sea. + +Just at that moment a coming wave broke at her feet. + +"There is no time to be lost," said Burr; "there's a tremendous surf +coming in, and the next wave may carry you out." + +"_Tant mieux_!" she responded, without turning her head. + +"Oh, Virginie! Virginie!" exclaimed Mary, kneeling and stretching her +arms over the rock; but another voice called Virginie, in a tone which +went to her heart. She turned and saw those dark eyes full of tears. + +"Oh, come!" he said, with that voice which she never could resist. + +She put her cold, trembling hands into his, and he drew her up and +placed her safely beside Mary. A few moments of difficult climbing +followed, in which his arm was thrown now around one and then around +the other, and they felt themselves carried with a force as if the +slight and graceful form were strung with steel. + +Placed in safety on the top of the bank, there was a natural gush of +grateful feeling towards their deliverer. The severest resentment, the +coolest moral disapprobation, are necessarily somewhat softened, when +the object of them has just laid one under a personal obligation. + +Burr did not seem disposed to press his advantage, and treated the +incident as the most matter-of-course affair in the world. He offered +an arm to each lady, with the air of a well-bred gentleman who offers a +necessary support; and each took it, because neither wished, under the +circumstances, to refuse. + +He walked along leisurely homeward, talking in that easy, quiet, +natural way in which he excelled, addressing no very particular remark +to either one, and at the door of the cottage took his leave, saying, +as he bowed, that he hoped neither of them would feel any inconvenience +from their exertions, and that he should do himself the pleasure to +call soon and inquire after their health. + +Madame de Frontignac made no reply; but curtsied with a stately grace, +turned and went into her little, room, whither Mary, after a few +minutes, followed her. + +She found her thrown upon the bed, her face buried in the pillow, her +breast heaving as if she were sobbing; but when, at Mary's entrance, +she raised her head, her eyes were bright and dry. + +"It is just as I told you, Mary,--that man holds me. I love him yet, in +spite of myself. It is in vain to be angry. What is the use of striking +your right hand with your left? When we _love_ one more than ourselves, +we only hurt ourselves with our anger." + +"But," said Mary, "love is founded on respect and esteem; and when that +is gone"---- + +"Why, then," said Madame, "we are very sorry,--but we love yet. Do we +stop loving ourselves when we have lost our own self-respect? No! it is +so disagreeable to see, we shut our eyes and ask to have the bandage +put on,--you know _that_, poor little heart! You can think how it would +have been with you, if you had found that _he_ was not what you +thought." + +The word struck home to Mary's consciousness,--but she sat down and +took her friend in her arms with an air self-controlled, serious, +rational. + +"I see and feel it all, dear Virginie, but I must stand firm for you. +You are in the waves, and I on the shore. If you are so weak at heart, +you must not see this man any more." + +"But he will call." + +"I will see him for you." + +"What will you tell him, my heart?--tell him that I am ill, perhaps?" + +"No; I will tell him the truth,--that you do not wish to see him." + +"That is hard;--he will wonder." + +"I think not," said Mary, resolutely; "and furthermore, I shall say to +him, that, while Madame de Frontignac is at the cottage, it will not be +agreeable for us to receive calls from him." + +"Mary, _ma chère_, you astonish me!" + +"My dear friend," said Mary, "it is the only way. This man--this cruel, +wicked, deceitful man--must not be allowed to trifle with you in this +way. I will protect you." + +And she rose up with flashing eye and glowing cheek, looking as her +father looked when he protested against the slave-trade. + +"Thou art my Saint Catharine," said Virginie, rising up, excited by +Mary's enthusiasm, "and hast the sword as well as the palm; but, dear +saint, don't think so very, very badly of him;--he has a noble nature; +he has the angel in him." + +"The greater his sin," said Mary; "he sins against light and love." + +"But I think his heart is touched,--I think he is sorry. Oh, Mary, if +you had only seen how he looked at me when he put out his hands on the +rocks!--there were tears in his eyes" + +"Well there might be!" said Mary; "I do not think he is quite a fiend; +no one could look at those cheeks, dear Virginie, and not feel sad, +that saw you a few months ago." + +"Am I so changed?" she said, rising and looking at herself in the +mirror. "Sure enough,--my neck used to be quite round;--now you can see +those two little bones, like rocks at low tide. Poor Virginie! her +summer is gone, and the leaves are falling; poor little cat!"--and +Virginie stroked her own chestnut head, as if she had been pitying +another, and began humming a little Norman air, with a refrain that +sounded like the murmur of a brook over the stones. + +The more Mary was touched by these little poetic ways, which ran just +on an even line between the gay and the pathetic, the more indignant +she grew with the man that had brought all this sorrow. She felt a +saintly vindictiveness, and a determination to place herself as an +adamantine shield between him and her friend. There is no courage and +no anger like that of a gentle woman, when once fully roused; if ever +you have occasion to meet it, you will certainly remember the hour. + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +PLAIN TALK. + + +Mary revolved the affairs of her friend in her mind, during the night. +The intensity of the mental crisis through which she had herself just +passed had developed her in many inward respects, so that she looked +upon life no longer as a timid girl, but as a strong, experienced +woman. She had thought, and suffered, and held converse with eternal +realities, until thousands of mere earthly hesitations and timidities, +that often restrain a young and untried nature, had entirely lost their +hold upon her. Besides, Mary had at heart the true Puritan seed of +heroism,--never absent from the souls of true New England women. Her +essentially Hebrew education, trained in daily converse with the words +of prophets and seers, and with the modes of thought of a people +essentially grave and heroic, predisposed her to a kind of exaltation, +which, in times of great trial, might rise to the heights of the +religious--sublime, in which the impulse of self-devotion took a form +essentially commanding. The very intensity of the repression under +which her faculties had developed seemed, as it were, to produce a +surplus of hidden strength, which came out in exigencies. Her reading, +though restricted to a few volumes, had been of the kind that vitalized +and stimulated a poetic nature, and laid up in its chambers vigorous +words and trenchant phrases, for the use of an excited feeling,--so +that eloquence came to her as a native gift. She realized, in short, in +her higher hours, the last touch with which Milton finishes his +portrait of an ideal woman:-- + + "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat + Build in her loftiest, and create an awe + About her as a guard angelic placed." + +The next, morning, Colonel Burr called at the cottage. Mary was +spinning in the garret, and Madame de Frontignac was reeling yarn, when +Mrs. Scudder brought this announcement. + +"Mother," said Mary, "I wish to see Mr. Burr alone. Madame de +Frontignac will not go down." + +Mrs. Scudder looked surprised, but asked no questions. When she was +gone down, Mary stood a moment reflecting; Madame de Frontignac looked +eager and agitated. + +"Remember and notice all he says, and just how he looks, Mary, so as to +tell me; and be sure and say that I thank him for his kindness +yesterday. We must own he appeared very well there; did he not?" + +"Certainly," said Mary; "but no man could have done less." + +"Ah! but, Mary, not every man could have done it _as_ he did. Now don't +be too hard on him, Mary;--I have said dreadful things to him; I am +afraid I have been too severe. After all, these distinguished men are +so tempted! we don't know how much they are tempted; and who can wonder +that they are a little spoiled? So, my angel, you must be merciful." + +"Merciful!" said Mary, kissing the pale cheek, and feeling the cold +little hands that trembled in hers. + +"So you will go down in your little spinning-toilette, _mimi_? I fancy +you look as Joan of Arc did, when she was keeping her sheep at Domremy. +Go, and God bless thee!" and Madame de Frontignac pushed her playfully +forward. + +Mary entered the room where Burr was seated, and wished him +good-morning, in a serious and placid manner, in which there was not +the slightest trace of embarrassment or discomposure. + +"Shall I have the pleasure of seeing your fair companion this morning?" +said Burr, after some moments of indifferent conversation. + +"No, Sir; Madame de Frontignac desires me to excuse her to you." + +"Is she ill?" said Burr, with a look of concern. + +"No, Mr. Burr, she prefers not to see you." + +Burr gave a start of well-bred surprise, and Mary added, + +"Madame de Frontignac has made me familiar with the history of your +acquaintance with her; and you will therefore understand what I mean, +Mr. Burr, when I say, that, during the time of her stay with us, we +should prefer not to receive calls from you." + +"Your language, Miss Scudder, has certainly the merit of explicitness." + +"I intend it shall have, Sir," said Mary, tranquilly; "half the misery +in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth +plainly and in a spirit of love." + +"I am gratified that you add the last clause, Miss Scudder; I might not +otherwise recognize the gentle being whom I have always regarded as the +impersonation of all that is softest in woman. I have not the honor of +understanding in the least the reason of this apparently capricious +sentence, but I bow to it in submission." + +"Mr. Burr," said Mary, walking up to him, and looking him full in the +eyes, with an energy that for the moment bore down his practised air of +easy superiority, "I wish to speak to you for a moment, as one immortal +soul should to another, without any of those false glosses and deceits +which men call ceremony and good manners. You have done a very great +injury to a lovely lady, whose weakness ought to have been sacred in +your eyes. Precisely because you are what you are,--strong, keen, +penetrating, and able to control and govern all who come near +you,--because you have the power to make yourself agreeable, +interesting, fascinating, and to win esteem and love,--just for that +reason you ought to hold yourself the guardian of every woman, and +treat her as you would wish any man to treat your own daughter. I leave +it to your conscience, whether this is the manner in which you have +treated Madame de Frontignac." + +"Upon my word, Miss Scudder," began Burr, "I cannot imagine what +representations our mutual friend may have been making. I assure you, +our intercourse has been as irreproachable as the most scrupulous could +desire." + +"Irreproachable!--scrupulous!--Mr. Burr, you know that you have taken +the very life out of her. You men can have everything,--ambition, +wealth, power; a thousand ways are open to you: women have nothing but +their heart; and when that is gone, all is gone. Mr. Burr, you remember +the rich man who had flocks and herds, but nothing would do for him but +he must have the one little ewe-lamb which was all his poor neighbor +had. Thou art the man! You have stolen all the love she had to +give,--all that she had to make a happy home; and you can never give +her anything in return, without endangering her purity and her +soul,--and you knew you could not. I know you men _think_ this is a +light matter; but it is death to us. What will this woman's life be? +one long struggle to forget; and when you have forgotten her, and are +going on gay and happy,--when you have thrown her very name away as a +faded flower, she will be praying, hoping, fearing for you; though all +men deny you, yet will not she. Yes, Mr. Burr, if ever your popularity +and prosperity should leave you and those who now flatter should +despise and curse you, she will always be interceding with her own +heart and with God for you, and making a thousand excuses where she +cannot deny; and if you die, as I fear you have lived, unreconciled to +the God of your fathers, it will be in her heart to offer up her very +soul for you, and to pray that God will impute all your sins to her, +and give you heaven. Oh, I know this, because I have felt it in my own +heart!" and Mary threw herself passionately down into a chair, and +broke into an agony of uncontrolled sobbing. + +Burr turned away, and stood looking through the window; tears were +dropping silently, unchecked by the cold, hard pride which was the evil +demon of his life. + +It is due to our human nature to believe that no man could ever have +been so passionately and enduringly loved and revered by both men and +women as he was, without a beautiful and lovable nature;--no man ever +demonstrated more forcibly the truth, that it is not a man's natural +constitution, but the _use_ he makes of it, which stamps him as good or +vile. + +The diviner part of him was weeping, and the cold, proud demon was +struggling to regain his lost ascendency. Every sob of the fair, +inspired child who had been speaking to him seemed to shake his +heart,--he felt as if he could have fallen on his knees to her; and yet +that stoical habit which was the boast of his life, which was the sole +wisdom he taught to his only and beautiful daughter, was slowly +stealing back round his heart,--and he pressed his lips together, +resolved that no word should escape till he had fully mastered himself. + +In a few moments Mary rose with renewed calmness and dignity, and, +approaching him, said,-- + +"Before I wish you good-morning, Mr. Burr, I must ask pardon for the +liberty I have taken in speaking so very plainly." + +"There is no pardon needed, my dear child," said Burr, turning and +speaking very gently, and with a face expressive of a softened concern; +"if you have told me harsh truths, it was with gentle intentions;--I +only hope that I may prove, at least by the future, that I am not +altogether so bad as you imagine. As to the friend whose name has been +passed between us, no man can go beyond me in a sense of her real +nobleness; I am sensible how little I can ever deserve the sentiment +with which she honors me. I am ready, in my future course, to obey any +commands that you and she may think proper to lay upon me." + +"The only kindness you can now do her," said Mary, "is to leave her. It +is impossible that you should be merely friends;--it is impossible, +without violating the holiest bonds, that you should be more. The +injury done is irreparable; but you _can_ avoid adding another and +greater one to it." + +Burr looked thoughtful. + +"May I say one thing more?" said Mary, the color rising in her cheeks. + +Burr looked at her with that smile that always drew out the confidence +of every heart. + +"Mr. Burr," she said, "you will pardon me, but I cannot help saying +this: You have, I am told, wholly renounced the Christian faith of your +fathers, and build your whole life on quite another foundation. I +cannot help feeling that this is a great and terrible mistake. I cannot +help wishing that you would examine and reconsider." + +"My dear child, I am extremely grateful to you for your remark, and +appreciate fully the purity of the source from which it springs. +Unfortunately, our intellectual beliefs are not subject to the control +of our will. I have examined, and the examination has, I regret to say, +not had the effect you would desire." + +Mary looked at him wistfully; he smiled and bowed,--all himself again; +and stopping at the door, he said, with a proud humility,-- + +"Do me the favor to present my devoted regard to your friend; believe +me, that hereafter you shall have less reason to complain of me." + +He bowed, and was gone. + +An eye-witness of the scene has related, that, when Burr resigned his +seat as President of his country's Senate, an object of peculiar +political bitterness and obloquy, almost all who listened to him had +made up their minds that he was an utterly faithless, unprincipled man; +and yet, such was his singular and peculiar personal power, that his +short farewell-address melted the whole assembly into tears, and his +most embittered adversaries were charmed into a momentary enthusiasm of +admiration. + +It must not be wondered at, therefore, if our simple-hearted, loving +Mary strangely found all her indignation against him gone, and herself +little disposed to criticize the impassioned tenderness with which +Madame de Frontignac still regarded him. + +We have one thing more that we cannot avoid saying, of two men so +singularly in juxtaposition as Aaron Burr and Dr. Hopkins. Both had a +perfect _logic_ of life, and guided themselves with an inflexible +rigidity by it. Burr assumed individual pleasure to be the great object +of human existence; Dr. Hopkins placed it in a life altogether beyond +self. Burr rejected all sacrifice; Hopkins considered sacrifice as the +foundation of all existence. To live as far as possible without a +disagreeable sensation was an object which Burr proposed to himself as +the _summum bonum_, for which he drilled down and subjugated a nature +of singular richness. Hopkins, on the other hand, smoothed the +asperities of a temperament naturally violent and fiery by a rigid +discipline which guided it entirely above the plane of self-indulgence; +and, in the pursuance of their great end, the one watched against his +better nature as the other did against his worse. It is but fair, then, +to take their lives as the practical workings of their respective +ethical creeds. + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +NEW ENGLAND IN FRENCH EYES. + + +We owe our readers a digression at this point, while we return for a +few moments to say a little more of the fortunes of Madame de +Frontignac, whom we left waiting with impatience for the termination of +the conversation between Mary and Burr. "_Enfin, chère Sybille_," said +Madame de Frontignac, when Mary came out of the room, with her cheeks +glowing and her eye flashing with a still unsubdued light, "_te voilà +encore_! What did he say, _mimi_?--did he ask for me?" + +"Yes," said Mary, "he asked for you." + +"What did you tell him?" + +"I told him that you wished me to excuse you." + +"How did he look then?--did he look surprised?" + +"A good deal so, I thought," said Mary. + +"_Allons, mimi_,--tell me all you said, and all he said." "Oh," said +Mary, "I am the worst person in the world; in fact, I cannot remember +anything that I have said; but I told him that he must leave you, and +never see you any more." + +"Oh, _mimi_, never!" + +Madame de Frontignac sat down on the side of the bed with such a look +of utter despair as went to Mary's heart. + +"You know that it is best, Virginie; do you not?" + +"Oh, yes, I know it; _mais pourtant, c'est dur comme la mort_. Ah, +well, what shall Virginie do now?" + +"You have your husband," said Mary. + +"_Je ne l'aime point_," said Madame de Frontignac. + +"Yes, but he is a good and honorable man, and you should love him." + +"Love is not in our power," said Madame de Frontignac. + +"Not every kind of love," said Mary, "but some kinds. If you have a +kind, indulgent friend who protects you and cares for you, you can be +grateful to him, you can try to make him happy, and in time you may +come to love him very much. He is a thousand times nobler man, if what +you say is true, than the one who has injured you so." + +"Oh, Mary!" said Madame de Frontignac, "there are some cases where we +find it too easy to love our enemies." + +"More than that," said Mary; "I believe, that, if you go on patiently +in the way of duty, and pray daily to God, He will at last take out of +your heart this painful love, and give you a true and healthy one. As +you say, such feelings are very sweet and noble; but they are not the +only ones we have to live by;--we can find happiness in duty, in +self-sacrifice, in calm, sincere, honest friendship. That is what you +can feel for your husband." + +"Your words cool me," said Madame de Frontignac; "thou art a sweet +snow-maiden, and my heart is hot and tired. I like to feel thee in my +arms," she said, putting her arms around Mary, and resting her head +upon her shoulder. "Talk to me so every day, and read me good cool +verses out of that beautiful Book, and perhaps by-and-by I shall grow +still and quiet like you." + +Thus Mary soothed her friend; but every few days this soothing had to +be done over, as long as Burr remained in Newport. When he was finally +gone, she grew more calm. The simple, homely ways of the cottage, the +healthful routine of daily domestic toils, into which she delighted to +enter, brought refreshment to her spirit. That fine tact and exquisite +social sympathy, which distinguish the French above other nations, +caused her at once to enter into the spirit of the life in which she +moved; so that she no longer shocked any one's religious feelings by +acts forbidden by the Puritan idea of Sunday, or failed in any of the +exterior proprieties of religious life. She also read and studied with +avidity the English Bible, which came to her with the novelty of a +wholly new book in a new language; nor was she without a certain +artistic appreciation of the austere precision and gravity of the +religious life by which she was surrounded. + +"It is sublime, but a little _glaciale_, like the Alps," she sometimes +said to Mary and Mrs. Marvyn, when speaking of it; "but then," she +added, playfully, "there are the flowers,--_les roses des Alpes_,--and +the air is very strengthening, and it is near to heaven,--_faut +avouer_." + +We have shown how she appeared to the eye of New England life; it may +not be uninteresting to give a letter to one of her friends, which +showed how the same appeared to her. It was not a friend with whom she +felt on such terms, that her intimacy with Burr would appear at all in +the correspondence. + + + * * * * * + +"You behold me, my charming Gabrielle, quite pastoral, recruiting from +the dissipations of my Philadelphia life in a quiet cottage, with most +worthy, excellent people, whom I have learned to love very much. They +are good and true, as pious as the saints themselves, although they do +not belong to the Church,--a thing which I am sorry for; but then let +us hope, that, if the world is wide, heaven is wider, and that all +worthy people will find room at last. This is Virginie's own little, +pet, private heresy; and when I tell it to the Abbé, he only smiles; +and so I think, somehow, that it is not so very bad as it might be. + +"We have had a very gay life in Philadelphia, and now I am growing +tired of the world, and think I shall retire to my cheese, like +Lafontaine's rat. + +"These people in the country here in America have a character quite +their own, very different from the life of cities, where one sees, for +the most part, only a continuation of the forms of good society which +exist in the Old World. + +"In the country, these people seem simple, grave, severe, always +industrious, and, at first, cold and reserved in their manners towards +each other, but with great warmth of heart. They are all obedient to +the word of their minister, who lives among them just like any other +man, and marries and has children. + +"Everything in their worship is plain and austere; their churches are +perfectly desolate; they have no chants, no pictures, no +carvings,--only a most disconsolate, bare-looking building, where they +meet together, and sing one or two hymns, and the minister makes one or +two prayers, all out of his own thoughts, and then gives them a long, +long discourse about things which I cannot understand enough English to +comprehend. + +"There is a very beautiful, charming young girl here, the daughter of +my hostess, who is as lovely and as saintly as St. Catharine, and has +such a genius for religion, that, if she had been in our Church, she +would certainly have been made a saint. + +"Her mother is a good, worthy matron; and the good priest lives in the +family. I think he is a man of very sublime religion, as much above +this world as a great mountain; but he has the true sense of liberty +and fraternity; for he has dared to oppose with all his might this +detestable and cruel trade in poor negroes, which makes us, who are so +proud of the example of America in asserting the rights of men, so +ashamed for her inconsistencies. + +"Well, now, there is a little romance getting up in the cottage; for +the good priest has fixed his eyes on the pretty saint, and discovered, +what he must be blind not to see, that she is very lovely,--and so, as +he can marry, he wants to make her his wife; and her mamma, who adores +him as if he were God, is quite set upon it. The sweet Marie, however, +has had a lover of her own in her little heart, a beautiful young man, +who went to sea, as heroes always do, to seek his fortune. And the +cruel sea has drowned him; and the poor little saint has wept and +prayed, till she is so thin and sweet and mournful that it makes one's +heart ache to see her smile. In our Church, Gabrielle, she would have +gone into a convent; but she makes a vocation of her daily life, and +goes round the house so sweetly, doing all the little work that is to +be done, as sacredly as the nuns pray at the altar. For you must know, +here in New England, the people, for the most part, keep no servants, +but perform all the household work themselves, with no end of spinning +and sewing besides. It is the true Arcadia, where you find cultivated +and refined people busying themselves with the simplest toils. For +these people are well-read and well-bred, and truly ladies in all +things. And so my little Marie and I, we feed the hens and chickens +together, and we search for eggs in the hay in the barn. And they have +taught me to spin at their great wheel, and at a little one too, which +makes a noise like the humming of a bee. + +"But where am I? Oh, I was telling about the romance. Well, so the good +priest has proposed for my Marie, and the dear little soul has accepted +him as the nun accepts the veil; for she only loves him filially and +religiously. And now they are going on, in their way, with preparations +for the wedding. They had what they call 'a quilting' here the other +night, to prepare the bride's quilt,--and all the friends in the +neighborhood came;--it was very amusing to see. + +"The morals of this people are so austere, that young men and girls are +allowed the greatest freedom. They associate and talk freely together, +and the young men walk home alone with the girls after evening parties. +And most generally, the young people, I am told, arrange their +marriages among themselves before the consent of the parents is asked. +This is very strange to us. I must not weary you, however, with the +details. I watch my little romance daily, and will let you hear further +as it progresses. + +"With a thousand kisses, I am, ever, your loving + +"Virginie." + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +CONSULTATIONS AND CONFIDENCES. + + +Meanwhile, the wedding-preparations were going on at the cottage with +that consistent vigor with which Yankee people always drive matters +when they know precisely what they are about. + +The wedding-day was definitely fixed for the first of August; and each +of the two weeks between had its particular significance and value +precisely marked out and arranged in Mrs. Katy Scudder's comprehensive +and systematic schemes. + +It was settled that the newly wedded pair were, for a while at least, +to reside at the cottage. It might have been imagined, therefore, that +no great external changes were in contemplation; but it is astonishing, +the amount of discussion, the amount of advising, consulting, and +running to and fro, which can be made to result out of an apparently +slight change in the relative position of two people in the same house. + +Dr. H. really opened his eyes with calm amazement. Good, modest soul! +he had never imagined himself the hero of so much preparation. From +morning to night, he heard his name constantly occurring in busy +consultations that seemed to be going on between Miss Prissy and Mrs. +Deacon Twitchel and Mrs. Scudder and Mrs. Jones, and quietly wondered +what they could have so much more than usual to say about him. For a +while it seemed to him that the whole house was about to be torn to +pieces. He was even requested to step out of his study, one day, into +which immediately entered, in his absence, two of the most vigorous +women of the parish, who proceeded to uttermost measures,--first +pitching everything into pie, so that the Doctor, who returned +disconsolately to look for a book, at once gave up himself and his +system of divinity as entirely lost, until assured by one of the +ladies, in a condescending manner, that he knew nothing about the +matter, and that, if he would return after half a day, he would find +everything right again,--a declaration in which he tried to have +unlimited faith, and which made him feel the advantage of a mind +accustomed to believing in mysteries. And it is to be remarked, that on +his return he actually found his table in most perfect order, with not +a single one of his papers missing; in fact, to his ignorant eye the +room looked exactly as it did before; and when Miss Prissy eloquently +demonstrated to him, that every inch of that paint had been scrubbed, +and the windows taken out, and washed inside and out, and rinsed +through three waters, and that the curtains had been taken down, and +washed, and put through a blue water, and starched, and ironed, and put +up again,--he only innocently wondered, in his ignorance, what there +was in a man's being married that made all these ceremonies necessary. +But the Doctor was a wise man, and in cases of difficulty kept his mind +to himself; and therefore he only informed these energetic +practitioners that he was extremely obliged to them, accepting it by +simple faith,--an example which, we recommend to all good men in +similar circumstances. + +The house throughout was subjected to similar renovation. Everything in +every chest or box was vigorously pulled out and hung out on lines in +the clothes-yard to air; for when once the spirit of enterprise has +fairly possessed a group of women, it assumes the form of a "prophetic +fury," and carries them beyond themselves. Let not any ignorant mortal +of the masculine gender, at such hours, rashly dare to question the +promptings of the genius that inspires them. Spite of all the treatises +that have lately appeared, to demonstrate that there are no particular +inherent diversities between men and women, we hold to the opinion that +one thorough season of house-cleaning is sufficient to prove the +existence of awful and mysterious difference between the sexes, and of +subtile and reserved forces in the female line, before which the lords +of creation can only veil their faces with a discreet reverence, as our +Doctor has done. + +In fact, his whole deportment on the occasion was characterized by +humility so edifying as really to touch the hearts of the whole synod +of matrons; and Miss Prissy rewarded him by declaring impressively her +opinion, that he was worthy to have a voice in the choosing of the +wedding-dress; and she actually swooped him up, just in a very critical +part of a distinction between natural and moral ability, and conveyed +him bodily, as fairy sprites knew how to convey the most ponderous of +mortals, into the best room, where three specimens of brocade lay +spread out upon a table for inspection. + +Mary stood by the side of the table, her pretty head bent reflectively +downward, her cheek just resting upon the tip of one of her fingers, as +she stood looking thoughtfully _through_ the brocades at something +deeper that seemed to lie under them; and when the Doctor was required +to give judgment on the articles, it was observed by the matrons that +his large blue eyes were resting upon Mary, with an expression that +almost glorified his face; and it was not until his elbow was +repeatedly shaken by Miss Prissy, that he gave a sudden start, and +fixed his attention, as was requested, upon the silks. It had been one +of Miss Prissy's favorite theories, that _"that dear blessed man had +taste enough, if he would only give his mind to things"_; and, in fact, +the Doctor rather verified the remark on the present occasion, for he +looked very conscientiously and soberly at the silks, and even handled +them cautiously and respectfully with his fingers, and listened with +grave attention to all that Miss Prissy told him of their price and +properties, and then laid his finger down on one whose snow-white +ground was embellished with a pattern representing lilies of the valley +on a background of green leaves. "This is the one," he said, with an +air of decision; and then be looked at Mary, and smiled, and a murmur +of universal approbation broke out. + +"_Il a de la délicatesse_," said Madame de Frontignac, who had been +watching this scene with bright, amused eyes,--while a chorus of loud +acclamations, in which Miss Prissy's voice took the lead, conveyed to +the innocent-minded Doctor the idea, that in some mysterious way he had +distinguished himself in the eyes of his feminine friends; whereat he +retired to his study slightly marvelling, but on the whole well +pleased, as men generally are when they do better than they expect; and +Miss Prissy, turning out all profaner persons from the apartment, held +a solemn consultation, to which only Mary, Mrs. Scudder, and Madame de +Frontignac were admitted. For it is to be observed that the latter had +risen daily and hourly in Miss Prissy's esteem, since her entrance into +the cottage; and she declared, that, if she only would give her a few +hints, she didn't believe but that she could make that dress look just +like a Paris one; and rather intimated that in such a case she might +almost be ready to resign all mortal ambitions. + +The afternoon of this day, just at that cool hour when the clock ticks +so quietly in a New England kitchen, and everything is so clean and put +away that there seems to be nothing to do in the house, Mary sat +quietly down in her room to hem a ruffle. Everybody had gone out of the +house on various errands. The Doctor, with implicit faith, had +surrendered himself to Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy, to be conveyed up +to Newport, and attend to various appointments in relation to his outer +man, which he was informed would be indispensable in the forthcoming +solemnities. Madame de Frontignac had also gone to spend the day with +some of her Newport friends. And Mary, quite well pleased with the +placid and orderly stillness which reigned through the house, sat +pleasantly murmuring a little tune to her sewing, when suddenly the +trip of a very brisk foot was heard in the kitchen, and Miss Cerinthy +Ann Twitchel made her appearance at the door, her healthy glowing cheek +wearing a still brighter color from the exercise of a three-mile walk +in a July day. + +"Why, Cerinthy," said Mary, "how glad I am to see you!" + +"Well," said Cerinthy, "I have been meaning to come down all this week, +but there's so much to do in haying-time,--but to-day I told mother I +_must_ come. I brought these down," she said, unfolding a dozen snowy +damask napkins, "that I spun myself, and was thinking of you almost all +the while I spun them, so I suppose they aren't quite so wicked as they +might be." + +We will observe here, that Cerinthy Ann, in virtue of having a high +stock of animal spirits and great fulness of physical vigor, had very +small proclivities towards the unseen and spiritual, but still always +indulged a secret resentment at being classed as a sinner above many +others, who, as church-members, made such professions, and were, as she +remarked, "not a bit better than she was." She had always, however, +cherished an unbounded veneration for Mary, and had made her the +confidante of most of her important secrets. It soon became very +evident that she had come with one on her mind now. + +"Don't you want to come and sit out in the lot?" she said, after +sitting awhile, twirling her bonnet-strings with the air of one who has +something to say and doesn't know exactly how to begin upon it. + +Mary cheerfully gathered up her thread, scissors, and ruffling, and the +two stepped over the window-sill, and soon found themselves seated +cozily under the boughs of a large apple-tree, whose descending +branches, meeting the tops of the high grass all around, formed a +seclusion as perfect as heart could desire. + +They sat down, pushing away a place in the grass; and Cerinthy Ann took +off her bonnet, and threw it among the clover, exhibiting to view her +black hair, always trimly arranged in shining braids, except where some +glossy curls fell over the rich high, color of her cheeks. Something +appeared to discompose her this afternoon. There were those evident +signs of a consultation impending, which, to an experienced eye, are as +unmistakable as the coming up of a shower in summer. + +Cerinthy began by passionately demolishing several heads of clover, +remarking, as she did so, that she "didn't see, for her part, how Mary +could keep so calm when things were coming so near." And as Mary +answered to this only with a quiet smile, she broke out again:-- + +"I don't see, for my part, how a young girl _could_ marry a minister, +anyhow; but then I think _you_ are just cut out for it. But what would +anybody say, if _I_ should do such a thing?" + +"I don't know," said Mary, innocently. + +"Well, I suppose everybody would hold up their hands; and yet, if I +_do_ say it myself,"--she added, coloring,--"there are not many girls +who could make a better minister's wife than I could, if I had a mind +to try." + +"That I am sure of," said Mary, warmly. + +"I guess you are the only one that ever thought so," said Cerinthy, +giving an impatient toss. "There's father and mother all the while +mourning over me; and yet I don't see but what I do pretty much all +that is done in the house, and they say I am a great comfort in a +temporal point of view. But, oh, the groanings and the sighings that +there are over me! I don't think it is pleasant to know that your best +friends are thinking such awful things about you, when you are working +your fingers off to help them. It is kind o' discouraging, but I don't +know what to do about it";--and for a few moments Cerinthy sat +demolishing buttercups, and throwing them up in the air till her shiny +black head was covered with golden flakes, while her cheeks grew redder +with something that she was going to say next. + +"Now, Mary, there is _that creature_. Well, you know, he won't take +'_No_' for an answer. What shall I do?" + +"Suppose, then, you try '_Yes_,'" said Mary, rather archly. + +"Oh, pshaw! Mary Scudder, you know better than that, now. I look like +it, don't I?" + +"Why, yes," said Mary, looking at Cerinthy, deliberately; "on the +whole, I think you do." + +"Well! one thing I must say," said Cerinthy,--"I can't see what _he_ +finds in me. I think he is a thousand times too good for me. Why, you +have no idea, Mary, how I _have_ plagued him. I believe that man +_really is a Christian_," she added, while something like a penitent +tear actually glistened in those sharp, saucy, black eyes. "Besides," +she added, "I have told him everything I could think of to discourage +him. I told him that I had a bad temper, and didn't believe the +doctrines, and couldn't promise that I ever should; and after all, that +creature keeps right on, and I don't know what to tell him." + +"Well," said Mary, mildly, "do you think you really love him?" + +"Love him?" said Cerinthy, giving a great flounce, "to be sure I don't! +Catch me loving any man! I told him last night I didn't; but it didn't +do a bit of good. I used to think that man was bashful, but I declare I +have altered my mind; he will talk and talk till I don't know what to +do. I tell you, Mary, he talks beautifully, too, sometimes." + +Here Cerinthy turned quickly away, and began reaching passionately +after clover-heads. After a few moments, she resumed:-- + +"The fact is, Mary, that man _needs_ somebody to take care of him; for +he never thinks of himself. They say he has got the consumption; but he +hasn't, any more than I have. It is just the way he neglects +himself,--preaching, talking, and visiting; nobody to take care of him, +and see to his clothes, and nurse him up when he gets a little hoarse +and run down. Well, I suppose if I _am_ unregenerate, I do know how to +keep things in order; and if I should keep _such_ a man's soul in his +body, I should be doing some good in the world; because, if ministers +don't live, of course they can't convert anybody. Just think of his +saying that I could be a comfort to _him_! I told him that it was +perfectly ridiculous. 'And besides,' says I, 'what will everybody +think?' I thought that I had really talked him out of the notion of it +last night; but there he was in again this morning, and told me he had +derived great encouragement from what I had said. Well, the poor man +really is lonesome,--his mother's dead, and he hasn't any sisters. I +asked him why he didn't go and take Miss Olladine Slocum: everybody +says she would make a first-rate minister's wife." + +"Well, and what did he say to that?" said Mary. + +"Well, something really silly,--about my looks," said Cerinthy, looking +down. + +Mary looked up, and remarked the shining black hair, the long dark +lashes lying down over the glowing cheek, where two arch dimples were +nestling, and said, quietly,-- + +"Probably he is a man of taste, Cerinthy; I advise you to leave the +matter entirely to his judgment." + +"You don't, really, Mary!" said the damsel, looking up. "Don't you +think it would injure _him_, if I should?" + +"I think not, materially," said Mary. + +"Well," said Cerinthy, rising, "the men will be coming home from the +mowing, before I get home, and want their supper. Mother has got one of +her headaches on this afternoon, so I can't stop any longer. There +isn't a soul in the house knows where anything is, when I am gone. If I +should ever take it into my head to go off, I don't know what would +become of father and mother, I was telling mother, the other day, that +I thought unregenerate folks were of some use in _this_ world, any +way." + +"Does your mother know anything about it?" said Mary. + +"Oh, as to mother, I believe she has been hoping and praying about it +these three months. She thinks that I am such a desperate case, it is +the only way I am to be brought in, as she calls it. That's what set me +against him at first; but the fact is, if girls will let a man argue +with them, he always contrives to get the best of it. I am kind of +provoked about it, too. But, mercy on us! he is so meek, there is no +use of getting provoked at him. Well, I guess I will go home and think +about it." + +As she turned to go, she looked really pretty. Her long lashes were wet +with a twinkling moisture, like meadow-grass after a shower; and there +was a softened, childlike expression stealing over the careless gayety +of her face. + +Mary put her arms round her with a gentle caressing movement, which the +other returned with a hearty embrace. They stood locked in each other's +arms,--the glowing, vigorous, strong-hearted girl, with that pale, +spiritual face resting on her breast, as when the morning, songful and +radiant, clasps the pale silver moon to her glowing bosom. + +"Look here now, Mary," said Cerinthy; "your folks are all gone. You may +as well walk with me. It's pleasant now." + +"Yes, I will," said Mary; "wait a minute, till I get my bonnet." + +In a few moments the two girls were walking together in one of those +little pasture foot-tracks which run so cozily among huckleberry and +juniper bushes, while Cerinthy eagerly pursued the subject she could +not leave thinking of. + +Their path now wound over high ground that overlooked the distant sea, +now lost itself in little copses of cedar and pitch-pine, and now there +came on the air the pleasant breath of new hay, which mowers were +harvesting in adjoining meadows. + +They walked on and on, as girls will; because, when a young lady has +once fairly launched into the enterprise of telling another all that +_he_ said, and just how _he_ looked, for the last three months, walks +are apt to be indefinitely extended. + +Mary was, besides, one of the most seductive little confidantes in the +world. She was so pure from selfishness, so heartily and innocently +interested in what another was telling her, that people in talking with +her found the subject constantly increasing in interest,--although, if +they really had been called upon afterwards to state the exact portion +in words which she added to the conversation, they would have been +surprised to find it so small. + +In fact, before Cerinthy Ann had quite finished her confessions, they +were more than a mile from the cottage, and Mary began to think of +returning, saying that her mother would wonder where she was, when she +came home. + +[To be continued.] + + + * * * * * + +LION LLEWELLYN. + + +Singing, shining, beautiful May +Lureth me, draweth me, all the day. +Once, when the season wooed me so, +Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go, +Pacing before or close beside, +Reticent, quaint, and dignified, +Roaming with me, wandering wide; +And if ever thy feet inclined, +Weary with roving, to lag behind, +When were my arms to aid thee slow? +"Muver will cahwy her darlin'! So!" + +Not to the pines, my warrior gray, +Gray and stately and scarred as they,-- +Not to the hill, or the valley glen, +Shall we wander together again. + +Nevermore, in the dead of night, +Shall I waken in cold affright,-- +Waken at sounds I know too well, +Growl defiant, and horrid yell, +Sounds that bristle the hair, and tell +Strife is raging, and blood is shed, +Blood and--fur, in the conflict dread. +Nevermore, from my bed, shall I +Unto the chamber-window fly, + +There, by the wintry moon, to spy +Thee on the well-sweep mounted high,-- +Mounting still, from the crafty foe +Creeping and crawling up below; +And, when thou canst no farther go, +See thee crouch for the fearful leap +Off the top of the old well-sweep, +Then, with a swift and dizzy sweep, +Plunge in the crusty snow knee-deep. +Nor, for a lameness gotten so, +Shall I nurse thee again,--all, no! + +Nevermore, from my willing hand +Winning the all I can command, +Shall be heard the pathetic tone, +(Solvent sufficient for heart of stone,) +Making thy simple wishes known; +Nor shall the vibrating long-drawn "Mr--r" +Of thy tranquil thunderous purr +Breathe again, to my ear attent, +Bliss o'erflowing and deep content. + +As I fondly muse on thee, +I recall the spreading tree +Of thy goodly pedigree, +Which, of shapely branch or bough, +Hath no fairer growth than thou; +And my glance caressing now +Sweeps Alas, and Och Oh-Ow, +Chryssa, Christopher, What-Not, +Zabdas, Bunch, Longinus, Dot, +Tom, Zenobia, Nonesuch, +Turvy, Topsy, Inasmuch, +Zillah, Zillah Number Two, +Fremont, Dayton, Tittattoo, +Hiawatha, And, and If, +Minnehaha, But, and Tiff, +Kitty Clover, Kitty Gray, +Flossy, Frolic, Fayaway, +Quip, and Quirk, and Dearest Mae, +Nippenicket, Dido, Puck, +Minnesinger, Friar Tuck, +Periwinkle, Winkle Less, +Quiz, Albeit, Bonnie, Bess, +Midget, Budget, Mayaret, +Jocko, Sancho, Hans, Coquette, +Daisy Du Da, Ditto, Pet, +Pancks, and Peepy, Tilly, Tarn, +Tattycoram, Zoe, Clam, +Little Dorrit, Uncle Sam, +Tomtit, Pug, Penelope, +Ike, Ulysses, Rosalie, + +Punch, and Judy, Ferny Fan, +Cowslip, Hecate, Caliban, +Filibuster, Jonathan,-- +Name them all who may, who can; +For the half has not been told +Of the branches I behold +On the honored parent-stem, +And the later growth from them. + +Lion Llewellyn, faithful friend, +Brave and gentle to the end, +Would that I once more might hail, +Like a banner on the gale, +Waving slow, thy jet-ringed tail! +And thy furry coat of mail, +Like the striped and spotted skin +Of thy savage leopard kin, +Would I might again caress +With the old-time tenderness! + +Why do I talk of what may not be? +For the pillow of him I fain would see +Was changed long since from my motherly knee +To the garden, under the willow-tree,-- +Weeping-willow and flowering moss. +Over it riseth nor pile nor cross; +We, who only have felt his loss, +Needing no sculptured stone to tell +How he battled, and how he fell, +Or where sleepeth who sleeps so well. + +What is the destiny of his race? +Is there, I wonder, no other place +Whence they come or whither they go? +Earth-existence the all they know? +Does the living intelligence +Die in them with the dying sense? +Or, from the body passing hence, +Does it find in another sphere +Being in higher form than here? + +For summers twain, the willow kept +Its watch where low the warrior slept, +But, on the third, a blight had crept +Upon the vigor of its frame; +Nor knew we how or whence it came. + +Whisper it low and fearfully, +The tale of ghostly mystery; +For toothless crones and graybeards said +That from the presence of the dead +An influence around was shed, + +Like warlock's foul, unholy spell, +Of malisons and curses fell, +Which steeped that soil with venom dank, +Of which the fated willow drank. + +Whether it were or were not so, +At least so much as this we know, +That on the willow fell decay; +And though, when all things else grew gay, +It feebly strove to look as they, +Yet was its summer crown of pride +Worn lightly, and soon cast aside, +And when Spring found it, it had died. + +A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown, +Now mark the place of his rest alone. + +I see that the soft west-wind to-day +From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away, +And wherever its fitful currents flow, +Rising or falling, swift or slow, +The tender petals like white wings go, +Floating, eddying, wavering low, +Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow; +And under their light and flickering fall, +The mound, and the flowering moss, and all, +Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest. + +Thou that often these arms have pressed, +Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,-- +Thou that takest thy colder rest, +Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground, +Close, but untenderly, folded round,-- +Ever, by thy drifted mound, +Sleep, the Mystery, be found +Most mysterious, most profound! +And through her enchanted air, +Lighter than petals fair, +Brooding Peace sink downward there; +And the blasted willow make +Haunt perpetual, for thy sake! + + + + +TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA. + + "It were wise, nay, just, + To strike with men a balance: to forgive, + If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama. + + +In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories +and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same +Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years +afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of +_citoyen Français_, when that new order was created by the Revolution. +At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr. +Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these +occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a +bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had +been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the +New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased +with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with +regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his +destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache, +introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of +filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or +assistant surveyor." + +The "young man" was thirty-seven years of age when he landed in +Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, to begin the real business of his +life. He had been a staymaker, a sailor, an exciseman, a teacher, a +shopkeeper, and an author, to say nothing of his twofold matrimonial +experience. Such a long and various course of schooling had fitted him +to become an American citizen. + +His father was a staymaker, a Quaker, and poor. The son was sent to a +free school, where he was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, +--enough learning to be given to any man at the public expense. +With these three keys, if he is made of the right material, he +can open the world. At thirteen, he worked at his father's trade; at +sixteen, he ran away and shipped on board the privateer "Terrible," +Captain Death: the names of both craft and captain suggest the black +flag and cross-bones. Before the vessel sailed, his father interfered +and brought him ashore. Luckily for him; for, on her next cruise, the +"Terrible" was taken into St. Malo, a prize to the "Vengeance," after +one of the most desperate sea-fights on record. Her captain was killed; +out of a crew of two hundred men, only twenty-six were found alive, +most of them badly wounded. Visions of sea-life again lured Paine away +from the shop-board. He shipped in another privateer, and this time +actually served out the cruise. In 1759, we find him living at +Sandwich, a staymaker and a married man. In 1761, he was a widower and +an officer of the excise. From this position he was dismissed, for some +reason which escaped both Cobbett and Cheetham, and eleven months +afterward was reinstated on his own petition. In the interval, he found +employment in London as usher in a school, at twenty-five pounds a +year. His leisure moments he devoted to lectures on Natural Science. In +1768, he took a second wife at Lewes, the daughter of a tobacconist; +and the father dying soon after, Paine kept the shop. Here he wrote for +his brother-excisemen a petition to government for an increase of +salary. Four thousand copies were published by subscription. This piece +introduced him to Goldsmith, and a letter from the author to the famous +Doctor still exists, requesting "the honor of his company at the tavern +for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine." + +The year 1774 was an eventful one for Paine. He failed in the shop, was +separated from his wife, and dismissed from his office as exciseman. +After petitioning in vain to be reinstated, he determined to emigrate. + +His first scheme was, to establish a school for girls in Philadelphia; +but Bache procured him an engagement as assistant editor of the +"Pennsylvania Magazine," at fifty pounds a year. Paine's contributions +were much applauded, and soon attracted subscribers. His "Reflections +on the Life and Death of Lord Clive" were considered admirable, but do +not suit our present taste. A song on the Death of General Wolfe, still +occasionally reprinted, does not rise above a low level of mediocrity. +But here is a paragraph on the Mineral Riches of the Earth, which, many +years later, found favor in the eyes of the surly Cheetham, and may +still be read with some interest:-- + + + * * * * * + +"Though Nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is sullen, +rude, and niggardly at home; return the visit, and she admits you with +all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance of an antiquated +beauty retired to replenish her charms. Bred up in antediluvian +notions, she has not yet acquired the European taste of receiving +visitants in her dressing-room: she locks and bolts up her private +recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve +her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face that +was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that would view Nature in +her undress, and partake of her internal treasures, must proceed with +the resolution of a robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation +to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation +of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery +of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is +noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of +her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her +gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness; +and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the +riches of a necromancer's cell." + + + * * * * * + +An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper, +introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among +others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to +Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this +communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and +the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the +venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen +appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_," +as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his +contemporaries. [1] + +[Footnote 1: See "Climenole" in The Portfolio, 1803.] + +Paine's own account of the work is probably the true one:-- + + + * * * * * + +"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as +were in his hands towards completing a history of the present +transactions, and seemed desirous to have the first volume out the next +spring. I had then formed the outlines of "Common Sense," and finished +nearly the first part; and as I supposed the Doctor's design in getting +out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to +surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he +thought of." + + + * * * * * + +The times were more suggestive than doctors, even when Franklin was one +of them. When Paine came to America, he found the dispute with England +the all-absorbing topic. The atmosphere was heavy with the approaching +storm. The First Congress was in session in the autumn of that year. On +the 17th of September, John Adams felt certain that the other Colonies +would support Massachusetts. The Second Congress met in May, 1775. +During the winter and spring the quarrel had grown rapidly. Lexington +and Concord had become national watchwords; the army was assembled +about Boston; Washington was chosen commander-in-chief. Then came +Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was +open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had +drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag. + +From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in +their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots, +militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in +regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make +out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to +appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising +revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament +could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed +excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of +British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by +the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial +merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to +independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion +to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists +insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men +and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of +Parliament with both, if necessary. These arguments of our ancestors +led them to an excellent conclusion, and so far are entitled to our +respect; but logically we are afraid that King George had the best of +it. + +Before many months had passed, lagging theory was left so far in the +rear by the rapid course of events, that the Colonists felt it +necessary to move up a new set of principles to the van, if they wished +to present a fair front to the enemy. They had raised an army, and +taken the field. Unless they declared themselves a nation, they were +confessedly rebels. And yet almost all hesitated. There was a +deep-seated prejudice in favor of the English government, and a strong +personal liking for the people. Even when it was known that the second +petition to the King--Dickinson's "measure of imbecility"--was +disregarded, as it deserved to be, and that the Hessians were coming, +and all reasonable men admitted that there was no hope for +reconciliation, they still refused to abandon the pleasing delusion, +and talked over the old plans for redress of grievances, and a +constitutional union with the mother country. With little or no belief +in the possibility of either, they stood shivering on the banks of the +Rubicon, that mythical river of irretrievable self-committal, +hesitating to enter its turbid waters. A few of the bolder "shepherds +of the people" tried to urge them onward; but no one was bold enough to +dash in first and lead them through. Paine seized the opportunity. He +had a mind whose eye always saw a subject, when it could perceive it at +all, in its naked truth, stripped of the non-material accessories which +disturb the vision of common men. He saw that reconciliation was +impossible, mere rebellion folly; and that, to succeed in the struggle, +it was necessary to fight Great Britain as an equal,--nation against +nation. This course he recommended in "Common Sense," published in +January, 1776. + +Paine told the Colonists in this pamphlet that the connection with the +mother country was of no use to them, and was rapidly becoming an +impossibility. "It is not in the power of England to do this continent +justice. The business of it is too weighty and too intricate to be +managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant. +_To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a +petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when +obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few +years be looked upon as folly and childishness_." As to the protection +of England, what is that but the privilege of contributing to her wars? +"Our trade will always be a protection." "Neutrality is a safer convoy +than a man-of-war." "It is the true interest of America to steer clear +of European contentions, which she can never do while by her dependence +on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of European +politics." According to "Common Sense," not only was a separation +necessary and unavoidable, but the present moment was the right time to +establish it. "The time hath found us." The materials of war were +abundant; the union of the Colonies complete. It might be difficult, if +not impossible, to form the continent into a government half a century +hence. Now the task is easy. The interest of all is the same. "There is +no religious difficulty in the way." "I fully believe that it is the +will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of religious +opinions among us. _I look upon the various denominations among us as +children of the same family, differing only in what is called their +Christian names."_ All things considered, "nothing can settle our +affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration of +independence." "This proceeding may at first appear strange and +difficult. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a +superficial appearance of being right"; but in a little time it will +become familiar. "And until independence is declared, the continent +will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant +business from day to day, yet knows it must be done; hates to set about +it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its +necessity." To this he thought it necessary to add a labored argument +against kings from the Old Testament, which may possibly have had much +weight with a people some of whose descendants still triumphantly quote +the same holy book in favour of slavery. + +The King's speech, "a piece of finished villany" in the eyes of true +patriots, appeared in Philadelphia on the same day as "Common Sense". +Thus Paine was as lucky in his time of publication as in his choice of +a subject. All contemporaries admit that the pamphlet produced a +prodigious effect. Paine himself says,--"The success it met with was +beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the copyright +up to every State in the Union, and the demand ran to not less than one +hundred thousand copies." The authorship was attributed to Dr. +Franklin, to Samuel Adams, and to John Adams. + +It is hardly necessary to mention that the movement party, with General +Washington at its head, considered Paine's "doctrines sound, and his +reasoning unanswerable." Even in England, Liberals read and applauded. +The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to +France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common +Sense." + +It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence +doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the +touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew +the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid +a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it +useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared. +None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared +independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread +through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and +believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would +have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation. + +If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an +expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776, +look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much +difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later, +when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in +the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of +tension. The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine +founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote +politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius +Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression, +semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were +relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations +of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise +and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's +coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the +like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American +party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight +with the rank-and-file as his arguments. + +[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge +to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common +Sense."] + +Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst +upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by +all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon +afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr. +Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as +a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.'" Had +he been a man of fortune or American-born, he might have reached a +place in the foremost rank of the Fathers of the Country. But nativism +was powerful, and position important at that time, as Lee and Gates and +even Hamilton himself experienced. The signature, "Common Sense," Paine +preserved through life. It became what our authorlings, who ought to +know better, will persist in calling a _nom [1] de plume_--a Yankee +affectation, unknown to French idioms. + +[Footnote 1: They generally spell it "_nomme_."] + +In the autumn of 1776, Paine joined the army as volunteer aide-de-camp +to General Greene, and served through the gloomy campaign which opened +with the loss of New York in September. He remained in the field until +the army went into winter-quarters after the battles of Trenton and +Princeton. It was not as a combatant that Paine did the States good +service. He played the part of Tyraetus in prose,--an adaptation of the +old Greek lyrist to the eighteenth century and to British America,--and +cheered the soldiers, not with songs, but with essays, continuations of +"Common Sense." The first one was written on the retreat from Fort Lee, +and published under the name of "The Crisis," on the 23d of December, +when misfortune and severe weather had cast down the stoutest hearts. +It began with the well-known phrase, "'These are the times that try +men's souls.' The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this +crisis shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it +now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."--"But after all," +he continues, "matters might be worse. Howe has done very little. Fort +Washington and Fort Lee were no loss to us. The retreat was admirably +planned and conducted. General Washington is the right man for the +place, 'with a mind that can even nourish upon care.'" He closes with a +cheerful sketch of the spirit and condition of the army, attacks the +Tories, and appeals to the Colonies for union and contributions. + +This "Crisis" produced the best effect at home; in England it had the +honor of being burned by the hangman. The succeeding "Crisises" were +brought out at irregular intervals, whenever the occasion seemed to +demand Paine's attention; some of them not longer than a leader in a +daily paper; others swollen to pamphlet dimensions. They were read by +every corporal's guard in the army, and printed in every town of every +State on brown or yellow paper; for white was rarely to be obtained. In +their hours of despondency, the Colonists took consolation and courage +from the "Crisis." "Never," says a contemporary, "was a writer better +calculated for the meridian under which he wrote, or who knew how to +adapt himself more happily to every circumstance... Even Cheetham +admits, that to the army Paine's pen was an appendage almost as +necessary and as formidable as its cannon." + +The next campaign opened gloomily for the Colonies. The Tories felt +certain of victory. In the political almanac of that party, 1777 was +_"the year with three gallows in it."_ The English held New York and +ravaged the Jerseys on their way to Philadelphia. Howe issued a +proclamation "commanding all congresses and committees to desist and +cease from their treasonable doings," promising pardon to all who +should come in and take the oath of allegiance. Paine met him with a +"Crisis." "By what means," he asked, "do you expect to conquer America? +If you could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than +yours, nor in the winter, when we had none, how _are_ you to do it? If +you obtain possession of this city, [Philadelphia,] you could do +nothing with it but plunder it; it would be only an additional +dead-weight on your hands. You have both an army and a country to +contend with. You may march over the country, but you cannot hold it; +if you attempt to garrison it, your army would be like a stream of +water running to nothing. Even were our men to disperse, every man to +his home, engaging to reassemble at some future day, you would be as +much at a loss in that case as now. You would be afraid to send out +your troops in detachments; when we returned, the work would be all to +do." Paine then turns to those who, frightened by the proclamation, +betrayed their country, and paints their folly and its punishment. In +speaking of them, he calls upon the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to +take into serious consideration the case of the Quakers, whose +published protest against breaking off the "happy connection" seemed to +Paine of a treasonable nature. "They have voluntarily read themselves +out of the Continental meeting," he adds, with a humor, doubtless, +little relished by the Friends, "and cannot hope to be restored to it +again, but by payment and penitence." + +In April, Paine was elected, on motion of John Adams, Secretary to the +Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy +dollars a month. When Philadelphia surrendered, he accompanied Congress +in the flight to Lancaster. The day after the affair at Brandywine, a +short "Crisis" appeared, explaining the accidents which had caused the +defeat of the Continentals, and insisting that the good cause was safe, +and that Howe's victories were no better than defeats. Paine was right. +The Americans were gaining more ground in Northern New York than they +had lost in Pennsylvania. Burgoyne, who, + + "Unconscious of impending fates, + Could push through woods, but not through + Gates," + +had capitulated. The news reached Philadelphia on the 18th of October. + +This winter ought to have closed the war. The alliance with France, +Burgoyne's capture, two campaigns without useful results, Washington's +admirable patience and management at Valley Forge, with starvation and +mutiny in the ranks and disaffection to his person in the officers of +the Gates faction, ought to have convinced every Englishman in America +that the attempt to reduce the Colonies was now hopeless. Paine was so +indignant with the reckless obstinacy of the British government, that +he conceived the idea of carrying the war into England with pen and +paper,--weapons he began to think invincible in his hands. "If I could +get over to England," he wrote to his old chief, General Greene, +"without being known, and only remain in safety until I could get out a +proclamation, I could open the eyes of the country with respect to the +madness and stupidity of its government." Greene had no confidence in +the success of this appeal to the English people, and advised Paine not +to attempt it. + +In the mean time the French fleet had arrived, bringing M. Gérard, the +first foreign minister to the United States, and with him trouble to +Thomas Paine. It is well known that the French government employed +Beaumarchais, the author of the "Barber of Seville," as their agent to +furnish secret supplies to the American insurgents, and that +Beaumarchais imagined a firm, Rodrigue Hortalez & Co., who shipped to +the United Colonies munitions of war furnished by the King, and were to +receive return cargoes of tobacco, to keep up mercantile appearances. +Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, represented the +Americans in the business. In 1777, Congress, out of patience with +Deane for his foolish contracts with foreign officers, recalled him. He +returned, bringing with him a claim of Beaumarchais for the cargoes +already shipped to the United States. As Deane could produce no +vouchers, and Arthur Lee had cautioned Congress against his demands, +the claim was laid on the table until the vouchers should be presented. +Deane, confiding in the support of his numerous friends, appealed to +the public in a newspaper. Congress bore this indignity so +amiably,--refusing, indeed, by a small majority to take notice of +it,--that Henry Laurens, the president, who had laid Deane's appeal +before them for their action, resigned in disgust, and was succeeded by +John Jay. But Paine, whose position as Foreign Secretary enabled him to +know that the supplies had come from the French government, and not +from Beaumarchais, answered Deane in several newspaper articles, +entitled, "Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs." In these +he exposed the whole claim with his usual unmitigated directness. M. +Gérard immediately announced officially that Paine's papers were false, +and called upon Congress to declare them so and to pay the claim. Party +feeling ran high on this question,--a foreshadowing of the French and +English factions fifteen years later. Congress passed a resolution in +censure of Paine. Mr. Laurens moved that he be heard in his defence; +the motion was lost, and Paine resigned his office. A motion from the +Deane party to refuse his resignation and to discharge him was also +lost,--the Northern States voting generally in Paine's favor. His +resignation was then accepted. + +As the French government persisted in denying that the King had +furnished any supplies, Congress admitted the debt, and in October, +1779, drew bills on Dr. Franklin in favor of Beaumarchais, for two +millions and a half of francs, at three years' sight. Beaumarchais +negotiated the bills, built a fine hotel, and lived _en prince_. But +neither he nor Deane was satisfied. They still demanded another +million. + +We have no doubt that Paine was correct in his facts, however +injudicious it may have been to use them in his position. Deane's best +friends gave him up, before many years had passed. M. de Loménie, in +his interesting sketch of Beaumarchais, has tried hard to show the +justice of his demands on the United States, but without much success. +He does not attempt to explain how Beaumarchais, notoriously penniless +in 1775, should have had in 1777 a good claim for three millions' worth +of goods furnished. The American public looked upon Paine as a victim +to state policy, and his position with his friends did not suffer at +all in consequence of his disclosures. Personally, he exulted in his +conduct to the end of his life, and took pleasure in watching and +recording Deane's disreputable career and miserable end. "As he rose +like a rocket, so he fell like the stick," a metaphor which has passed +into a proverb, was imagined by Paine to meet Deane's case. [1] The +immediate consequence of Paine's resignation was to oblige him to hire +himself out as clerk to an attorney in Philadelphia. In his office, +Paine earned his daily bread by copying law-papers until he was +appointed clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania. + +[Footnote 1: This Beaumarchais claim was kept alive until the beginning +of the present generation. In 1794, Gouverneur Morris, Minister to the +French Republic, obtained from the Minister of Finance a receipt to the +Crown for a million of francs, signed by Beaumarchais, and sent it home +to meet the claim which had again been presented. In 1806 it +reappeared, urged by the Imperial Ambassador. In 1816, the Duc de +Richelieu, minister of Louis XVIII., sustained it, and declared, on the +strength of Gerard's assertions, that the million receipt did not in +any way concern the United States. In 1824, the daughter of +Beaumarchais came to this country to solicit Congress in person, with +no better success. But at last, in 1835, when our claim of twenty-five +millions on France was settled, eight hundred thousand francs were +allowed to the heirs of Beaumarchais, and the business closed +forever,--not creditably to us. The claim was probably unfounded; but +our government admitted its validity by the fact of payment; and the +money, if due, ought to have been paid forty years before, or a +suitable compensation made for the long delay. To be Liberals in +borrowing and Conservatives in repayment is not a desirable financial +character for a nation to obtain.] + +Early in May, 1780, while the Assembly of Pennsylvania was receiving +petitions from all parts of the State, praying for exemption from +taxes, a letter was brought to the speaker from General Washington, and +read to the House by Paine as clerk. It stated simply that the army was +in the utmost distress from the want of every necessary which men could +need and yet retain life; and that the symptoms of discontent and +mutiny were so marked that the General dreaded the event of every hour. +"When the letter was read," says Paine, "I observed a despairing +silence in the House. Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At length a +member, of whose fortitude I had a high opinion, rose. 'If,' said he, +'the account in that letter is true, and we are in the situation there +represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the matter any longer. +We may as well give up first as last.' A more cheerful member +endeavored to dissipate the gloom of the House, and moved an +adjournment, which was carried," Paine, who knew that the Assembly had +neither money nor credit, felt that the voluntary aid of individuals +could alone be relied upon in this conjuncture. He accordingly wrote a +letter to a friend in Philadelphia, a man of influence, explaining the +urgency of affairs, and inclosed five hundred dollars, the amount of +the salary due him as clerk, as his contribution towards a relief fund. +The Philadelphian called a meeting at the coffee-house, read Paine's +communication, and proposed a subscription, heading the list with two +hundred pounds in good money. Mr. Robert Morris put his name down for +the same sum. Three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency, +were raised; and it was resolved to establish a bank with the fund for +the relief of the army. This plan was carried out with the best +results. After Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finances, he +developed it into the Bank of North America, which was incorporated +both by act of Congress and by the State of Pennsylvania. Paine +followed up his letter by a "Crisis Extraordinary." Admitting that the +war costs the Colonists a very large sum, he shows that it is trifling, +compared with the burdens the English have to bear. For this reason it +would be less expensive for the Americans to raise almost any amount to +drive the English out than to submit to them and come under their +system of taxation. + +Our ancestors read the "Crisis Extraordinary," and understood every +word of it, we may be sure. Paine's lucidity of statement is never more +remarkable than when he handles financial questions. But conviction did +not work its way down to the pocket. Few men gave who could avoid it, +and each State appeared more fearful of paying, by accident, a larger +sum than its neighbor, than of the success of the British arms. +Congress, finding it at last almost impossible to get money or even +provisions at home, resolved to resort again to the financial expedient +which has proved so often profitable to this country, namely, to borrow +in Europe. Colonel Laurens, son of the late President of Congress, was +appointed commissioner to negotiate an annual loan from France of a +million sterling during the continuation of the war. Paine accompanied +him at his request. They sailed in February, 1781, and were graciously +received by King Louis, who promised them six millions of livres as a +present and ten millions as a loan. In little more than ten years, the +American secretary, who stands respectfully and unnoticed in the +presence of his Majesty of France, will sit as one of his judges in a +trial for life! Is there anything more wonderful in the transmutations +of fiction than this? Meanwhile, the future member of the Convention, +as little dreaming of what was in store for him as the King, sailed for +Boston with his principal. They carried with them two millions and a +half in silver,--a great help to Washington in the movement southward, +which ended with the capitulation of Yorktown. While in Paris, Paine +was again seized with the desire of invading England, incognito, with a +pamphlet in his pocket, to open the eyes of the people. But Colonel +Laurens thought no better of this scheme than General Greene, and +brought his secretary safely home again. + +Cornwallis had surrendered, and it was evident that the war could not +last much longer. The danger past, the Colonial aversion to pay Union +expenses and to obey the orders of Congress became daily stronger. The +want of a "Crisis," as a corrective medicine for the body politic, was +so much felt, that Robert Morris, with the knowledge and approbation of +Washington, requested Paine to take pen in hand again, offering him, if +his private affairs made it necessary, a salary for his services. Paine +consented. A "Crisis" appeared which produced a most salutary effect. +This was followed a few days later by another, in which a passage +occurs which may be quoted as a specimen of Paine's rhetorical powers. +A rumor was abroad that England was treating with France for a separate +peace. Paine finds it impossible to express his contempt for the +baseness of the ministry who could attempt to sow dissension between +such faithful allies. "We sometimes experience sensations to which +language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive, +and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. Our feelings, imprisoned +by their magnitude, find no way out; and in the struggle of expression +every finger tries to be a tongue." It will be difficult to describe +better the struggle of an indignant soul with an insufficient +vocabulary. + +When peace was proclaimed, Paine, the untiring advocate of +independence, had a right to print his "Io Paean." The last "Crisis" +announces, "that the times that tried men's souls were over, and the +greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew gloriously and +happily accomplished." "America need never be ashamed to tell her +birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire." But it is to +the future he bids her look, rather than to the past. "The remembrance +of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most +laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began +with." "She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic +life,--not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in +her own land and under her own vine the sweet of her labors and the +reward of her toil. In this situation may she never forget that a fair +national reputation is of as much importance as independence,--that it +possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies +civil,--that it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, and +commands reverence where pomp and splendor fail." As indispensable to a +future of prosperity and dignity, he warmly recommends the Union. "I +ever feel myself hurt," he says, "when I hear the Union, that great +Palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of. +It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that +which every man should be most proud and tender of." Thus he +anticipated by seventy-five years our "Union-savers" of 1856, few of +whom dreamed that their pet phrases, or something very like them, +originated with Thomas Paine. + +The war left Paine no richer than it found him. He had made fame, but +no money, by his writings. None of the proceeds of large editions had +enriched his purse. He had an exalted ideal of an author's duty when +his work is on political subjects. Louis Blanc has written somewhere, +"_Le journalisme est un sacerdoce._" This seems to have been Paine's +thought, although he may not have expressed it so sonorously,--for +there are no phrase-makers like the French. But Paine went, we suspect, +much farther than Louis Blanc; for he held that the priest ought to +take no pay for his ministrations. And he acted up to this unusual +theory in literary ethics. If he took out a copyright, he gave it away +to some public use. As he himself said, late in life,--"I could never +reconcile it to my principles to make money by my polities or my +religion." "In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake, +I love to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of +this principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the +pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward." + +His friends and admirers did not permit him to have the honor of giving +not only his services, but his actual expenses, to the Republic. The +State of New York presented him with a confiscated Royalist estate, +near New Rochelle, three hundred acres of good land, with the necessary +fences and buildings upon it. Pennsylvania voted him five hundred +pounds, currency. And the Virginians were talking about making a +similar donation, when an unlucky pamphlet from Paine appeared, +demolishing the claim of Virginia to the Western country. This +publication changed the views of the chivalry, and Paine lost his +grant. He owned, besides, a small place in Bordentown,--a gift, we +believe, of the State of New Jersey. The other nine States passed him +over. New England had expended enough, both of men and means, for the +cause,--and the South had fine feelings, but no money. + +In the autumn of 1783, when Paine was residing at Bordentown, he +received a letter from Washington, who had fixed his quarters at Rocky +Hill, near Princeton, until he could resign his command to Congress. It +ran thus:-- + + + * * * * * + +"I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at +Bordentown,--whether for the sake of retirement or economy; be it for +either or both, or whatever it may, I shall be exceedingly happy to see +you here. + +"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this +country; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best +exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who +entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, +with much pleasure, subscribes himself + +"G. WASHINGTON." + + + * * * * * + +Such a letter of hearty approval and respect, from the greatest man of +the country, perhaps of the age, (we Americans, at least, all think +so,) rich, powerful, honored, is certainly a "handsome testimonial," +worth writing or fighting for. It was not an empty offer of service. +Washington spoke to several members of Congress in Paine's behalf, and +told them that it would be pleasing to himself, as well as right and +proper, to make a suitable provision for Paine. In 1785, Congress at +last granted him three thousand dollars, much of which they fairly owed +him for his loss on the depreciated currency in which his salary as +Secretary had been paid. Paine accepted the General's invitation, and +spent some time in his family, at Mrs. Berrian's, Rocky Hill. One +evening of his visit was devoted to setting a neighboring creek on +fire. This successful experiment, as performed by the Father of his +Country, assisted by Thomas Paine, General Lincoln, and Colonel Cobb, +is described in a tract on the Yellow Fever, written by Paine a few +years before his death, at the request of Thomas Jefferson. + +Until the spring of 1787, Paine spent his time in Philadelphia or in +Bordentown, writing occasionally on subjects which interested him, and +indulging his taste for scientific speculations in the company of +Franklin and Rittenhouse. He was a member of the American Philosophical +Society, as well as an A. M. of the University of Philadelphia. His +reputation, his wonderful memory, the shrewd originality of his +remarks, made him a welcome guest in the best society. He was no talker +or _conversationist_, (an excellent word we should like to see +legitimated,) but a quiet, observing man, who spoke to the point, +inoffensive in manner, and not unprepossessing in appearance. As one of +the lions of the country, he was much looked at, especially by +foreigners. We find a sketch of an interview with him in the Travels of +the Chevalier de Chastellux. De Lafayette and himself requested +permission to call "on that author so celebrated in America and in +Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.'" Colonel Laurens +introduced them. "His physiognomy," the Chevalier thinks, "did not +belie the spirit that reigns throughout his works. Our conversation was +agreeable and animated, and such as to form a connection between us; +for he has written to me since my departure, and seems desirous of +maintaining a constant correspondence." + +In common with most of the clever men of his day, Paine, as we have +said, cultivated a taste for mechanics and natural science. There was +an awakening of the mind, in physics as well as in politics, at that +period; and it must be confessed that the natural philosophers have +succeeded better than the constitution-makers. Paine's mechanical hobby +was an iron bridge. A single arch, of four hundred feet span, and +twenty feet in height from the chord-line, was to be thrown over the +Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The idea was suggested to him by a +spider's web, a section of which the bridge resembled; and the +principle he worked upon was, that the small segment of a large circle +was preferable to the great segment of a small circle. Paine made a +complete model of his bridge, in wrought iron and wood, at Bordentown; +but, finding that the insufficiency of capital and of skill in the +working of iron in America would prevent him from carrying out his +plan, he sailed for France to lay his model before the Académie des +Sciences. Franklin, who always liked him, gave him letters to the +celebrated Malesherbes, Le Roy, the Abbé Morellet, the Duke de la +Rochefoucauld, introducing him "as an ingenious, honest man, author of +'Common Sense,' a famous piece, published here with great effect on the +minds of people at the beginning of the Revolution." He had also a +satisfactory credential from Congress, in the shape of the following +resolution, adopted by that body in August, 1785:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labours of Mr. +Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late +Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of +Liberty and Civil Government, have been well received by the citizens +of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress." + + + + +TRIAL TRIP OF THE "FLYING CLOUD." + + +"Through in four days to San Francisco," repeated I. "Marvellous age!" + +I hastily computed the distance by an air-line, and placed the speed of +the craft at some thirty miles an hour. That seemed reasonable enough. +Indeed, the whole statement cohered marvellously well; all the parts +harmonized with each other and looked plausible, even reasonable, as I +have said, except the grand fact itself, which was too momentous for +belief. But why should it not be true? What new achievement of the +human mind ought to startle one in this nineteenth century, after +having witnessed the wonders of steam and electro-magnetism? I +determined to sift the matter, but immediately remembered that all the +knowledge I had of it had been imparted to me in the strictest +confidence. The ingenious inventors, as was clearly their right, had +reserved it to themselves to choose the time and way of making their +invention public, when it was to break on the world, some fine morning, +like the discovery of a second moon performing its orbit round the +earth. I sunk into a brown study. + +In the evening, Mr. Bonflon called again, as he had promised. He +brought with him a large roll of plans and drawings, for the purpose of +illustrating more clearly the principles and method of construction and +operation of his aërial ship. + +They were projected on a large scale, and the workmanship was superb. +Months of hard labor by a finished draughtsman must have been devoted +to their execution. "And what an additional outlay of time and brains," +thought I, "must have been required, to devise the scheme and construct +the machine itself, so as to elevate the ingenious ideal into an +absolute working reality!" These drawings, Mr. Bonflon informed me, +were duplicates of others which had been privately deposited in the +Patent-Office at Washington. + +The one which chiefly attracted my attention was that which represented +the monster steamer complete, with all its appendages and complement of +passengers, in its majestic flight through the air. Below it were the +drifting clouds. Its course lay quite above the storms and hurricanes +and conflicting wind-currents which vex the lower strata of the +atmosphere, where it comes in contact with the earth's uneven surface, +and is kept in motion by the contractions and expansions of alternate +cold and heat, and is broken and set whirling by the forests and gorges +and mountain-tops among which it is compelled to force its way. Above +all this, Mr. Bonflon assured me, as aëronauts report, there is ever a +smooth, quiet atmospheric sea. + +"But how is life to be sustained for any considerable time in that +rarefied medium?" inquired I, "when it is asserted that even in +ascending high mountains, the texture of the soft parts of the human +body becomes so loose and flabby from diminished atmospheric pressure +as to cause one, so to speak, to sweat blood,--which oozes perceptibly +from the mouth and nose and eyes, and even from under the +finger-nails?" + +Mr. Bonflon pointed to a long, narrow line which floated rearward at an +angle of about forty-five degrees from the point of its attachment to +his ship. + +"That," said he, "is an India-rubber tube several thousand feet long, +extending down into the respirable atmosphere, and keeping the cabins +always supplied with fresh and wholesome air." + +"But would the heavier nether air flow in that direction?" I asked. + +"With a little help from the engine," he replied, "a constant current, +whenever needed, is kept up; and the process of breathing is rendered +as easy and agreeable in the cabins of the 'Flying Cloud' as in one's +own parlors at home. On the upper deck, which is not inclosed, you see, +it is different. In the first trial-trip to California, Mr. M---- +insisted on remaining above on this deck for six consecutive hours, and +the result was an attack of hemorrhage from the lungs. On his going +below, however, it almost instantly ceased." + +I must now endeavor to give the reader some definite idea of this +extraordinary machine, as exhibited in the drawings. Its buoyant power +was, of course, on the principle of the balloon. But the gas-chamber, +or part to be inflated, instead of being globular in form, consisted of +two horizontal cones joined at the base; or more accurately still, it +resembled an immense barrel extended at both ends to a point, and +resting on its side. This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon, +that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in +which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong +flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened +and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber. +Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a +particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember, +was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth +in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain +the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and +three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a +considerable margin for freight. + +Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but +ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine, +and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to +render it intelligible by mere description. + +The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore +the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of +a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided +into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and +so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck. The attachment +between the two parts was by means of a network of ropes, extending +from every quarter, and from the whole circumference of the ship, +connecting with staples in the framework of the balloon, and finally +embracing its entire body in its folds. Two enormous paddle-wheels, +made of oiled silk stretched on delicate frames, and driven by a +steam-engine of the lightest structure possible, furnished the +propelling power; while at the stern, like a vast fin, played the helm, +of a similar material and construction to the paddle-wheels. + +All this was explained to me in much fuller detail than I can here +repeat, by Mr. Bonflon, who added, that the materials employed combined +lightness with strength to a much greater degree than had ever before +been achieved,--that the fuel used was of the fluid kind, a new +combination of concentrated combustibles invented by himself,--and that +the weight of the entire machine had been carefully calculated +beforehand, together with its buoyant power, and the results had +demonstrated the accuracy of the mathematics. + +I turned on Mr. Bonflon and looked him squarely in the face. He was a +modest man and blushed slightly, but did not shrink. There could be no +dishonesty there. His countenance bore the unmistakable stamp of +integrity, as well as intelligence; and his whole appearance and +bearing were those of a true man. + +Had he brought me the newspaper he promised, not yet eight days old, +from San Francisco? + +No. He had been detained down-town all day in the whirl of our New York +Babel, and had not yet been home. He would hand it in to-morrow. + +Mr. Bonflon had been introduced to me that morning by a friend on whose +acuteness and judgment I felt I had many good reasons to rely. Without +pretending any precise knowledge of the man, or, indeed, any knowledge +at all, beyond what had been gathered from the individual himself in a +very brief acquaintance of Mr. Bonflon's own seeking, he expressed a +warm interest in him personally, as also in the startling discovery he +professed to have made. + +In that interview, Mr. Bonflon had informed us in brief, that, after +ten years of patient and toilsome experiment, of disappointment, of +perishing and reviving hope, he had at length achieved the grand object +of his life. He had solved the problem of the navigation of the air. He +had proved by actual results, that the great ocean of atmosphere above +us could be ploughed as successfully and safely as the waters beneath, +and with much greater facility and pleasure. He stated that the first +trial-trip, after the completion of the ship, had been made in the +night from an obscure point in the State of Maryland, and extended +north and northeast, along the Atlantic coast, to New York,--whose glow +of light from a great height, like a phosphorescent mist, was plainly +distinguishable,--and thence to the neighborhood of Boston, and back to +the place of starting; and that a second, with equally favorable +results, had been made from the same point by a more inland route, +northwest to Buffalo and the Canada line; and he named several +well-known persons who were on board at one or the other of these +times, and related some little anecdotes illustrative of their states +of mind and apprehensions while drifting above the earth on the +occasion of these novel voyages. + +He said, further, that the President and heads of departments at +Washington were fully cognizant of the matter; and that a third grand +trial-trip, in the interest of government, had been secretly made, with +important dispatches to California, relating to the security of our +rights in the Pacific. Four days had been consumed in the passage out, +including a stoppage of a couple of hours on a fine plateau, near the +head waters of the Missouri, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and +the same in the return. They had landed in the night in a deep valley a +few miles out of San Francisco, and remained two days in that city; +which gave a period of ten days to the entire voyage, out and back. +Forty selected individuals, all bound to secresy, had participated in +the risks and excitements of the extraordinary occasion. Mr. Bonflon +was not of the number. An heroic daughter of his was. His partner, +Mons. De Aëry, a French gentleman of great mechanical skill, had +managed the affair; and the craft, in the same hands, was now absent on +her second expedition across the American continent. + +Such was the sum of Mr. Bonflon's revelations of the morning. What a +discovery! How the announcement would astonish the world! How the +practical fact would overturn the world, upset commerce, and transform +the habits and relations of mankind! America, the pioneer in many +valuable discoveries and reforms, was still ahead,--still destined to +lead the van in the development of the powers and resources of Nature, +and the onward march of nations. + +Hurriedly recalling all these points to mind, I requested to know of +Mr. Bonflon how it had been possible, with so many confidants and the +prying propensities of the press, whose agents, like an invisible +police, are everywhere, to keep the matter from becoming public,--at +least, to cover the affair so completely that no hint of the existence +of his machine should have been given in any quarter, or of the vast +changes which its introduction as a power in the world could not fail +to effect. + +To this he replied, that the press had behaved very handsomely; that +the principal papers of the country had _attachés_ aboard on the first +trip to the Pacific; but that all parties--the government, the editors, +together with De Aëry and himself--were agreed that the matter should +be kept strictly private, until its practicality and value should be +established beyond the possibility of question. + +I now remembered, that, several years ago, a good deal of noise had +been made about a flying-machine which had been constructed in some of +the suburbs of the city,--and that a day had been advertised when it +was to make an ascent, but, it failed. I mentioned the circumstance to +Mr. Bonflon. + +"Yes," he replied. "It was at Hoboken. De Aëry and myself spent years +in the construction of that machine, and a large amount of money. On +the day when the trial of its powers was to have taken place, the +weather proved unfavorable, and we met with unexpected delays. The +spectators, who had congregated by thousands, became impatient; and the +mob, breaking in upon us, destroyed in an hour property which had cost +us five thousand dollars and the labor of years." + +I felt obliged to sympathize with Mr. Bonflon. He had met with the +usual fortune of public benefactors, and particularly of inventors. His +success, however, should it prove real, in the unexampled brilliancy of +its results, would more than compensate him for all his disappointments +and losses. He would rank as the greatest of discoverers,--as the +master mind of this master century. + +Leading him off from this one topic into general conversation, I held +him thus engaged for an hour. I was charmed with his comprehensive +intelligence, and with the scope and liberality of his views. In +everything relating to mechanics, his opinions were marked with +originality. This had evidently been his favorite field, where his +quick perceptions and powers of concentration and analysis had elevated +him to an eminence where he stood almost alone. I had never met his +equal. In plausible suggestions relative to the possibilities of the +future, he took me quite above my level, and left me floating in a maze +of glittering bewilderment. But I could discover no breaks, no +confusion in his mind, on the themes he presented. His premises were +apparently well considered, and his conclusions the fair and natural +sequences flowing from them. + +On the following day, Mr. Bonflon called on me again. In the interval, +my friend and myself had held extended consultations. My friend, while +externally calm as the surface of a summer sea, as was his wont, it was +plain for me to see, was internally deeply stirred and excited by the +extraordinary nature of Mr. Bonflon's revelations. Acknowledging a +mutual and increasing interest in the intelligent inventor, we +nevertheless parted in a wilderness of doubt. There was a mystery in +the matter,--a surprise for the world or a surprise for +ourselves,--which time, it would seem, with its busy thumb and finger, +must be left to unravel at its leisure. + +Mr. Bonflon had not brought the California paper with him. The two or +three copies only which had come into his possession had been handed +around among his confidential friends, and he had not been able to lay +his hand on one. He informed me that the "Flying Cloud" was expected to +return in three days, and, after remaining two days on the Atlantic +side of the continent, would then start on her third experimental trip +to the Pacific. At that time he expected to make one of the party +himself, and he invited me to accompany him. + +I accepted the invitation, and received from him particular +instructions as to the nature of my outfit. It was in the midst of the +heats of summer. He advised, however, a full supply of thick clothing, +on account of the increased chill and coldness of the atmosphere at +high altitudes; and, indeed, recommended a mail of flannel next the +skin. Everything else--the supply of the larder, with an excellent +cook, beds, and so forth--would be found amply provided by De Aëry and +himself for the comfort and accommodation of their guests. The station, +or point of departure, Mr. Bonflon informed me, was a retired spot but +a few miles out of the city of Baltimore; and he promised to be at hand +at the proper time to accompany me in person, and see me safely on +board the "Flying Cloud." + +I saw nothing more of Mr. Bonflon for several days. Meanwhile I +arranged my affairs for a brief absence, and, as my family were all off +in the country, prepared a special letter for use, if needed, to be +dated and mailed at the last moment, notifying them of a probable gap +in my correspondence, on account of some pressing business which would +take me out of the city for a few days and keep me constantly employed. + +In three or four days I received a note from Mr. Bonflon, advising me +to hold myself in readiness; and at the proper time, he presented +himself before me. But he came to apologize. The "Flying Cloud" had +returned. The second trip had been as successfully and safely performed +as the first. Nothing had occurred to mar the pleasure of the voyage; +but, unfortunately, before coming on to New York, De Aëry had filled +out the complement of guests for the third grand expedition. Even he +(Mr. Bonflon) should remain behind; but he should see that seats were +reserved for us both, without fail, for the next succeeding trip. Mr. +Bonflon took his leave; and I found myself more deeply involved in +doubt and perplexity than ever. I could hardly say that I was +disappointed, or that I was not. I had thrown myself on a wave, with no +look-out or means of judging where I was to be cast, and had formed no +opinions. As yet, everything looked fair with Mr. Bonflon. His face was +as honest as the morning sun, and it was next to impossible to doubt +him. He might be the prey of some strange phantasm, some monomania; but +the evidences did not show it. The account he had given of himself was +manly and coherent; his claims as a discoverer had been modestly +presented, and were not wholly unsupported by circumstances, or +unreasonable in themselves. Indeed, they must be regarded as coming +within the range of probabilities fully as much as, to human seeming, +had once the established, but ceaseless, wonders of steam locomotion +and electric telegraphing. + +Singularly enough,--and it illustrates the constantly shifting scenes +in the kaleidoscope of life,--within an hour, Mr. Bonflon returned with +a new message, and with the programme of the "Flying Cloud" changed, if +not reversed. He had seen De Aëry again. One or two of the expected +passengers had telegraphed that untoward circumstances would compel +them to remain behind, and there would be room for us. But no time was +to be lost; the air-steamer would weigh anchor before daylight of the +following morning, and we must start for Baltimore by the next train. +De Aëry and several others were already flying over the rail on their +way to Philadelphia. + +I did not allow myself to hesitate. With an unusual degree of +excitement, made up of the mingled emotions of wonder, doubt, and, I +frankly confess, apprehension, I dated and superscribed the letter to +my absent family; and, taking my carpet-bag in my hand, packed to +plethora several days before in readiness for the occasion, set out on +the strange and questionable adventure. + +The run to Baltimore was made without accident or delay. Mr. Bonflon +and myself conversed a good deal, and I found additional cause to +admire the discriminating character of his mind and the curious and +wonderful stores it contained. Some of the time we dozed, or sunk into +a mental confusion like that to which the body was subjected by the +motion of the cars, and called it sleep. My own most impressive +visions, however, were those of silent wakefulness, and were connected +with the morrow and the "Flying Cloud." + +We stopped in the chief city of Maryland only long enough to obtain +some slight refreshments, such as could be furnished readily in the +middle of the night, and proceeded at once to the wharf or station of +our sky-sailer. Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first +beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus +satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere +chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan, +floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem +of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make +obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and +plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of +her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a +great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief +against the sky. + +But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and +the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were +already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and +seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency +of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement +immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to +create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an +indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was +attended with some apprehensions and regrets. I gazed anxiously at the +receding objects below; but my feelings underwent a change as we +approached the "Flying Cloud" herself, were pulled into her gangway, +and I found myself standing on her solid decks. A brief further period +intervened, and our anchor was loosed; the tremendous machine became +instinct with life; she began to move; and, hurrah! we were under way. + +The thoughts and emotions of this bewildering moment it is impossible +to describe. Our craft moved off majestically, like some huge +water-fowl rising from the sea. Her course was westward and upward, +like the eagle with his face turned toward the palace of the sun. At +first the lights in the city of Baltimore became more numerous and +distinct, as intervening objects were surmounted and overlooked. Next +they began to fade, shrinking down into twinkling points like +fireflies, until they disappeared. Forests, hills, and mountains +followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a +hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding +the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our +course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a +landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in +our passage. + +What a sea! The ocean has its visible surface on which move the ships; +but we had none. The heavens were beneath us as well as above. We were +floating in the great circle of the systems and the suns. We were of +the universe; but were to be numbered with the constellations and the +stars. We could compare ourselves to a company of immortals quitting +the earth and traversing the electric seas which lead to brighter +homes. Or we were voyagers to the sun, or to the nearer Venus, or to +the far distant Centaurus. What a world of new thought was forced upon +us by the fancies and realities and charm and awe of our extraordinary +condition, combined with the profound consciousness we could not fail +to entertain of the effects which this crowning discovery of Messrs. +Bonflon and De Aëry must produce on travel, on commerce, on art, and +the common destiny of mankind! + +I found the atmosphere of the cabins, as my friend Bonflon had +asserted, agreeable and healthful. I could also occupy the promenade +deck for half an hour with little inconvenience, so far as the levity +of the air was concerned; but the cold was severe; while the system, in +consequence of an undue expansion of its particles, solid and fluid, +from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, was rendered doubly +susceptible to its influence. The advice given by Mr. Bonflon to case +myself in flannels, with an armament at hand of outer winter clothing, +proved well-timed; and yet a period of lassitude, verging on faintness, +invariably followed every considerable exposure to the open air. + +But the pleasure of gazing on those fields of space without +obstruction, without the intervention of so much as a plate of crystal +glass, repaid me for every risk and every ill. Though it might be said +there was no scenery there, where nothing was visible but the stars, +yet far beyond the power of mountain and valley, forest and lake, +waterfall and ocean, did that scene, which was no scene, or next to +none, bind me in the spell of its fascination. The motion of our craft, +as we careered noiselessly through the shoreless and objectless void, +without sense of effort or friction, was a charm of itself,--bringing +to a flower, crystallizing into refulgent stars, the dim, obscure, +however glorious, poetry of life. Here were the wildest imaginations of +the dreamer melted in a crucible, and reproduced in living forms of +usefulness and beauty. In my own years of widely diversified +experience, what had I met with to compare with this? Nothing. The +force of steam was marvellous,--talking over a wire mysterious; but here +I was in a great ship riding among the planets and the stars. I had +likened Niagara to a vast mill-dam, because I could find no peer to set +beside it; so now, in my weakness, the sublime pageant of the "Flying +Cloud" could search out nothing higher in my recollection with which to +compare it than a wild, ride of my youth in a canoe, for a half mile or +so, down the rapids of a river. + +But morning was at hand. The rich golden glow of night, to which the +dwellers on the earth's surface are accustomed, as we passed to higher +altitudes, had given place to a thin inky blue. This was obscured by no +fleck or mist, and yet the stars shone through it faint and dim, +despoiling the firmament of its glory. The same loss of power was +manifest on the ushering in of day. The auroral flame, which ordinarily +greets us in the east with such a ruddy laugh, was now nothing better +than a wan and dismal smile; and even the sun, as he struggled up from +what seemed a bed of leaden mist, brought with him only a pallid, +lifeless twilight. It was not that his rays were impeded by cloud or +haze; he had lost his power to shine. He hung there in the heavens like +a great white shield, and looked down on us as rayless and powerless +and devoid of life as a dead man's eye. + +Having at length wearied myself with gazing, and feeling chill and weak +from the coldness and tenuity of the atmosphere, I subsided into the +comfort and companionship of the cabins below. Among the passengers I +recognized _attachés_ of the press, besides several gentlemen of +Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with whom I was somewhat +acquainted. More circumspect, or less slaves to the imagination than +myself, they had contented themselves with in-door observations. But +their enthusiasm was none the less inflamed. In astonishment they +looked at each other; in restless bewilderment they glanced out of the +windows on the desert, trackless plane traversed by the "Flying Cloud," +and spoke with a species of awe of the shock which the announcement of +what they were then witnessing would give to sober men's minds; and +suggested, in broken sentences, some of the consequences which would be +likely to flow from the grand invention. + +What with excitement and lack of sleep, we all found ourselves a little +nervous. Coffee and Havanas failed to allay the feeling; and, in the +absence of the morning papers, we resorted to whist, chess, and our +pocket supplies of the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper," and so forth, and +to the very select library provided by Messrs. Bonflon and De Aëry, the +proprietors, for the use of the passengers,--and at last to our beds. +It could not be denied that we were nervous. With all the smoothness +and beauty of our running, there was a sensation, an uncertain +quivering motion, not at first noticed and not at all definable, about +our craft, that constantly, suggested the idea that we were standing on +nothing, or, at best, nothing better than dissolving quicksands, which +were liable at any moment wholly to slide away and leave us; and it +required some strength of mind to resist the vagary, and prevent it +from effecting a troublesome lodgment in the imagination. + +Thus passed the day, which fortunately, in my case, was succeeded by a +night of repose. The restlessness of mind and body once subdued, Nature +asserted her empire, and I slept profoundly until morning. Another day +and night followed, with little variation from the first; and by this +time, the strangeness and mystery of my situation had quite worn away, +and the feeling of security was established. I trod the upper deck with +all the pride, and more than the composure, of a modern monarch on his +throne. + +But the sameness of the scenery of the vast aërial ocean, in which we +were sailing alone, without consort, without ever descrying a sail, or +even keeping a lookout, without so much as ever discovering a floating +plank to remind us of a wreck, or a seaweed to tell us of the land, was +already beginning to pall on the senses, when there appeared in the +distance before us, and multiplying to the right and the left, a +succession of white, sparkling pyramids and cones, resting on the +clouds and flashing in the nether light, like crystal monuments set to +mark the boundaries of space. These were crests of the Rocky Mountains, +covered with perpetual snow. + +I gazed on them with rapture. Right in our eye, nearly due west, stood +out Long's Peak, James's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, at first small in +size, but momently swelling in dimensions; while, far to the north, +were just discernible the more lofty summits of Mount Hooker and Mount +Brown. Lying between Mount James and the Spanish Peaks, inclining to +their eastern slope, lay the green plateau, not yet visible, where we +were to land. Its position was carefully pointed out to Mr. Bonflon and +myself by Mr. De Aëry, but we strained our eyes and used our glasses in +vain. No strength of sight could penetrate the clouds and haze which +covered the body of the mountains, and hid the earth, with the +exception of those lofty silver pinnacles, from our view. + +Though these high peaks, like distant masts at sea, were first seen +early in the day, the meridian of noon overtook us before we came up +with them. At length, in increasing numbers and a thousand diversified +shapes, they lay spread out before us, and soon thereafter were +directly under our feet. Our magical machine, coming to a halt, +fluttered like a great bird above them, and gave us an opportunity, +such as probably had never been enjoyed by voyagers before, to spy out +their beauty, their mystery, and their strength. + +On nearing the mountains, we had left behind us the twilight of the +void, and come again into the full flood of day. This enabled the sight +to rest upon the scene with pleasure, to examine its diversified +splendors, and penetrate its chasms and gorges, otherwise inaccessible +to man. But to describe them is impossible. Broad fields of sparkling +snow, pyramids of ice, wide fissures shining like steel +mirrors,--produced by some unimaginable convulsion, possibly a thousand +or ten thousand years ago, and large enough to ingulf a city,--with +black humps or spires of granite here and there projecting through the +white; while afar down the rocky sides of interminable swells and +precipices came up a sound of water and a blush of green, betokening +the direction in which we were to look for the generative body of +Mother Earth; all these, and much more which I cannot stop to name, +were grouped in the rough, but magnificent landscape before us. + +No cabin could confine me at such a time as this. I stood out on the +upper deck in the extreme bow of the boat; and from an unobstructed +point of view, nearly over the figure-head, in the very abandonment of +daring, feasted my senses on the wondrous glories of this +mountain-scene of enchantment. + +De Aëry was at the helm. But I have scarcely introduced this +extraordinary gentleman to the reader. He was a tall, black-haired, +mercurial Frenchman, with an eye like a falcon, who, with only an +occasional Gallicism purposely indulged in, spoke American like a +native. I had every confidence in his prudence and skill in the +management of his craft; and still, as I perceived that we were +gradually settling down in the direction of the loftiest of those +snow-peaks, until scarcely fifty feet intervened between us and its +round, polished brow, to all appearance as solid as feldspar, I raised +my voice and accosted him. + +"Halloo! Captain!" said I, "are you intending to land us on this +Atlas-top?" + +"_Effectivement_," replied he. "_Mon Dieu!_ B----, come here." + +I went to him. + +"This," said he, "is the very Old Man of the Mountain. I intend to +plant the stars and stripes in the centre of his bald head." + +"Capital!" replied I. "But can you achieve it safely?" + +"Yes. I can manage my bird with as much ease as a pigeon poises himself +on his wings, or an Indian steers his canoe. See! we are approaching +the crown of the pinnacle." + +I watched the experiment with an interest not unmingled with fear. He +held in one hand a handsome American flag, of moderate size, and +occasionally, with a slight motion of his arm, and a glance of pride, +spread out its silken folds on the motionless air. Gradually the +"Flying Cloud," under his skilful hands, closed upon the bleak, +glittering summit, which, rounding off like the bald head of some +venerable giant, was, at its apex, scarcely ten feet in diameter. + +"No eagle, even, has ever set his foot here," said De Aëry. "There is +not a track, or feather, or mark of any living thing to be seen. The +'Flying Cloud' will be the first to explore many mysteries and to +explode others. Not even do the winds reach this height. Boreas and the +bird of Jove,--I will vanquish them both. I will step out upon that icy +peak." + +"No, no, Captain," I expostulated. "You might lose your foothold and +perish." + +"Not at all," rejoined he, with a laugh. "I am as sure-footed as a +goat. But if you think it risky, Monsieur, I forbear. But the snow +looks solid as adamant. I fear I shall not be able to erect this flag, +unless I have a firm spot for my feet." + +By this time our craft had reached a proper position,--her stern +alongside and almost in contact with the jutting peak,--to answer the +ambitious purpose of the Frenchman. Raising the flag of the Republic in +his hand, he requested us all to do it proper honor,--to salute it with +a "three times three,"--as he should succeed in securing it in its +place. Cautiously extending the staff, he brought it in contact with +the snow, and gave it several light blows, for the purpose of +ascertaining its solidity. It seemed of almost icy texture, and emitted +a half-sharp and half-muffled sound in reply. Then, elevating the +standard aloft in both hands, he brought it down with force, as the +farmer urges a stake into the ground; not doubting, as would seem, that +a succession of such blows would be needed in order to achieve his +purpose. + +A single stroke of the shaft, however, proved more than enough. To the +surprise and dismay of us all, the firm ringing surface turned out but +a shell, and all beneath, a loose bed of sparkling snow-crystals, like +white sand. The flag sunk down and disappeared, and De Aëry, losing his +balance, plunged over and went with it. + +We gazed after him in speechless horror. Before any one of us had +sufficiently recovered himself to speak, we were startled by a dull +sound, like a rushing wind, or distant, rumbling thunder; and an +immense mass of snow, many hundred feet in depth, and covering a third +of the cone, parted from its place, and, like a great, foaming wave, +broken and shapeless, rushed down the mountain's side. For the moment, +all eyes were fixed upon it. At first, it swept on without cohering, +like a cataract of sand; but, on coming in contact with the moister +snow below, it formed into a thousand balls and masses, some rolling +and some sliding, but each gathering bulk and velocity as it went. + +By the aid of our glasses we were able to sweep the rough slopes and +precipitous descents below, to the distance of many miles; and, +forgetting De Aëry, we watched the development of the phenomenon with +terror. The larger slides gradually absorbed the smaller ones, as +common fish are swallowed by sharks; but those which remained, fattened +and expanded by what they fed on, assumed enormous dimensions. Choosing +different paths, they pursued their course in smoking tracks of +devastation. Rocks, precipices, forests, furnished no obstruction. +Roaring, crashing onward, as though Mars or the Sun had opened its +batteries upon us, those sliding, whirling worlds of snow swept through +valleys large enough to have furnished sites for cities, without a +check, and bore down or over-leaped all obstacles, as easily as a man +would walk over an ant-hill, or some hollow where a toad had burrowed. +Finally they were lost to sight, passing behind intervening spurs or +ridges of the mountain, or becoming hidden in the cloud-mists which lay +heavily about its base; but the sound continued to roll back upon us +for some time, like the roar of distant artillery. I could no longer +wonder at the terror with which the cry of an avalanche is said to fill +the dwellers among the Alps. + +As this absorbing pageant of the mountains disappeared, our thoughts +reverted to De Aëry. Had he been carried away by the snow-slip? or was +his mangled corse below us among the black crags laid bare by that +catastrophe? Turning my gaze beneath, I discovered, far down, many +hundred feet, a moving object, scarcely bigger than a fly, and, on +bringing my glass to bear upon it, perceived that it was the Frenchman. +He was standing on a bare rib of rock, with his flag still in his hand, +and apparently unharmed. Waving the ensign to attract our attention, at +the same time he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs. But his +voice scarcely reached us, and probably would not alone have attracted +our notice. We replied with encouraging cheers; and the "three times +three," which we had intended for the American eagle, was given on the +spot to De Aëry. + +But how to rescue him from his perilous condition was indeed a serious +question. The "Flying Cloud," it was obvious, with her great size and +spreading pinions, could not venture among those ticklish quicksands, +whose insecure foundations had just been so strikingly illustrated +before us. Indeed, the slightest jar might precipitate another fall of +snow, and bury the object of our solicitude five hundred feet deep in +its bosom. The sagacity of Mr. Bonflon relieved us from our dilemma. He +hoisted out the small car or tender, and, letting it down with great +care and precision, safely accomplished the object. In the space of +half an hour, De Aëry, without a scratch, and, like a gallant Gaul, +rather proud of his adventure than frightened at it, was again restored +to our arms. + +Drawing off from our dangerous proximity to the "Old Man of the +Mountain," which had so nearly proved fatal to at least one of our +number, but astonished beyond measure at the novelty of our experiences +and the grandeur of the scenes we had witnessed, we retraced our course +for a short distance, and, gradually lessening the interval between us +and the earth, soon had the satisfaction of hearing the cry of "Land, +ho!" from the look-out man. The valley was in sight where we were to +take in water and enjoy a little picnic on the green grass, ere the +form and smell of Mother Earth, with her homely but blessed realities, +should be quite forgotten. + +We effected our landing in complete safety. The spot was a little, +luxurious nook among the lesser hills, with few trees, but full of wild +flowers, wild fruits, and wild grasses. Everything about it was wild, +but cheering and charming, especially to air-wanderers like us. The +foot of the white hunter, or even of the roving Indian, had perhaps +never visited it, nor foraging-parties of the buffalo or deer, for we +saw no signs of them; but birds of varied plumage and song, and troops +of squirrels, with footprints here and there of the grizzly bear, and a +drove of wild turkeys, with red heads aloft, rushing over an eminence +at our left as we approached, and an occasional whir of a rattlesnake +at our feet, sufficiently indicated the kind of denizens by which the +plateau was inhabited. + +Here, on the rich sward and delicate mosses, under the shadow of some +willows, we spread out our repast by the side of a clear +mountain-spring; and, to say nothing of old Otard and Schiedam +Schnapps, opened some bottles of Sparkling Catawba, and old Jersey +Champagne, of a remote vintage, which I have now quite forgotten. With +the flow of these beverages flowed our speech, in jovial words and +songs and raillery enough, if not in wit. De Aëry, as having by a +hair's breadth just escaped with his life, and in virtue of his +extraordinary feat in leaping five hundred feet or more through a bank +of snow, now that the danger was over, was made the butt of much +pleasantry, which he bore with his usual equanimity and grace. + +When these arrowy flights at the expense of the light-hearted Frenchman +had exhausted themselves, I took occasion to inquire of him what his +sensations were during his brief burial. He replied as follows:-- + +"I thought nothing at all about it. I remember feeling chagrined +because I was making a failure, and clung tight to my flag, fearing to +lose that too. _Mon Dieu!_ It might be expected that one would feel +cold, buried up in ice; but such was not the case. I was hot. The snow +burned my face, as it came in contact with it. As to the ride, it was +pleasant enough, but rather rapid and perplexing to the breath. It was +like sinking into a pit of quicksand, where everything gives way below +one, as though the bottom of the world had fallen out. There was the +struggle of a moment to keep the fine snow out of my mouth and +nostrils, as I drew in my breath, and the next instant my feet came in +contact with the solid rock, where you discovered me. The magnificent +avalanche you describe I know nothing about. I neither heard nor saw +anything of it, only as I afterward examined the marks it had left +behind it. This leads me to suppose that I was a good deal confused at +the time, though I was not aware of it. Indeed, I have an impression of +seeming to turn somersets in my descent, and this may account for it. +But, for the honor of France, I saved my adopted country's flag." + +High-minded Gaul! We all praised and honored him, and comforted him for +his disappointment. It was a noble attempt he had made, to nail the +American banner to the head of Mount James, impelled by the loftiest of +motives,--and, like many others of its kind, had for the present +failed. At some other time he might prove more successful; or some +other might achieve the object in his place, and so appropriate his +laurels; but no one would be likely to excel him in his flying leap. In +this he had distanced even the famous traveller at Rhodes. + +Having given a couple of hours to this species of recreation, we +weighed anchor, and again got under way. Slowly and smoothly, without a +ripple or a jar, we ascended through the blue ether to our former +altitude, and floated off over those majestic mountain-tops, toward the +west. Loath to part from scenes of such impressive beauty,--scenes, +alone paralleled in our recollection by fabulous tales of Oriental +enchantment,--we gazed behind us at those flashing crests of alabaster, +until they grew small in the distance, and finally were wholly lost to +our sight. With them disappeared the last vestige of the solid earth, +and we were again afloat in space. + +The following night and day were passed like their predecessors. +Another night came, and we were over the eastern bound of the State of +California. A few hours more, without accident, would terminate our +remarkable voyage, and set us down in the city of San Francisco. All of +us were brimming high with hope. Though we did not anticipate reaching +the station before one or two o'clock in the morning, and probably +should not disembark before dawn, we were loath to retire to rest. It +was near midnight before all of us were in our berths. + +But when at length there, I found it impossible to sleep. The +excitement attendant on the beginning of the trip seemed to have +returned on me with a double force. I listened for some sound to +relieve the awful stillness which, like the wing of Death, seemed to +have settled over the "Flying Cloud"; but there was no soughing of the +wind, as at sea, and no noise to be heard, save the monotonous movement +of the engine and the paddle-wheels; and this, so evenly did they play, +was rather a motion than a sound. + +This period of restlessness was succeeded by one of strange +bewilderment, which might have been sleep, or might not Rapidly +changing scenes and fantastic figures, some of them beautiful and some +horrible, flitted before me like a dissolving panorama. A band, as +though of steel wire, seemed to encircle my brain, and to compress it +closer and closer; and the spine, for its whole length, felt as though +subjected to a like crushing pressure. + +How long this state of hallucination continued I have no means of +knowing. From it, by a great effort, I suddenly aroused myself, and +returned to my proper senses. Where I was, and all the extraordinary +events of the last few days, were clear in my recollection. But I was +weighed down with weakness, and found, on attempting to speak, that I +had no voice. + +Suspecting that I had been stricken by some terrible disease, I +attempted to rise; and, loath to disturb any of my fellow-travellers, +undertook to crawl out upon the upper deck. This, after a good deal of +effort, I accomplished. Lying, therefore,--I could not stand,--I prayed +for a breath of air to relieve my hot and oppressed brow; but in vain. +The atmosphere seemed gone. Chill and dark, the heavens spread out +above me without a twinkle or a smile. The full-moon was there, and +there was no cloud or haze to obscure her light; but she did not shine. +Her white, rayless face was a mockery to the night. The same was true +of the stars. The dazzling canopy was faded out, and Cygnus and the +Great Bear were subdued to pallid points, like patches of white-gray +paper stuck upon a wall. + +Floating by the side of the "Flying Cloud," and nearly of her size, I +discovered a dark, irregular object, and dragged myself to the edge of +the deck to investigate it more closely. The two came together, but +without damage or friction. They touched and parted, like substances +nearly at rest in still water. I put out my hand on the strange +visitor, and received a pretty severe shock, as though I had been +subjected to the action of an electric battery. At the same time, a +light, bluish flame ran over its surface, showing me more accurately +its form and dimensions. To the touch, it was solid and cold, like iron +or granite. I pressed upon it, and it yielded like a floating dish. I +tried to break off a fragment, but was unable to separate so much as a +scale. + +A moment's reflection convinced me of the nature of this apparent +island in the air. It was an immense aërolite; and with this conviction +came the solution of my own painful state. We had unconsciously passed +beyond the controlling power of the earth's gravitation, into that +region of the upper atmosphere, where, science informs us, these +meteoric stones float in equilibrium, until some accidental impulse +throws them from their balance, when they are precipitated to the +surface of the earth. I must be dying for lack of air. And the man at +the helm, where was he? He must have fallen asleep, and left our vessel +to her own buoyant fancies. And my companions! Bonflon! De Aëry! All +ere this might have perished, and the "Flying Cloud," aside from +myself, be bearing into these upper altitudes nothing but a load of +death. + +Terror-struck, I dragged myself, with all the speed I could accomplish, +to the stern. There sat the helmsman at his post, but asleep or +insensible. I shook him, but he gave no signs of life. I shouted with +what little strength I had, but in vain. + +"Wake up! wake up!" I cried, "or we are lost!" + +At length he opened his eyes, but did not move. + +"Wake up!" I screamed again. "Breakers ahead, and worse. You have let +the craft run wild. We are above our level. We are all dying for lack +of air." + +"Oh, let me sleep!" he murmured. "I must sleep a little while longer. +It can't--can't be morning yet." + +By this time, fright, or the necessity of the occasion, was renewing my +strength. + +"Dick!" I shouted in his ear, "Dick, you scoundrel! you will murder us +all. Do your duty, or I will shoot you!" + +With this I discharged a barrel of my revolver above his head, which, +like my voice in my efforts at hallooing, sounded only as a faint echo +of itself, but, nevertheless, proved sufficient to give his dormant +faculties a shock. He started up, and, though still but half-conscious, +took the helm and gave it the direction I bade him. + +From him I hastened to the engineer, whom I found in a like state of +insensibility. I succeeded in arousing him; but it was necessary that +he should be made to comprehend the difficulties of our +situation,--that our craft, water-logged as it were, would float +forever where she was, for all anybody could say to the contrary, until +forced down by the power of the engine alone to lower and life-giving +atmospheric planes. To get him to understand this was not so easy. But +I succeeded in part, and, in my anxiety for my friends, rushed below to +look after their condition. + +As I anticipated, I found every one of them in a state of incipient +asphyxia. But the "Flying Cloud" was already descending into denser +air. Oxygen and pressure were performing their mystic work; and within +half an hour I had the pleasure of seeing them all restored to +consciousness and rapidly returning strength. But the renewed lights +exposed a sight almost too frightful to mention. Every man of us was +crimson from escaped blood, which seemed to have oozed forth, like a +pale-red dew, from every pore of our bodies. + +Messrs. Bonflon and De Aëry, when they came to realize the danger from +which we had so narrowly escaped, were nearly dumb with horror. The +lively Frenchman exhibited a sensibility which the extremity of his +single peril, a day or two before, had failed to call up. He wept +aloud. Mr. Bonflon was circumspect and thoughtful. He did not lose his +Yankee balance; but both of them, each in his own way, overwhelmed me +with expressions of obligation. + +But the dangers of this dreadful night--a night which can never pass +from my recollection--were not yet over. We were all gathered in the +main cabin, congratulating each other, next after our escape, on our +rapidly returning strength,--happy in the thought that our trip out, +though sprinkled with danger, was so near a prosperous completion, and +almost momently expecting to hear the stroke of the bell which should +announce to us that the red light to designate our place of landing was +in sight, when, instead of the silver ring of this messenger of peace, +we were startled and horrified by an alarm of fire. + +Bonflon and De Aëry rushed to the engine-room. A cloud of smoke poured +out from the door by which they disappeared. They were gone only for a +moment; for no man could remain in the hell of flames and vapors into +which they ventured and live. They came out dragging with them the +half-suffocated, scorched, and blazing engineer. How the accident +occurred, it was impossible to divine and useless to inquire. Closing +the door tightly after them to confine the flames, where confinement, +except for the briefest period, among matter so combustible, and +partitions scarcely more formidable than those of a paper bandbox, was +clearly impossible, they threw the burning engineer into our arms, and +themselves took the management of the craft. + +De Aëry, in this crisis, rose from the man to the hero, almost to a +demigod. His orders rung through the startled air clear and round like +the voice of a golden bell. Bonflon seconded him with coolness and +decision. With us a moment sufficed to extinguish the burning garments +of the engineer; but by that time the flames had burst from the +engine-room, and that part of the beautiful boat was a ragged, +crackling ruin. + +Fleeing to the upper deck, and taking refuge in the bow, we became +sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful +rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level, +on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in +our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful +was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the +dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of rest! +But if it were possible to escape the flames, it was clear enough that +we must be dashed in pieces against the solid earth. + +De Aëry was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to +great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to +control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played +about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke +through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething +hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had +perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the +furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet. + +"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he +shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the +flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon +and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our +number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say +which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface +of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and +the hazard they most dreaded. + +The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely +attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the +whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass +of surging fire. The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight, +to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San +Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid +illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than +astronomer has ever put on record. + +But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable +from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from +bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing +upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the +time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground, +served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser +lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most +fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we +struck in water instead of on the land. + +Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between +us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half +suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that +awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves +submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again +by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air. The flood of +fire in which we had descended was instantly extinguished; and we awoke +to a sense of our possible safety in darkness rendered doubly profound +by the contrast. + +Daylight was near at hand. By a careful adjustment of our weights we +kept the balloon from rolling, and sustained ourselves above the water +among the netting. As morning came, we discovered we had landed in a +small lake, hardly large enough to be dignified with the name, but +obviously of considerable depth. The shore was not distant: and as the +day was sultry, with a little grateful labor at swimming and towing, on +the part of a few of us, we soon reached it. There we examined into +each other's condition. Scarce one of us but was able to show damage by +fire, or from too rough contact with the fragments of the "Flying +Cloud," which preceded us in our plunge into the lake. But no bones +were broken, and no one badly flayed. The case of the engineer was the +worst; but even he was able to keep upon his feet, and pronounced in no +danger. + +No hut or field or sign of inhabitants was to be seen. With mixed +feelings, in which, for the present at least, the sense of personal +safety triumphed over all regrets, even with Messrs. Bonflon and De +Aëry, at the shipwreck of so many brilliant hopes, we scuttled that +part of our craft still afloat, and sunk it in the lake; and with weary +footsteps, but unobstructed with baggage, as near as we could determine +by the aid of a compass, took the direction toward San Francisco. A +couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Señor José Dianza, who +received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of +robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us +on to the city of the land of gold. + +It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return. +They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous +transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus +route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our +absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and +some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their +recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing +gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly +reappeared upon the stage of action. + +We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should +remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought +a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which +covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too +good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so +near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be +suppressed. Hence, conquering my repugnance, I have decided, on my own +responsibility, to give these interesting and valuable particulars to +the world. + + + * * * * * + +DOG-TALK. + + +Exactly,--Dog-Talk. And I sit down to write some of it out, in the +middle of this pleasant month of May, lest, peradventure, if I postpone +my task for a few weeks longer, I may fall in with my memories some +time in the raging days of the dog-star, when the overwhelming sense of +dog, in which, for the true working out of these memories, I must first +dip my mind, may debar me from enjoying to the fullest extent the +bounteous tap of Croton water which tinkles with such rivulet chiming +from the silver (German) faucet into the marble (wash-hand) basin with +which one side of my apartment is adorned. Hydrophobia is one thing, +and hydrophobiaephobia is another. + +Although but the mid-time of May, as I have said, the thermometer is +reported at something not far short of eighty degrees, and that in as +much shade as can possibly be had in the street in which I write, which +is a brick street of New York, with one catalpa-tree in it,--a poor, +vegetable fakir, standing on his one leg at a distance of about three +blocks from "our corner," and sprawling out all round with his +shrivelled hands, as if to catch the passing robe of some rambling +breath of fresh air. With a trustful hope that this statement may be +accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently +inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my +memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface. + +I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not +prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of +man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more +voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow, +Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of +others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from +the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of +him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as +tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious +things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be +necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man. + +Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark, +so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more +indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally +referred to above. Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for +instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror, +and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not +one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man, +excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a +beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is. +Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the +"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us +"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would +make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything +very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing +things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is +wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles +beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs +uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands. + +Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot +concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called +reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I +think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals +stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and +master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his +nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his +ribs. Fine as the line may appear which separates instinct from the +divine gift of reason, we must see that progress, an essential +consequence of the latter, is denied to the former. It is quite +possible that the dogs which accompanied the first mariner in the first +argosy were educated to fetch and carry, or were even so far +accomplished as to sit up and beg; and it is but little more their +descendants can do at the present day. But what of Man, who weathered +safely the storm of storms in that same Ark? Compare that venerated +bark, as imagined by us from traditionary description, with the least +eligible of the ferry-boats which scud across our crowded rivers, and +we have answer enough for the present, so far as progress is concerned. + +Well, if Dog has never invented so much even as a patent rat-trap,--a +thing, you see, that might have saved him some labor,--if he persists +in disregarding the majesty of Fashion, and continues to move about in +society with the same kind of coat on his back as that worn by his +first ancestor, hatless, disaffected of shoes, and totally obtuse to +the amenity of an umbrella,--if, in fact, his only approach to +humanity, as distinguished by apparel, is his occasional adoption of a +collar precisely similar in general effect to those in which Fashion, +empress of Broadway and of a great many other ways, condemns her +wretched votaries to partial strangulation,--well, say I again, in +spite of all this, Dog is prime company. Intimately associated as I +have been from earliest boyhood with many excellent fellows of the +family, from social communion with which I am at present debarred only +by the direful necessity of dwelling in lodgings,--a necessity which, +if distasteful to Man, to Dog, oh, how fatal!--bound, I may say, as I +was for years, not by straps and chains only, but by ties of confident +friendship also, to canine comrades possessing the purest elements of +worth and humor, it is to me a task not altogether devoid of interest +to fall back on such memories as may enable me to chronicle a few +reminiscences of the nobilities and eccentricities of the race. + +Before I discourse of individual dogs of the present century, however, +with whom I have had the pleasure of being personally acquainted, let +me reproduce the following short tale of a dog from an old French +volume,--a tome fittingly adorned with ears of that noble animal +innumerable. + +Persimel St. Remi was a gentleman of fortune, whose income was derived +principally from large rented farms, the dues arising from which he +sometimes collected himself, in preference to intrusting that important +duty to a steward or agent. On his excursions for that purpose, he was +generally accompanied by a favorite little spaniel, of a kind too small +to be of any service to him as an escort, but inestimable for his +qualities as a companion. One day M. St. Remi had ridden a long way to +collect certain sums of money due him in arrears of rent, but which he +had little expectation of being able to obtain without further trouble. +To his agreeable surprise, however, his tenants paid him the whole +arrears,--an event so unexpected that he could not conceal his +exultation as he clinked the heavy bag of money on the pommel of his +saddle, when cordially taking leave of his farmers. Merle--that was the +little dog's name--was equally delighted; for his moods were always +regulated by those of his master,--such is the mysterious sympathy +between Dog and us; and ever as his master laughed cheerily to the +chink of the gold, on his homeward ride, Merle barked and bounded +alongside of him, clearly understanding that gold is a thing to be +laughed _with_ and not _at_, and that it is no laughing matter to be +without it. This is what the old French writer asserts respecting the +inward sentiments of that small dog. How he arrived at a knowledge of +them, I know not, nor is it any business of mine. Well, Persimel St. +Remi galloped on and on, until they reached the way-side well about +halfway home,--the old stone trough, with the water sparkling into it +from the grotesque spout carved out of the rock. Here he pulled bridle +to water his horse, refreshed him further by slackening the girths of +the saddle, and, unstrapping the bag of gold which was attached to the +holsters, he placed it by his side on the rock, while he splashed his +hands and face in the cool water. By-and-by he drew up the girths, +mounted his horse dreamily, for he was a man of contemplative moods, +and rode away from the way-side well, forgetful of his treasure, which +lay temptingly on the flat rock, ready to the hand of the first comer. +Not so his faithful dog, who, having in vain tried to lift the bag, +which was too heavy for him, ran swiftly after the rider, whose +attention he strove to arouse by barking violently, and careering round +and round the horse when he slackened his pace. Failing thus to attract +notice, he went so far in his zeal as to bite the horse pretty severely +in the fetlock, which caused him to swerve on one side, and wake up his +master to a vague sense of something wrong, the first idea that +occurred to him being that his dog had gone mad. Cases of hydrophobia +had lately occurred in the neighborhood, and St. Remi was convinced of +the seizure by it of his poor dog when they reached the brook which +flowed across the road. Instead of luxuriating and drinking in this, as +he usually did, the spaniel circled away to where it narrowed, and +leaped across it in his run. Then St. Remi, drawing a pistol from his +holsters, fired at and shot his faithful companion, averting his eyes +as he touched the fatal trigger, and galloping rapidly away from the +death-cry that smote upon his ear; and, as he dashed the spurs into his +reeking horse, he invoked maledictions on the money which was the cause +of this unfortunate journey. The money! but where was it? Suddenly he +pulled up his harassed steed, and the unhappy truth flashed upon him: +he had left his treasure by the way-side well, and had shot his +faithful dog for trying to remind him of it. Riding back to the well +with mad speed, he found by traces of blood upon the path that the poor +spaniel had dragged himself thither again to guard his master's gold to +the last. There he found him, stretched out beside the bag of money, +with just strength enough left to raise his head towards his master, +with a look of forgiveness, ere he died. + +The chronicler does not state what M. St. Remi did with all that +money,--though we may be safe in supposing that he very exactly knew; +but we would fain hope that he expended a moiety of it in founding a +retreat for decayed dogs, as a monument to the poor little spaniel so +faithful to him in life and in death. + +Sporting dogs,--the setter, the pointer, the fox-hound, and all the +several varieties of hound, have had their historians, from Dame +Juliana Berners to Peter Beckford, and that more recent Peter whose +patronymic was Hawker; while, on our side of the Atlantic, the late +"Frank Forester" has reduced kennel-practice to a system from which the +Nimrod of the ramrod may not profitably depart. Apart from history, +however, and from didactic argument, the individual trails of dogs +remarkable in their day have but too rarely been recorded. Certainly +the shepherd's colley has been admirably individualized by the Ettrick +Shepherd; but many a terrier--"a fellow of infinite fancy"--has passed +through the world's worry without ever seeing his name in +print,--unless, indeed, he happened to have fallen among thieves, and +found himself lamp-posted accordingly,--has passed the grizzle-muzzle +period of doghood unbiographied, and gone down to his last burrow +unsung. + +Among the regrets with which we are saddled for our omissions, not the +least of mine is now galling me for having neglected to reduce to +writing, on the spot, curious facts which fell under my immediate +notice in the course of many years' companionship with a somewhat +miscellaneous assortment of canine friends,-- + + "The little dogs and all, + Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart." + +Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring together in this paper such +stray reminiscences of doggery in general as may occur to me while I +write, illustrating the subject, as I proceed, with occasional passages +from the careers, of humble, but eccentric individuals of the race. + +Extinction has been the fate of some varieties of the dog, which have +been either superseded by the progress of machinery, or have gone to +decay in consequence of the annihilation of the animals for the chase +of which they were maintained. When there were wolves in the mosses and +caverns of Ireland, for example, there were wolf-dogs to hunt them. The +last wolf of that country--and _he_ was a wonder, from the then rarity +of the animal--was killed about one hundred and fifty years ago; and +although the breed of hound then known as the Irish wolf-dog--one of +the largest, noblest, and most courageous of the canine race--was kept +up to some extent for nearly a century later, we doubt much whether a +single pure specimen of the variety is now in existence; unless, +indeed, it may so happen that some _ultimus Romanorum_ of the tribe +still licks his patrician chops in the kennels of the Marquis of Sligo, +in the possession of which family the last litter was many years ago +supposed to be. + +Reverting to times when I was a boy, I remember me of a generation of +bandy-legged, foxy little curs, long of body, short of limb, tight of +skin, and "scant of breath," which were regarded as the legitimate +descendants of a superseded class,--the Turnspit of good old times. The +daily round of duty of that useful _aide-de-cuisine_ transpired in the +revolution of a wheel, along the monotonous journey of which he +cantered, as a squirrel does in his rolling cage, keeping in motion, by +his professional exertions, the wheels and spinners of the spit upon +which the joint was kept turning before the fire. The tight skin of +this ugly dog was evidently a provision of Nature to secure him from +entanglement with the machinery amid which his business was conducted. +Had a Scotch terrier, for instance, whiskered and plumed, descended +from his own more aristocratic circle to disport himself in that where +turnspit was the principal mover,--the kitchen-wheel,--he might have +found himself cogged, and caught up, and spitted, and associated +promiscuously with leg of mutton as roasted hare; in which capacity he +might eventually have been eaten with currant-jelly and considerable +relish, receiving more honor, perhaps, "in that connection," than had +ever in his lifetime been lavished on him as a member of society. + +But Turnspit's profession is a thing of the past, his very existence a +myth. The roasting-jack, with a wind-up weight by which the spit was +turned, cut him out first of all; other inventions further diminished +his importance. But the tea-kettle--which he somewhat resembled in +figure, by-the-by--scalded him clean off the face of creation; for the +bright steam-engine, attached nowadays to the kitchens of our principal +hotels, has given a new turn to affairs, ruling the roast after a +fashion that sets back old Turnspit into the remotest corner under the +backstairs of the Dark Ages. I have alluded to his alleged descendants, +as pointed out to my observation in boyhood; but they were an effete +and degenerate race, purposeless, and wallowing much with the pigs, +whom their grandsires would have recognized only to roast. + +In one instance only, and that on this side of the Atlantic, do I +remember having been introduced to any dog whose profession was at all +analogous to that of the turnspit of other days. Falling into +conversation with an old Dutch-Yankee farmer, in a remote and very +rural district, I made some remarks about his dog, which was a very +large, heavy one, of that no-particular-kind happily classified by the +comprehensive natural philosophers of the barn-floor as "yellow dog." +Farmer assured me that this fine fellow--whose name I am ashamed to say +I have forgotten--did all the churning of the farm-dairy by imparting +his motive power to a wheel. This piece of ingenuity, Farmer informed +me, was originally and exclusively an inspiration from the intellect +which animated his, Farmer's, proper clod; nor was he greatly +exhilarated when I narrated to him the tradition of the turnspit, whose +memory, I regret to record, he spurned as that of a "mean cuss," +destitute of that poetry which dwelleth in the pastoral associations of +the dairy. + +Although not strictly in connection with the subject of this article, I +will here relate a story told to me, on the same occasion, by that old +farmer, because it struck me as being rather a good one, and is not +particularly long. + +Seeing that I took notice of a smock-frocked rustic employed in +foddering the cattle,--a rustic whose legs and accent were to me +exclusively reminiscent of the pleasant roads and lanes of cheery +Somersetshire,--Farmer informed me that he was a newish importation, +having made his appearance about there early in the previous winter. +While snow, of such quality and in such quantity as they have it in +that region, was yet a novelty to the bumpkin, he was dispatched on +horseback, one day, to the neighboring village, strict instructions +being given him to ride carefully in the middle of the track, as, +treading in the deep snow, the horse might "ball,"--an expression +applied to taking up snow in the hollow of the hoof, which causes the +animal to stumble. An unusually long time elapsed before the messenger +made his appearance from his mission, and then he was seen making his +way painfully through the snow, leading the horse after him by the +bridle. + +"What's wrong now?" inquired Farmer, as he glanced at the animal's +knees; "been down, I guess; did Old Horse ball?" + +"Noa," replied Bumpkin, "a didn't joost bawl, but a groonted +consoomedly every toime a coom down. Oi thowt a wur a-gwoan to bawl the +last toime we coom down together, and zo oi joost stayed down and +walked 'im whoam." + +When doggy men beyond ocean talk about a terrier, they usually +pronounce it _tarrier_, and not _terrier_, as we mostly call him on +this bank of the Atlantic. There is no authority for the former +pronunciation, that I know of, beyond usage, which, however, is much +taken as a standard in England. Thus, an English merchant will talk to +you about his _clarks_, an American about his _clurks_. The French word +_terrier_--derived, of course, from _terre_--signifies not only the +dog, but a burrow in the earth; a kind of retreat in which such dogs +are supposed to pass a portion of their existence, occupied in the +subterrene branches of the chase. It means, also, a land-roll or +register. In Lower Canada, which is essentially France, I recollect the +label, _"Papier Terrier,"_ upon the door of a public-land-office. A +friend of mine, clandestinely and under cover of darkness, removed the +label, substituting for it a scurrilous one setting forth "Pasteboard +Poodle," an announcement which did not appear to convey any particular +idea whatever to the unsettled mind of the haggard provincial _chef du +bureau_, as it flashed upon him next morning in the light of the glad +young autumn day. But, reverting to pronunciation, _tare_-ier would, of +course, more correctly reverberate the sound of the French original +than either of the other usages, while it would possess the advantage +of conveying a suggestion of that proclivity for tearing, so +characteristic of the animal designated by the term. On this important +question the learned philologists wrangle. For my part, I stick to +_tarrier_, which comes "oncommon handy," as the horse-dealer hinted, +when reproved by the Cambridge student for reducing a noble animal +nearly to the level of a donkey by calling him "an 'oss." + +And of all the terrier tribe, there is no quainter little fellow than +he of the Island of Skye,--known to his friends and admirers as the +"Skye dog." This little animal, which, in length of spine, shortness of +legs, wildness of hair, and litheness of movement, resembles one of +those long, hirsute caterpillars oft-times to be observed by the happy +rambler in the country, as it promenades across his path, possesses +many distinctive traits, which separate him, in a manner, from Dog in +general, assimilating him somewhat, indeed, to the _ferce_, which find +in rapine and carnage the subsistence which Nature evidently has not +intended that they should realize in communion with man. The peculiar +odor of the fox is his, though in a mitigated degree. He loves to make +a lair under the bushes by tearing up the turf with his teeth and paws, +and to lie in it. He is of a shy and reserved disposition, and usually +more lively at night than by day. These are attributes of beasts of +prey. Unlike all other members of the terrier family, he cares nothing +about rats. He will sit down and bark in a tone of contempt at one +turned out before him in a close passage or room, declining, in fact, +to recognize rats as game, unless entered at them while very young. I +speak only of the pure, unmixed Isle-of-Skye dog, or "tassel terrier," +as he is sometimes called by rabbit-hunters,--a breed difficult to +obtain in perfection, and one which is particularly scarce in this +country. The proper game or quarry of this animal is the otter, which +he does not hesitate to follow into his very burrow in the river-banks; +nor is he afraid to attack one nearly double his size. + +Having, time after time, possessed several of these dogs, verified as +being derived from the best stock on the island, from which their +parents--who understood no language but Gaelic--were brought direct, I +have noted some of their odd, whimsical ways, a few of which I will +illustrate, taking for my exponent one very remarkable little fellow +who was a genuine type of his kind. + +This animal was one of the smallest of his family, and of a color +uncommon among them; for they are mostly either of a yellowish dun, or +of that slaty mouse-color known among dog-fanciers as "blue,"--a tint, +by the way, particularly appropriate for a dog of Skye. Sometimes they +are black; but Sambo, better known to his familiars as Sam, was of a +sooty brindle, with a very dark muzzle, and eyes burning out like black +stars from the cloud of shaggy hair that mantled upon his brow. Next to +the shortness of his legs, the length of his body was one of the most +remarkable physical freaks I remember to have observed; neither of +these attributes, however, having a chance of notice in comparison with +the quantity and denseness of his long, soft hair,--for the coat of a +true Skye dog is fleecy, rather than wiry. It was the joint result of +the shortness of his legs and the length of his beard that the fatter +appendage continually swept the ground,--an inconvenience which I once +undertook to remedy by trimming it off short with scissors. No Turk +could have more indignantly resented the process than did that small +quadruped,--his Celtic feelings being so severely wounded by it, in +fact, that he abstained from sustenance for three days, putting himself +into moral sackcloth and ashes for that period by retiring into his +penitential cell under a chest of drawers. + +When quite a pup, hardly half-grown, he played a trick unaccountable to +me at this day as it was then. Sam had the run of the house, and he +availed himself of it. On going into the breakfast-room, one morning +early, I observed a singular phenomenon in connection with a large, +cold round of beef, which was the _pièce de résistance_ on the table. +It was curious to behold a round of cold beef with a tail, which it +wagged, and feathered, and beckoned with, as if to say, "Come, eat me." +The tail was the tail of Sam, whose body was concealed far down in the +interior of the tower of beef, into which he had cut his way with great +perseverance and success. But the puzzle was, how he got there; for +there was no chair within reach of the table, and he was much too small +to have jumped up on it; while the theory of the servant, who +propounded that he must have climbed up by the table-cloth, tooth over +claw, was wild, and simply entitled to the contempt of any person aware +of the difference between dog and cat. There is but one acceptable +theory on the subject,--that he was down in the caverns of the beef, +_tail and all_, before it was brought up-stairs, and so escaped notice. + +Early in life, he contracted--from evil association, perhaps--a vulgar +trick of running after carriages and barking at the horses' heels, a +trick of which I in vain tried to break him. Once, when he was about a +year old, I took him up beside me into a high _calèche_, in which we +were going some distance. The moment the horse started, Sam jumped out +to have a bark at his heels, when, to my horror, the wheel of the +vehicle, in which there were three of us, went right over the middle of +his body, cutting him, apparently, in two; but he was up in a second, +and barking at heels and wheels for half a mile before we could pull up +and get him in again. This accident appeared to decide him in the +choice of a profession, for he devoted himself energetically, from that +hour, to the pursuit and baying-at of all manner of wheeled things +propelled by horse-power. + +A rat he would never touch, although I introduced him to one before he +was a year old; he manifested neither fear of the vermin, nor surprise +at it, but simply took no interest in it. He had much pleasure in +worrying cats; but that was owing, I fancy, to a sad discomfiture he +once met with from one. Walking through a suburb one day, with Sammy +trotting before me in dreamy mood, to which he was much given, a small, +but remarkably severe cat made a sudden and very fierce dash at him +from a cottage-door, taking him so completely aback, that he tumbled, +head over tail, into a deep, dirty pool of green, stagnant water, such +as is usually to be seen in the pleasure-grounds environing a +suburbo-Hibernian shanty. His appearance, on emerging from that +cesspool, was the reverse of majestic; but the incident gave him such +an idea on the subject of cats, that he always persecuted them +remorselessly from that day; nor did he ever again walk through a +suburb in any other frame of mind than a particularly wide-awake one, +and with his tail up. + +These dogs are curiously sensitive about their dignity, and sometimes +do not recover their elasticity of spirits for several days after +having undergone a process of correction. I recollect a singular +instance of this sensitiveness displayed by Sambo, in which he also +manifested a kind of inferential power wonderfully akin to reason. + +One morning, a tumult of dogs in the street drew him to the window, out +of which he looked by jumping on a chair, just as a troop of "curs of +low degree" tore past after a rather genteel-looking dog with a kettle +tied to his tail. They whirled rapidly by in a turmoil of dust, and +clink, and cur-dog yelp, but not so rapidly as to prevent Sam from +perceiving the terrible degradation to which a gentleman-dog had been +subjected. The sight had a visible effect on his spirits, for he +immediately became quite depressed as to tail and mind, a condition +which influenced him for a day or two, after which he again appeared +comparatively cheerful, and took his place in society with his +accustomed cautious conviviality. About a month after this, he was seen +coming very slowly along a lane which led up to the back of the +house,--a course hardly ever taken by him, as he was a parlor-dog, and +considered himself entitled to the freedom of the hall-door. Creeping +on in the shadow of the wall, he arrived with a very crest-fallen +aspect at the kitchen-door, where the cause of his ignominious approach +was made manifest to those who were watching him. _He had a kettle tied +to his tail_. Now this animal must surely have argued in his own mind, +that running away with a tin kettle is a sure way of attracting +undesirable notice; also, that proceeding through a public thoroughfare +with such an appendage is injudicious, and likely to result in +trouble. The circumstance of the runaway dog and the tumult after him +had left its impression upon him; and, travelling on his experience, he +rightly judged that an unpleasant affair of the kind might best be +hushed up by quietly making one's way home through back-lanes and the +kitchen-door. + +Skye terriers, when young, are apt to have a bad trick of gnawing and +tearing up articles of wearing apparel, particularly slippers, gaiters, +and such other things as are handy to toss up and catch. The fellow I +am writing about, when very young, destroyed sundry items of my +property in that way. He occupied a buffalo-robe in my room, and I +heard him very busy one night about something, but did not pay much +attention to it, as he was often lively at night. In the morning, +however, on looking for a pair of leather gaiters, I recognized the +remains of them, after much investigation, in a mass of pulp, to which +they had been reduced by the little beast as completely as they could +have been by the most experienced boa-constrictor. This habit I soon +broke him of, by chastising him with the remnants of the worried +article, when there were any left of substance sufficient to weave into +a scourge; nor did he ever recur to it when grown up, except once, +evidencing upon that occasion a remarkable instance of hereditary +instinct. + +Some fur caps, and other articles of winter wear, had been shaken out +of their summer quarters for the purpose of beating the moths out of +them and ventilating them generally, with a view to which they were +placed upon the sill of an open window. By some means Sam obtained +access to the room, where he was discovered in the act of mauling a +valuable otter-skin cap, which he had selected out of the whole +collection for his particular amusement. This dog had never seen an +otter; but his ancestors were noted for their game qualities in the +pursuit of that animal, and their speciality must have descended to +him. + +Eventually Sambo lost all his self-respect. He became discontented and +addicted to low company, dissipating with vile curs whose owners +enjoyed anything but unblemished reputations,--a fact first notified to +me by a clergyman of my acquaintance who knew him well. The worst of +this was, that he wore a collar with my name engraved on it in full; +and it was a long time before I had an opportunity of redeeming that +misused badge. About the very last time I ever saw him, I think, he +came home with one of his eyes gouged out, a split ear, and other marks +but too suggestive of the tavern brawl. I then deprived him of his +collar; soon after which he returned to his unsettled course of life, +and I never saw him again. + +The peculiar, otter-like form of these animals, and the buoyancy given +to them by their long, floating hair, endow them with great facility +for swimming; while the small compass into which they will pack in a +canoe or skiff makes them very useful companions to the sportsman whose +propensities are for paddling about "in the melancholy marshes." I made +an excellent retriever of one of mine by carrying in my pocket a +stuffed snipe, which I would make her hunt up and fetch out of the +weeds into which I had thrown it. She would go back half a mile and +fetch this, when I had hidden it ever so cunningly in a thicket by the +way-side. I also taught her to dive, by making her, while young, fetch +up a little bag of shot from the bottom of a bathtub in my room. By +throwing this into deeper water, gradually, she would soon go down to a +great depth for it. A charge of shot, tied up in a piece of white +kid-glove, with a "neck" left to hold on by, is a good object for the +purpose, as it is readily seen in deep water, and teaches the animal, +besides, to nip gingerly,--a valuable qualification in a retriever. I +remember one of these dogs fetching up from a considerable depth the +watch of a friend of mine, which had slipped out of his pocket into a +clear, still bay, over which he was loitering in his canoe. + +From times unrecorded until about twenty years ago, the Skye terrier +awaited confidently his summons to the sphere of rank and fashion. +About that time, the day, which, as the proverb figuratively informs +us, it falls to the lot of each individual of the canine race to enjoy, +began to shine out brightly for the dog of Skye, the first rays of it +that reached him being reflected from no less a luminary than the Crown +of Great Britain; for it was among the Scottish fancies of England's +Queen to adopt as a prime favorite this hitherto obscure quadruped. +Reckoned until that time--if anybody took the trouble of computing him +at all--as one of the ugliest of his race, he at once found himself +invested with all the attributes of a canine Adonis,--a very Admirable +Crichton of dogs,--perfect in intellect, face, figure, and the Hyperion +luxuriance of his copious mane and tail. In our youth, we knew--and +hated--a small, unmitigated snob of a dog called the Pug, a kind of +work-basket bull-dog, diminutive in size, dyspeptic in temper, +disagreeable to contemplate, and distressing to be obliged to admire. +One of the missions in society of Skye Terrier--who, when going before +a high wind, bears no unapt resemblance to a mop or a wisp of tow--was +to mop up Pug, and polish him off the hearth-rug of Fashion; a mission +which he appears to have at least partially accomplished. For now the +black muzzle of Pug is but seldom to be seen protruded from +carriage-window, biding his time for a snap at the first kid-gloved +finger that wags within range of his overlapping tusks in waving +salutation to his dowager mistress,--for, of the dowagers, above all, +he was one of the chronic calamities. Oftener, now, are the well-combed +whiskers and moustaches of Skye Dog to be recognized, dropping over the +drawing-room window-sill, or framed, like a portrait by Landseer, in +the panelled sash of the barouche, out of which he gazes pensively with +the impressive speculation of the true _flâneur_;--yea, for as men of +fashion are, so are their dogs; and so also of the fighting butcher, +who ever has his counterpart in the fighting bull-dog that glowers from +his gory stall. + +This exalted value of Skye Dog, in a commercial point of view, has, of +course, given rise to the manufacture of a spurious article; whence it +comes, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the animal palmed +off on the unsophisticated as genuine has nothing of the real stuff in +his constitution, but is simply a shallow imitation, compounded +according to prescription,--one part common cur-terrier to two parts +insignificant French poodle. And so I take leave of the Skye terrier +with a _caveat emptor_ to the purchaser who does not want to be sold +while he buys. + +The sense of humor must surely exist in individual dogs; otherwise it +would puzzle me to account for the singular practical jokes played off +by a water-spaniel once possessed by me. This individual, whose name +was Muff, was a rather small-sized one, of the pure Kentish blood; +liver-colored, with a white ring on his neck, and white paws; +close-curled, wicked-eyed, deep-chested, and remarkably powerful for +his size. Professionally a retriever,--and one of great promise, +although never fully tested with the gun,--his leisure hours, which +included every one in the twenty-four, were passed in the invention and +perpetration of curiously regulated mischiefs, with all of which he +took pains to combine an element of the ludicrous. His great spree was +to run amuck into a flock of small children coming out of school. If +there was a dirty crossing hard by, over which they had to pass, he +would wait until they had got half-way, and then, going through them +like a rocket, would chuck them down into the mud, right and left, as +he sped, keeping straight on in his career until far beyond range of +pedagogue's rod. His trick of making a sudden rush at the heels of +unsuspecting persons--and he invariably selected the right sort for his +purpose--might often have got me into ugly scrapes, but for the tact +with which he invariably ignored his master on such occasions. If +pursued, he never came near me for protection, but fled wildly on, +assuming the character of a dog "on the loose," belonging to nobody in +particular, and quite able to take care of himself. He had a decided +objection to street industrials in general, including Italian +organ-grinders and image-sellers. Once I saw him crouching stealthily +after one of the latter, who was passing through an open square with a +tray of casts upon his head; and before I could get up a whistle or +call him off by name, he had darted like a javelin at the legs of the +refugee, startling him so much out of the perpendicular that the +superstructure of plastic art came to the ground with a crash, +top-dressing the sterile soil of the Campus Martius with a coat of +manufactured plaster of Paris. Marius, blubbering over the shattered +chimney-stacks of Carthage, could not have displayed a more touching +classical spectacle than did that modern Roman lamenting to and fro +among the fragments of his collapsed martyrs and ruined saints; nor +were his pangs fully assuaged even by the application of the universal +panacea to an amount more than double the value of his lost wares. + +A great difficulty in training this dog was to bring him "to heel,"--a +still greater one to keep him there when he came. If thrashed into his +proper place in his master's wake, he always resented the indignity by +biting him pretty severely in the legs with a savage whimper. This he +invariably did on first leaving the house with me, sometimes nipping me +so severely, after we had gone a short distance, that I have hesitated +whether to go back for a pistol to shoot him, or forward for a +pennyworth of biscuit to buy him off. When told to "hie away," the +extravagance of his joy knew no bounds. He would have been as +invaluable to a tailor as was to the Parisian _décrotteur_ the poodle +instructed by him to sully with his paws the shoes of the passengers; +for, in the exuberance of his gladness, he but too often rent +insufferably the vestments of the hapless pedestrians in his line of +fire. Sometimes he would turn his assaults upon me, and, springing +suddenly at my "wide-awake," take it from my head, trailing it wildly +away through the mud, and dropping it in some place where it would be +difficult to get at it without wading. Then I would have to conciliate +him to fetch it,--a favor not to be obtained without much stratagem and +diplomacy. + +One of this dog's abnormal qualities was the bull-dog one of holding on +to his antagonist in a fight. But few dogs of his size were able to +cope with him; and I once saw him, when in grips with a fierce +bull-terrier by a riverside, precipitate the result by dragging his +adversary into the water, and dipping his head under. He would jump off +the highest bridge to fetch out of the water anything thrown in for +him, never failing to bring it to his master's feet,--except once, when +he steadily declined to recover from the raging element a cane with +which I had, some time previously, administered to him a sound +thrashing for some delinquency. On the first occasion of his being +accidentally left behind at a ferry across a very wide and rapid river, +he swam out some distance after the boat; but, finding the enterprise a +rather hopeless one, soon put back again and waited for the next boat, +on board of which he took his place with a tranquil and business-like +air. This he regularly did on subsequent occasions, without risking the +swim; and when on board, he always seated himself on the upper deck and +as far forward as possible, so as to catch early glimpses of his +friends in waiting. + +Among the gifts of this clever animal, I must not forget to reckon a +perception of the truthful in Art. I had a walking-stick, upon the +crooked handle of which was carved, with tolerable skill, a pointer's +head. This piece of sculpture was a source of frequent anxiety to +Muff,--his embarrassment apparently arising from the circumstance of +his not having the gift of speech wherewith to deliver himself of an +opinion on the subject. He would sometimes get up from the sunny spot +on the carpet where he lay, walk over to the corner in which the stick +was deposited, contemplate the handle attentively, with his head on one +side, for several minutes, and then, shaking his head doubtfully, +return to his lair with a sigh. Philanthropist as well as critic, he +once saved the life of a dissipated old sergeant of dragoons, to whom +he had taken a fancy, by rushing into a house which the man had just +quitted in a state of intoxication, and so rousing the inmates by his +gestures, that they at once followed him into the road, alongside of +which the beery old _sabreur_ was found prostrate in a pool of water, +setting his face pertinaciously against that hostile element, even to +what was very near being his last gasp. + +Large dogs often appear to take a humorous view of the futile attempts +of small ones to accomplish some feat beyond their strength or stature. +A friend of mine once possessed a very large animal of a cross between +the Mount St. Bernard dog and the English mastiff, and as remarkable +for his good-nature as for his great strength and courage. Rambling out +one day, accompanied by this trusty friend, they came upon a group of +rustics engaged in the ignoble diversion of baiting a badger, an animal +much in request among English dog-fanciers as a test for the pluck of +their terriers. "Drawing a badger" is the proper sporting-phrase,--the +animal being chained to a barrel, from the recesses of which he +contends savagely with the fierce little dogs pitted against each other +to drag him out within a given time. Nero looked on at the sport with a +majestic air of contempt, as dog after dog was withdrawn from the +conflict. At length, disgusted with the failures, he watched his +opportunity until the badger made a dive from his den at a retreating +foe, when, snapping him up by the collar, he thundered away down the +road with the barrel flying after, nor ever stopped until he reached +home, nearly a mile away, where he safely deposited badger and barrel +in the immediate vicinity of his private residence in the stable-yard. + +One of the worst vices by which a dog can be beset is a propensity for +killing sheep. It is not a common vice, but, where it exists, it +appears to be inveterate and beyond all hope of reform. Shutting up the +delinquent with a dangerous ram has often been recommended as a certain +mode of disgusting him with mutton, should he survive the discipline +inflicted on him by the avenger of the blood of his race. I can recall +but one instance within my experience in which this corrective was +tested. It was in the case of a sulky dog of a breed between the red +Irish setter and something larger, but less patrician, upon whom the +thirst for blood fell at uncertain intervals, impelling him then to +devastate the very sheepfolds of which in his capacity as watch-dog he +might have been considered as _ex officio_ the guardian. This vile +malefactor had been ordered for execution, and the noose was already +coiled for his caitiff neck, when a neighbor of his master's--a great +raiser of sheep--begged for him a reprieve, kindly volunteering the use +of a truculent, but valuable ram belonging to him, for the purpose of +illustrating the homaeopathic theory above alluded to. At nightfall the +ram was brought and turned into a paddock, where he was left fettered +to the dog with a couple of yards of chain. At the dawn of morning the +ram's master approached confidently the arena of discipline, secure of +a result triumphant for his theory. But theory was a delusion in this +instance; for the red dog Tanner sat there alone and surfeited with +mutton,--though there was a good deal of the ram still left. + +It is wonderful what an amount of crime can be committed, even +by a small dog, when, like the _Chourineur_ of Eugene Sue, he is +under the glamour of blood. Of this there came to my knowledge a +well-authenticated instance, one for the truth of which I can vouch. A +settler in a remote bush-district had been to the nearest village, +which was many miles from his clearing. It was in March, and the +surface of the snow--which was quite two feet deep--was frozen to a +hard crust, as he travelled homewards in his cutter, accompanied by a +currish dog, not nearly so large as an average pointer. About +nightfall, and when some two miles from home, a herd of nine deer +crossed his track, struggling away into the woods with uncertain +plunges, as the treacherous crust gave way beneath them at every bound. +While they were yet in sight, the dog gave chase, and they all +disappeared into the dark forest together; nor did the dog return to +the call of his master, who, after whistling to him for a short time, +proceeded on his way and drove home without him. Early next morning the +cur made his appearance, glutted and gory, and looking the very picture +of dissipation. Struck by his appearance, they took the back track on +his trail, which led them to a hollow in the bush, where the snow was +much trampled and draggled with blood, and in and around which every +one of the nine deer lay dead, pulled down and throttled by one +miserable cur, who had the mastery over them, because he could run on +the surface of the snow, through which they sunk. The dog's master--at +whose shanty I once stayed when on a fishing-excursion--was much +mortified at the occurrence, as the deer-hunting season was past, and +he was one of Nature's sportsmen, a game-keeper by instinct. + +I have but one more anecdote of a dog, for the present; and that is one +for the truth of which I distinctly decline to vouch. It was imparted +to me by a calker, who owned a woolly French poodle, which remarkable +animal, he informed me, used to swim out regularly once a week,--on +Saturday evenings, I think he said,--with a large wisp of tow in his +mouth, upon the ascension of his fleas into which place of refuge, he +would "let it slide" down the current and swim back tranquilly to the +shore, there to slumber away another week in comparative comfort.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The calker's dog had probably never read Olaus Magnus, +though that worthy Archbishop wrote something very like dog-Latin; but, +as dwellers on the margin of the "Atlantic," we have too great a +respect for a prelate who believed in the kraaken and the sea-serpent, +not to refer our valued Cynophilist to the Thirty-Ninth Chapter of the +Eighteenth Book _De Gentibus Septentrionalibus_, where he will find the +same story told of the fox.--_Eds. Atlantic._] + +Having thus calked my Dog-Talk--bark, in fact--with this very tough bit +of yarn, I now trustfully commit it to the mercies of the "Atlantic." + + + + +THE RECKONING. + + +Your thought may recur with mine + To a certain place in the city, +Where you sometimes have chanced to dine; + If not, why, the more's the pity! + +Did you notice the delicate way + Whereby, with the trencher and cup, +Comes a hint of the matter of pay, + In a counter laid _blank side up_? + +Now,--not to pervert the intent + Of a courtesy gentle and rare, +Or observance so civilly meant + With disparaging things to compare,-- + +By the token your messenger brings, + Did such services never suggest +A likeness to manifold things + Of the world, and the flesh, and--the rest? + +Command whatsoever you will, + To pamper your folly or pride; +You shall find, that unfailingly, still, + The _counter_ is laid beside, + +Silently,--seemingly fair,-- + Till an angel the disk shall turn, +And the soul's great debt, the inscription there, + On her vision shall burst and burn! + + + * * * * * + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + +MATANZAS. + + +A hot and dusty journey of some six hours brought us to Matanzas at +high noon. Our companions were Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and +game-chickens, that travel extensively in these parts, sometimes in +little baskets, with openings for the head and tail, sometimes in the +hands of their owners, secured only by a string fastened to one foot +and passed over the body. They seem to be objects of tender solicitude +to those who carry them; they are nursed and fondled like children, and +at intervals are visited all round by a negro, who fills his mouth with +water, and squirts it into their eyes and under their feathers. They +are curiously plucked on the back and about the tail, where only the +long tail-feathers are allowed to grow. Their tameness in the hands of +their masters is quite remarkable; they suffer themselves to be turned +and held in any direction. But when set down, at any stage of the +journey, they stamp their little feet, stretch their necks, crow, and +look about them for the other cock with most belligerent eyes. As we +have said that the negro of the North is an ideal negro, so we must say +that the game-cock of Cuba is an ideal chicken, a fowl that is too good +to be killed,--clever enough to fight for people who are too indolent +and perhaps too cowardly to fight for themselves,--in short, the +gladiator of the tropics. + +Well, as we have said, we and they arrived at our journey's end in the +extreme heat of the day; and having shown our paper and demanded our +trunks, we beat an instantaneous retreat before the victorious monarch +of the skies, and lo! the Ensor House, dirty, bare, and comfortless, +was to us as a fortress and a rock of defence. + +Here I would gladly pause, and, giving vent to my feelings, say how +lovely I found Matanzas. But ever since Byron's time, the author is +always hearing the public say, "Don't be poetical," etc., etc.; and in +these days both writer and reader seem to have discovered that life is +too short for long descriptions,--so that, when the pen of a G. P. R. +James, waiting for the inspirations of its master, has amused itself +with sketching a greater or less extent of natural scenery, the rule of +the novel-reader is invariably, "Skip landscape, etc., to event on +thirty-second page." Nevertheless, I will say that Matanzas is +lovely,--with the fair harbor on one hand and the fair hills on the +other, sitting like a mother between two beautiful daughters, who looks +from one to the other and wonders which she loves best. The air from +the water is cool and refreshing, the sky is clear and open, and the +country around seems to beckon one to the green bosom of its shades. +"Ob, what a relief after Havana!" one says, drawing a full breath, and +remembering with a shudder the sickening puffs from its stirring +streets, which make you think that Polonius lies unburied in every +house, and that you nose him as you pass the door and window-gratings. +With this exclamation and remembrance, you lower yourself into one of +Mr. Ensor's rocking-chairs,--twelve of which, with a rickety table and +a piano, four crimson tidies and six white ones, form the furniture of +the Ensor drawing-room,--you lean your head on your hand, close your +eyes, and wish for a comfortable room, with a bed in it. A tolerable +room you shall have; but for a bed, only a cot-bedstead with a sacking +bottom,--further, nothing. Now, if you are some folks that I know, you +will be able to establish very comfortable repose on this slender +foundation, Nature having so amply furnished you that you are your own +feather-bed, bolster, sofa-cushion, and easy-chair, a moving mass of +upholstery, wanting only a frame to be set down in and supported. But +if you should be one of Boston's normal skeletons, pinched in every +member with dyspepsia, and with the mark of the beast neuralgia on your +forehead, then your skin will have a weary time of it, holding your +bones, and you will be fain to entreat with tears the merciful +mediation of a mattress. + +Now I know very well that those of my readers who intend visiting Cuba +will be much more interested in statistics of hotels than in any +speculations, poetical or philosophical, with which I might be glad to +recompense their patience. Let me tell them, therefore, that the Ensor +House is neither better nor worse than other American hotels in Cuba. +The rooms are not very bad, the attendance not intolerable, the table +almost commendable. The tripe, salt-fish, and plantains were, +methought, much as at other places. There were stews of meat, onions, +sweet pippins, and _ochra_, which deserve notice. The early coffee was +punctual; the tea, for a wonder, black and hot. True, it was served on +a bare pine table, with the accompaniment only of a bit of dry +bread,--no butter, cake, nor _dulces_. But Mr. Ensor has heard, no +doubt, that sweet things are unwholesome, and is determined, at +whatever cost to his own feelings, to keep them out of the way of his +guests, who are, for the time, his children. Then there is an excellent +English servant called John, whom, though the fair Ensor did berate +him, we must enumerate among the comforts of the establishment. There +is a dark corner about _volantes_, which they are disposed to order for +you at a very unreasonable profit; but as there are plenty of livery +stables at hand, and street _volantes_ passing all the time, it will be +your own fault, if you pay six dollars where you ought to pay three. + +The first thing to be done at Matanzas is to drive out and see the +Cumbre, a hill in the neighborhood, and from it the valley of the +Yumori. The road is an improvement on those already described,--the +ruts being much deeper and the rocks much larger; the jolting is +altogether more complete and effective. Still, you remember the +doctrine that the _volante_ cannot upset, and this blind faith to which +you cling carries you through triumphantly. The Cumbre is lofty, the +view extensive, and the valley lovely, of a soft, light green, like the +early leaves and grass of spring, dotted everywhere with the palms and +their dark clusters. It opens far, far down at your feet, and on your +left you see the harbor quiet and bright in the afternoon sun, with a +cheering display of masts and pennons. You would look and linger long, +but that the light will wane, and you are on your way to Jenks his +sugar-plantation, the only one within convenient distance of the town. +Here the people are obviously accustomed to receive visitors, and are +decently, not superfluously, civil. The _major-domo_ hands you over to +a negro who speaks English, and who salutes you at once with, +"Good-bye, Sir!" The boiling here is conducted in one huge, open vat. A +cup and saucer are brought for you to taste the juice, which is dipped +out of the boiling vat for your service. It is very like balm-tea, +unduly sweetened; and after a hot sip or so you return the cup with +thanks. A loud noise, as of cracking of whips and of hurrahs, guides +you to the sugar-mill, where the crushing of the cane goes on in the +jolliest fashion. The building is octagonal and open. Its chief feature +is a very large horizontal wheel, which turns the smaller ones that +grind the cane. Upon this are mounted six horses, driven by as many +slaves, male and female, whose exertions send the wheel round with +sufficient rapidity. This is really a novel and picturesque sight. Each +negro is armed with a short whip, and their attitudes, as they stand, +well-balanced on the revolving wheel, are rather striking. They were +liberal of blows and of objurgations to the horses; but all their cries +and whipping produced scarcely a tenth of the labor so silently +performed by the invisible, noiseless slave that works the +steam-engine. From this we wandered about the avenues, planted with +palms, cocoas, and manifold fruit-trees,--visited the sugar-fields, +where many slaves were cutting the canes and piling them on enormous +ox-carts, and came at last to a great, open field, where many head of +cattle were quietly standing. Our negro guide had not been very lavish +or intelligible in his answers to our numerous questions. We asked him +about these cattle. "Dey cows," he replied. We asked if they gave milk, +and if butter was made on the plantation. He seemed quite puzzled and +confused, and finally exclaimed,--"Dat cows no got none wife." Coming +nearer, we found that the cows were draught oxen, employed in dragging +the canes and other produce of the plantation. Jenks his garden we +found in good order, and beautiful with many plants in full blossom; +but Jenks his house seemed dreary and desolate, with no books, a +wretched print or so, dilapidated furniture, and beds that looked like +the very essence of nightmare. Nothing suggested domestic life or +social enjoyment, or anything--; but as Jenks is perfectly unknown to +us, either by appearance or reputation, we give only a guess in the +dark, and would suggest, in case it may displease him, that he should +refurnish and repaint a little, and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over +his solitary villa, remembering that Americans have imaginations, and +that visitors will be very apt to construct an unknown host from his +surroundings. + +The second thing to be done in Matanzas, if you arrive on Saturday, is +to attend military mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning. This +commences at eight o'clock; but the hour previous may be advantageously +employed in watching the arrival and arrangement of the female +aristocracy of Matanzas. These enter in groups of twos and threes, +carrying their prayer-books, and followed by slaves of either sex, who +bear the prayer-carpet of their mistresses. The ladies are wonderfully +got up, considering the early hour; and their toilettes suggest that +they may not have undressed since the ball of the night before. All +that hoops, powder, and puffery can do for them has been done; they +walk in silk attire, and their hair is what is technically termed +dressed. Some of them bring their children, bedizened like dolls, and +mimicking mamma's gestures and genuflexion in a manner more provoking +to sadness than to satire. If the dressing is elaborate, the crossing +is also. It does not consist of one simple cross, "_in nomine Patris_," +etc.; they seem to make three or four crosses from forehead to chin, +and conclude by kissing the thumb-nail, in honor of what we could not +imagine. Entering the middle aisle, which is divided from the rest by a +row of seats on either side, they choose their position, and motion to +the dark attendant to spread the carpet. Some of them evince +considerable strategic skill in the selection of their ground. All +being now in readiness, they drop on their knees, spread their +flounces, cross themselves, open their books, and look about them. +Their attendants retire a little, spread a handkerchief on the ground, +and modestly kneel behind them, obviously expecting to be saved with +the family. These are neatly, sometimes handsomely dressed. In this +status things remain until the music of the regiment is heard. With a +martial sound of trumpets it enters the church, and fills the aisles, +the officers taking place within the chancel, and a guard-of-honor of +eight soldiers ranging on either side of the officiating priest. And +now our devotions begin in good earnest; for, simultaneously with the +regiment, the _jeunesse dorée_ of Matanzas has made its appearance, and +has spread itself along the two long lines of demarcation which +separate the fair penitents from the rest of the congregation. The +ladies now spread their flounces again, and their eyes find other +occupation than the dreary Latin of their missals. There is, so to +speak, a lively and refreshing time between the youths of both sexes, +while the band plays its utmost, and _Evangel_, _Kyrie_, and _Credo_ +are recited to the music of Trovatore and Traviata. That child of four +years old, dressed in white and gold flounces, and white satin boots +with heels, handles her veil and uses her eyes like mamma, eager for +notice, and delighted with the gay music and uniforms. The moment comes +to elevate the Host, thump goes the drum, the guard presents arms, and +the soldiers, instead of kneeling, bend forward, in a most +uncomfortable manner. Another thump, and all that is over; the swords +are returned to their sheaths, and soon, the loud music coming to an +end, the regiment marches out of church, very much as it marched in, +its devotional experiences being known to Heaven alone. Ladies and +lovers look their last, the flounces rise in pyramids, the +prayer-carpets are rolled up, and, with a silken sweep and rush, Youth, +Beauty, and Fashion forsake the church, where Piety has hardly been, +and go home to breakfast. To that comfortable meal you also betake +yourself, musing on the small heads and villanous low foreheads of the +Spanish soldiery, and wondering how long it would take a handful of +resolute Yankees to knock them all into--But you are not a filibuster, +you know. + + +THE PASEO--THE PLAZA--DINING OUT. + + +"As this Sunday is Carnival, you cannot do better than drive about the +city, and then go to the Plaza to see the masks. My partner's wife, +with whom you have now so comfortably breakfasted, will call for you in +her _volante_, between five and six o'clock. She will show you the +Paseo, and we will go and see the masks afterwards." + +So spoke a banker, who, though not _our_ banker, is our friend, and +whose kind attentions we shall ever recall, when we remember Cuba. So +he spoke, and so it befell. The pretty American lady, Cubanized into +paleness, but not into sallowness, called at the appointed hour, and, +in her company, we visited the principal streets, and the favorite +drive of the Matanzasts. The Paseo is shorter than that of Havana, but +much prettier. We found it gay with _volantes_, whose fair occupants +kept up an incessant bowing and smiling to their friends in carriages +and on horseback. The Cubans are generally good riders, and their +saddle-horses have the easiest and pleasantest gait imaginable. The +heat of the climate does not allow the severe exercise of trot and +gallop, and so these creatures go along as smoothly and easily as the +waves of the sea, and are much better broken to obedience. The ladies +of Matanzas seem to possess a great deal of beauty, but they abuse the +privilege of powder, and whiten themselves with _cascarilla_ to a +degree that is positively ghastly. This _cascarilla_ is formed by the +trituration of eggshells; and the oval faces whitened with it resemble +a larger egg, with features drawn on it in black and red. In spite of +this, they are handsome; but one feels a natural desire to rush in +amongst them with a feather duster, and lay about one a little, before +giving an available opinion of their good looks. + +If the Paseo was gay, the streets of the city were gay also; the +windows filled with faces and figures in full dress, with little groups +of children at the feet of the grown people, like the two world-famous +cherubs at the feet of the Madonna di San Sisto. There were crowds of +promenaders too, everywhere, interspersed with parties of maskers, who +went about screaming at the public with high, shrill voices. Leaving +the _volante_, we descend to the Plaza, where is now the height and +centre of movement. We find it flanked on all sides with little movable +kitchens, where good things are cooked, and with tables, where they are +sold and eaten. Fried cakes, fish, and meats seem the predominant bill +of fare, with wine, coffee, and fruits. The masks are circulating with +great animation; men in women's clothes, white people disguised as +negroes, and negroes disguised as whites, prodigious noses, impossible +chins and foreheads; the stream of popular fancy ran chiefly in these +channels. We met processions consisting of a man carrying a rat in a +cage, and shouting out, "Catch this rat!" followed by a perfect +stampede of wild creatures, all yelling, "Catch that rat!" at the top +of their voices. The twanging of the guitar is heard everywhere, +accompanied by the high nasal voices of the natives, in various strains +of monotony. In some spots the music is more lively, accompanied by the +shaking of a gourd filled with dry seeds, which is called _ghiera_, and +whose "chick-a-chick, chick-chick" takes the place of the more poetical +castanets;--here you find one or more couples exhibiting their skill in +Cuban dances, with a great deal of applause and chattering from the +crowd around. Beside those of the populace, many aristocratic groups +parade the Plaza, in full dress, crowned with flowers and jewels;--a +more motley scene can hardly be imagined. Looking up, one sees in +curious contrast the tall palms with which the Plaza is planted, and +the quiet, wondering stars set in the deep tropical heavens. + +But in our evening's programme, tea has been omitted; now, what +availeth a Bostonian without his tea? By eight o'clock, we are pensive, +"most like a tired child at a show,"--by half-past eight, stupid,--by +nine, furious. Two hours of folly, taken on an empty stomach, alarm us +for our constitution. A visit to the _café_ is suggested and adopted. +It proves to be crowded with people in fancy attire, who have laid +aside their masks to indulge in beer, orgeat, and sherbet. While our +Cuban friends regale themselves with soursop and _zapote_ ice sweetened +with brown sugar, we call for a cup of delicious Spanish chocolate, +which is served with a buttered toasted roll, worthy of all imitation. +Oh, how much comfort is in a little cup of chocolate! what an +underpinning does it afford our spiritual house, a material basis for +our mental operations! In its support, we go it a little longer on the +Plaza, see more masks, hear more guitars and "catch-this-rat!" and +finally return, in a hired _volante_, to the Ensor House, where rest +and the bedless cots await us. + +But we have friends in Matanzas, real born Cubans, who will not suffer +us to remain forever in the Ensor House. They send their _volante_ for +us, one day, and we visit them. Their house, of the inevitable Cuban +pattern, is richly furnished; the marbles of the floor are pure and +smooth, the rug ample and velvety; the wainscoting of the walls, so to +speak, is in handsome tiling,--not in mean, washy painting; the cane +chairs and sofas are fresh and elegant, and there is a fine Erard +piano. The master of the house is confined to his room by illness, but +will be happy to see us. His son and daughters speak English with +fluency. They inform us, that the epidemic colds which prevail in Cuban +winters are always called by the name of some recent untoward +occurrence, and that their father, who suffers from severe influenza, +has got the President's Message. We find Don José in a bedroom darkened +by the necessary closing of the shutters, there being no other way of +excluding the air. The bedsteads are of gilded iron, with luxurious +bedding and spotless mosquito-nettings. His head is tied up with a silk +handkerchief. He rises from his rocking-chair, receives us with great +urbanity, and expresses his appreciation of the American nation and +their country, which he himself has visited. After a short interview we +leave him, but not until he has placed his house and all it contains +_"á la disposicion de Usted."_ We are then shown the pretty bedroom of +the young ladies, whose toilettes are furnished in silver, the bath +lined with tiling, the study, and the dining-room, where luncheon +awaits us. We take leave, with a kind invitation to return and dine the +next day, which, upon mature deliberation, we accept. + +The _volante_ comes for us next day, with Roque, brightest of all +living _caleseros_, fixed in his boots and saddle. After a pleasant +drive we attain the house, and are received by its hospitable inmates +as before. The interval before dinner, a tolerably long one, is filled +up by pleasant chitchat, chiefly in English. The lady of the house does +not, however, profess our vernacular, and to her understanding we lay +siege in French, Italian, and laughter-provoking Spanish. Before dining +we pay a second visit to the host, who is still busy digesting the +President's Message. Obviously, the longer he has it under +consideration, the worse he finds it. He has nausea from its bragging, +his head aches with its loudness, and its emptiness fills him with +wind. We are at our wits' end to prescribe for him, and take our leave +with grave commiseration, telling him that we, too, have had it, but +that the symptoms it produces in the North are a reddening in the cheek +and a spasmodic contraction of the right arm. Now comes great dinner +on. A slave announces it, and with as little ceremony as may be we take +our places. And here we must confess that our friend the banker had +rendered us an important service. For he had said,--"Look not upon the +soup when it is hot, neither let any victuals entice thee to more than +a slight and temporary participation; for the dishes at a Cuban dinner +be many, and the guest must taste of all that is presented; wherefore, +if he indulge in one dish to his special delectation, he shall surely +die before the end." And it came to pass that we remembered this, and +walked through the dinner as on egg-shells, gratifying curiosity, on +the one hand, and avoiding satiety, on the other, with the fear of +fulness, as it were, before our eyes. For, oh, my friends! what pang is +comparable to too much dinner, save the distress of being refused by a +young woman, or the comfortless sensation, in times of economy, of +having paid away a five-dollar gold piece in place of a silver quarter +of a dollar? + +But you, Reader, would like more circumstantiality in the account of +this dinner, which united many perfections. It was handsome, but not +splendid,--orderly, but, not stately,--succulent, but not unctuous. It +kept the word of promise to the smell and did not break it to the +taste. It was a dinner such as we shall wish only to our best friends, +not to those acquaintances who ask how we do when they meet us, and +wish we were dead before we part. As for particulars, we should be glad +to impart much useful information and many choice receipts; but the +transitory nature of such an entertainment does not allow one to +improve it as one could wish. One feature we remember, which is that +the whole dinner was placed on the table at once, and so you had the +advantage of seeing your work cut out before you. None of that hope +deferred, when, after being worried through a dozen stews and +_entrées_, you are rewarded at last with an infinitesimal fragment of +the _rôti_. Nor, on the other hand, the unwelcome surprise of three +supplementary courses and a dessert, when you have already dined to +repletion, and feel yourself at peace with all the world. Here, all was +fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup, +of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and +onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled +chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with +saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and +vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think, +from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a +splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored +sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have +eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then +came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New +England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge +tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made +into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course +of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own +plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a +thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance +that we should have no more. + +A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the +masks, it being still Carnival. So the _volante_ was summoned, with its +smiling, silent Roque, and the pretty daughter of the house took seat +beside us. The streets around the Plaza proved quite impassable from +the crowd, whose wild movements and wilder voices went nigh to scaring +the well-trained horses. The little lady was accustomed, apparently, to +direct every movement of her charioteer, and her orders were uttered in +a voice high and sweet as a bird-call. "_Dobla al derecho, Roque! +Roque, dobla al derecho_!" Why did not Roque go mad, and +exclaim,--"Yes, Señorita, and to heaven itself, if you bid me so +prettily!" But Roque only doubled as he was bid, and took us hither and +thither, and back to the nest of his lady-bird, where we left her and +the others with grateful regrets, and finally back to the Ensor House, +which on this occasion seemed to us the end of all things. + + +GAME-CHICKENS--DON RODRIGUEZ--DAY ON THE PLANTATION--DE-PARTURE. + + +As there are prejudices in Cuba, and elsewhere, touching the +appropriate sphere of woman, Halia was not taken to the cockpit, as she +had demanded and expected,--not to see the chickens fight, but to see +the Spaniards see it. + +Forgive her, ye Woman's-Righters, if on this occasion she was weak and +obedient! You would have gone, no doubt,--those of you who have not +husbands; but such as have must know how much easier it is to deal with +the article man in his theoretical than in his real presence. You may +succeed in showing by every convincement, that you are his natural +master and superior, and that there is every reason on earth why you +should command and direct him. "No! ---- ," says the wretch, shaking +his fist, or shrugging his shoulders; and whatever your intimate +convictions may be, the end is, that you do not. + +Propitiated by that ready obedience which is safest, dear sisters, in +these contingencies, the proprietor of Halia takes her, one morning, to +see the establishment of a man of fortune in the neighborhood, where +one hundred and forty game-chickens are kept for training and fighting. +These chickens occupy two good-sized rooms, whose walls are entirely +covered with compartments, some two feet square, in each of which +resides a cock, with his little perch and drinking-vessel. They are +kept on allowance of water and of food, lest they should get beyond +fighting-weight. Their voices are uplifted all day long, and on all +moonlight nights. An old woman receives us, and conducts us to the +training-pit, pointing out on the way the heroes of various battles, +and telling us that this cock and the other have won _mucho dinero_, +"much money." Each has also its appointed value;--this cock is worth +forty dollars, this four ounces, this one six ounces,--oh, he is a +splendid fellow! No periodal and sporadic hen-fever prevails here, but +the gallo-mania is the chronic madness of the tropics. + +The training-pit is a circular space inclosed with boards, perhaps some +twelve feet in diameter. Here we find the proprietor, Don Manuel +Rodriguez, with a negro assistant, up to the ears in business. Don +Manuel is young, handsome, and vivacious, and with an air of good +family that astonishes us. He receives us with courtesy, finds nothing +unusual in the visit of a lady, but is too much engrossed with his +occupation to accord us more than a passing notice. This is exactly as +we could wish,--it allows us to study the Don, so to speak, _au +naturel_. He is engaged at first in weighing two cocks, with a view to +their subsequent fighting. Having ascertained their precise weight, +which he registers in his pocket-memorandum, he proceeds to bind strips +of linen around their formidable spurs, that in their training they may +not injure each other with them. This being accomplished,--he all the +while delivering himself with great volubility to his black +second,--the two cocks are taken into the arena; one is let loose +there; the negro holds the other, and knocks the free fowl about the +head with it. Sufficient provocation having been given, they are +allowed to go at each other in their own fashion, and their attacks and +breathing-spells are not very unlike a bout of fencing. They flap, fly +at each other, fly over, peck, seize by the neck, let go, rest a +moment, and begin again, getting more and more excited with each round. +The negro separates them, when about to draw blood. And as for Don +Manuel, he goes mad over them, like an Italian _maestro_ over his +favorite pupil. "_Hombre, hombre!_" he cries to the negro, "what a +cock! By Heaven, what a couple! _Ave María santísima!_ did one ever see +such spirit? _Santísima Trinidad!_ is there such fighting in all +Matanzas?" Having got pretty well through with the calendar of the +saints, he takes out his watch;--the fight has lasted long enough. One +of the champions retires to take a little repose; another is brought in +his place; the negro takes him, and boxes him about the ears of the +remaining fowl,--brushing him above his head, and underneath, and on +his back, to accustom him to every method of attack. Don Manuel informs +us that the cock made use of in this way is the father of the other, +and exclaims, with an air of mock compassion, _Pobre padre!_ "Poor +father!" The exercise being concluded, he takes a small feather, and +cleans out therewith the throat of either chicken, which proves to be +full of the sand of the arena, and which he calls _porquería_, "dirt." + +We leave Don Manuel about to employ himself with other cocks, and, as +before, too much absorbed to give our departure much notice. Strange to +say, Hulia is so well satisfied with this rehearsal, that she expresses +no further desire to witness the performance itself. We learn +subsequently that Don Manuel is a man of excellent family and great +wealth, who has lavished several fortunes on his favorite pursuit, and +is hurrying along on the road to ruin as fast as chickens' wings can +carry him. We were very sorry, but couldn't possibly interfere. +Meantime, he appeared excessively jolly. + +Our kind friends of the dinner were determined to pay us, in their +persons, all the debts of hospitality the island might be supposed to +contract towards strangers and Americans. Arrangements were accordingly +made for us to pass our last day in Matanzas at a coffee-plantation of +theirs, some four miles distant from town. They would send their +travelling _volante_ for us, they said, which was not so handsome as +the city _volante_, but stronger, as it had need to be, for the roads. +At eleven o'clock, on a very warm morning, this vehicle made its +appearance at the door of the Ensor House, with Roque in the +saddle,--Roque with that mysterious _calesero_ face of his, knowing +everything, but volunteering nothing until the word of command. Don +Antoñito, he tells us, has gone before us on horseback;--we mount the +_volante_, and follow. Roque drives briskly at first, a slight breeze +refreshes us, and we think the road better than is usual. But wait a +bit, and we come to what seems an unworked quarry of coral rock, with +no perceptible way over it, and Roque still goes on, slowly indeed, but +without stop or remark. The strong horses climb the rough and slippery +rocks, dragging the strong _volante_ after them. The _calesero_ picks +his way carefully; the carriage tips, jolts, and tumbles; the centre of +gravity appears to be nowhere. The breeze dies away; the vertical sun +seems to pin us through the head; we get drowsy, and dream of an uneasy +sea of stones, whose harsh waves induce headache, if not seasickness. +We wish for a photograph of the road;--first, to illustrate the +inclusive meaning of the word; second, to serve as a remembrance, to +reconcile us to all future highways. + +Why these people are content to work out their road-tax by such sore +travail of mind and body appeareth to us mysterious. The breaking of +stone in state-prison is not harder work than riding over a Cuban road; +yet this extreme of industry is endured by the Cubans from year to +year, and from one human life to another, without complaint or effort. +An hour or more of these and similar reflections brings us to a bit of +smooth road, and then to the gate of the plantation, where a fine +avenue of palms conducts us to the house. Here resides the relative and +partner of our Matanzas friends, a man of intelligent and humane +aspect, who comes to greet us, with his pleasant wife, and a pretty +niece, their constant guest. This lady has made use of her retirement +for the accomplishment of her mind. She has some knowledge of French +and Italian, and, though unwilling to speak English, is able to +translate from that language with entire fluency. The plantation-house +is very pretty, situated just at the end of the palm-avenue, with all +the flowers in sight,--for these are planted between the palms;--it has +a deep piazza in front, and the first door opens into one large room, +with sleeping-apartments on either side. Opposite this door is another, +opening upon the court behind the house, and between the two our chairs +are placed, courting the draught.--_N.B._ In Cuba, no one shuns a +draught; you ride, drive, sit, and sleep in one, and, unless you are a +Cuban, never take cold. The floor of this principal room is merely of +clay, rubbed with a red powder, which, mixed with water, hardens into a +firm, polished surface. The house has but one story; the timbers of the +roof, unwhitened, forming the only ceiling. The furniture consists of +cane easy-chairs, a dining-table, and a pretty hammock, swung across +one end of the room. Here we sit and talk long. Our host has many good +books in French and Spanish,--and in English, Walter Scott's Novels, +which his wife fully appreciates. + +A walk is proposed, and we go first to visit _los negros +chiquitos,--Anglicè_, "the small niggers," in their nursery. We find +their cage airy enough; it is a house with a large piazza completely +inclosed in coarse lattice-work, so that the _pequeñuelos_ cannot +tumble out, nor the nurses desert their charge. Our lady friend +produces a key, unlocking a small gate which admits us. We found, as +usual, the girls of eight and upwards tending the babies, and one +elderly woman superintending them. On our arrival, African drums, +formed of logs hollowed out, and covered with skin at the end, were +produced. Two little girls proceeded to belabor these primitive +instruments, and made a sort of rhythmic strumming, which kept time to +a monotonous chant. Two other girls executed a dance to this, which, +for its slowness, might be considered an African minuet. The dancing +children were bright-looking, and not ungraceful. Work stops at noon +for a recess; and the mothers run from the field to visit the +imprisoned babies, whom they carry to their own homes and keep till the +afternoon-hour for work comes round, which it does at two P.M. We went +next to the negro-houses, which are built, as we have described others, +contiguous, in one hollow square. On this plantation the food of the +negroes is cooked for them, and in the middle of the inclosed square +stood the cooking-apparatus, with several large caldrons. Still, we +found little fires in most of the houses, and the inmates employed in +concocting some tidbit or other. A hole in the roof serves for a +chimney, where there is one, but they as often have the fire just +before their door. The slaves on this plantation looked in excellent +condition, and had, on the whole, cheerful countenances. The good +proportion of their increase showed that they were well treated, as on +estates where they are overworked they increase scarcely or not at all. +We found some of the men enjoying a nap between a board and a blanket. +Most of the women seemed busy about their household operations. The +time from twelve to two is given to the negroes, besides an hour or two +after work in the evening, before they are locked up for the night. +This time they improve mostly in planting and watering their little +gardens, which are their only source of revenue. The negroes on this +estate had formed a society amongst themselves for the accumulation of +money; and our friend, the manager of the plantation, told us that they +had on his books two thousand dollars to their credit. One man alone +had amassed six hundred dollars, a very considerable sum, under the +circumstances. We visited also the house of the mayoral, or overseer, +whose good face seemed in keeping with the general humane arrangements +of the place,--as humane, at least, as the system permits. The negroes +all over the island have Sunday for themselves; and on Sunday +afternoons they hold their famous balls, which sometimes last until +four o'clock on Monday morning. Much of the illness among the negroes +is owing to their imprudence on these and like occasions. Pneumonia is +the prevalent disease with them, as with the slaves in our own South; +it is often acute and fatal. Everything in Cuba has such a tendency to +go on horseback, that we could not forbear asking if dead men did, and +were told that it was so,--the dead negroes being temporarily inclosed +in a box, and conveyed to the cemetery on the back of a horse. Our +friend, seeing our astonishment, laughed, and told us that the poor +whites were very glad to borrow the burial-horse and box, to furnish +their own funerals. + +Dinner was served at four o'clock, quite informally, in the one +sitting-room of the house. A black girl brushed off the flies with a +paper fly-brush, and another waited on table. The dinner was excellent; +but I have already given so many bills of fare in these letters, that I +will content myself with mentioning the novelty of a Cuban +country-dish, a sort of stew, composed of ham, beef, mutton, potatoes, +sweet potatoes, _yuca_, and yams. This is called _Ayacco_, and is a +characteristic dish, like eel-soup in Hamburg, or salt codfish in +Boston;--as is usual in such cases, it is more relished by the +inhabitants than by their visitors. On the present occasion, however, +it was only one among many good things, which were made better by +pleasant talk, and were succeeded by delicious fruits and coffee. After +dinner we visited the vegetable garden, and the well, where we found +Candido, the rich negro who had saved six hundred dollars, drawing +water with the help of a blind mule. Now the philanthrope of our party +was also a phrenologist, and had conceived a curiosity to inspect the +head of the very superior negro who had made all this money; so, at his +request, Candido was summoned from the well, and ordered to take off +his hat. This being removed disclosed the covering of a cotton +handkerchief, of which he was also obliged to divest himself. Candido +was much too well bred to show any signs of contumacy; but the +expression of his countenance varied, under the observation of the +phrenologist, from wonder to annoyance, and from that to the extreme of +sullen, silent wrath. The reason was obvious,--he supposed himself +brought up with a view to bargain and sale; and when informed that he +had a good head, he looked much inclined to give somebody else a bad +one. He was presently allowed to go back to his work; and our +sympathies went with him, as it would probably take some days to efface +from his mind the painful impression that he was to be sold, the last +calamity that can happen to a negro who is in kind hands. We now +wandered through the long avenues of palm and fruit trees with which +the estate was planted, and saw the stout black wenches at their +out-door occupations, which at this time consisted chiefly in raking +and cleansing the ground about the roots of the trees and flowers. +Their faces brightened as their employers passed, and the smaller +children kissed hands. Returned to the house, we paused awhile to enjoy +the evening red, for the sun was already below the horizon. Then came +the _volante_, and with heartfelt thanks and regrets we suffered it to +take us away. + +And who had been the real hero of this day? Who but Roque, fresh from +town, with his experience of Carnival, and his own accounts of the +masked ball, the Paseo, and the Señorita's beaux? All that durst +followed him to the gate, and kissed hands after him. _"Adios, Roque! +Roque, adios!"_ resounded on all sides; and Roque, the mysterious one, +actually smiled in conscious superiority, as he nodded farewell, and +galloped off, dragging us after him. + +As we drove back to Matanzas in the moonlight, a sound of horses' feet +made us aware that Don Antoñito, the young friend who had planned and +accompanied our day's excursion, was to be our guard of honor on the +lonely road. A body-servant accompanied him, likewise mounted. Don +Antoñito rode a milk-white Cuban pony, whose gait was soft, swift, and +stealthy as that of a phantom horse. His master might have carried a +brimming glass in either hand, without spilling a drop, or might have +played chess, or written love-letters on his back, so smoothly did he +tread the rough, stony road. All its pits and crags and jags, the pony +made them all a straight line for his rider, whose unstirred figure and +even speech made this quite discernible. For when a friend talks to you +on the trot, much gulping doth impede his conversation,--and there is +even a good deal of wallop in a young lady's gallop. But our friend's +musical Spanish ran on like a brook with no stones in it, that merely +talks to the moonlight for company. And such moonlight as it was that +rained down upon us, except where the palm-trees spread their inverted +parasols, and wouldn't let it! And such a glorification of all trees +and shrubs, including the palm, which we are almost afraid to call +again by name, lest it should grow "stuck up," and imagine there were +no other trees but itself! And such a combination of tropical silence, +warmth, and odor! Even in the night, we did not forget that the +aloe-hedges had red in them, which made all the ways beautiful by day. +Oh! it was what good Bostonians call "a lovely time"; and it was with a +sigh of fulness that we set down the goblet of enjoyment, drained to +the last drop, and getting, somehow, always sweeter towards the bottom. + +For it was set down at the Ensor House, which we are to leave to-night, +half-regretful at not having seen the scorpion by which we always +expected to be bitten; for we had heard such accounts of it, patrolling +the galleries with its venomous tail above its head, that we had +thought a sight might be worth a bite. It was not to be, however. The +luggage is brought; John is gratified with a _peso_; and we take leave +with entire goodwill. + +I mention our departure, only because it was Cuban and characteristic. +Returning by boat to Havana, we were obliged to be on board by ten +o'clock that evening, the boat starting at eleven. Of course, the +steamer was nowhere but a mile out in the stream; and a little +cockle-shell of a row-boat was our only means of attaining her. How +different, ye good New Yorkers and Bostonians, from your afternoon walk +on board the "Bay State," with valise and umbrella in hand, and all the +flesh-pots of Egypt in--well, in remembrance! After that degree of +squabbling among the boatmen which serves to relieve the feelings of +that habitually disappointed class of men, we chose our craft, and were +rowed to the steamer, whose sides were steep and high out of water. The +arrangements on board were peculiar. The body of the main deck was +occupied by the _gentlemen's_ cabin, which was large and luxurious. A +tiny after-cabin was fitted up for the ladies. In the region of the +machinery were six horrible staterooms, bare and dirty, the berths +being furnished simply with cane-bottoms, a pillow, and one unclean +sheet. Those who were decoyed into these staterooms endured them with +disgust while the boat was at anchor; but when the paddle-wheels began +to revolve, and dismal din of clang and bang and whirr came down about +their ears, and threatened to unroof the fortress of the brain, why, +then they fled madly, precipitately, leaving their clothes mostly +behind them. But I am anticipating. The passengers arrived and kept +arriving; and we watched, leaning over the side, for Don Antoñito, who +was to accompany our voyage. Each boat had its little light; and to see +them dancing and toppling on the water was like a fairy scene. At last +came our friend; and after a little talk and watching of the stars, we +betook ourselves to rest. + +Many of the Dons were by this time undressed, and smoking in their +berths. As there was no access to the ladies' cabin, save through the +larger one, she who went thither awaited a favorable moment and ran, +looking neither to the right hand nor the left. The small space was +tolerably filled by Cuban ladies in full dress.--_Mem_. They always +travel in their best clothes.--The first navigation among them was a +real balloon-voyage, with collisions; but they soon collapsed and went +to bed. All is quiet now; and she of whom we write has thrown herself +upon the first vacant bed, spreading first a clean napkin on the +extremely serviceable pillow. Sleep comes; but what is this that +murders sleep? A diminutive male official going to each berth, and +arousing its fair occupant with "Doña Teresita," or whatever the name +may be, "favor me with the amount of your passage-money." No comment is +necessary; here, no tickets,--here, no stewardess to mediate between +the unseen captain and the unprotected female! The sanctuary of the sex +invaded at midnight, without apology and without rebuke! Think of that, +_those_ passengers who have not paid their fare, and, when invited to +call at the captain's office and settle, do so, and be thankful! The +male passengers underwent a similar visitation. It is the Cuban idea of +a compendious and economic arrangement. + +And here ends our account of Matanzas, our journey thither, stay, and +return. Peace rest upon the fair city! May the earthquake and hurricane +spare it! May the hateful Spanish government sit lightly on its strong +shoulders! May the filibusters attack it with kisses, and conquer it +with loving-kindness! So might it be with the whole island-vale! + + * * * * * + + +THE FIRST AND THE LAST. + + +It was the last December of the eighteenth century. All night a fierce +northeast snow-storm had been hissing and drifting through the frozen +air, pelting angrily at the shuttered and curtained windows of the +rich, and shrieking with scornful laughter as it forced its way through +the ill-fitting casements and loose doors of the poor, clutching at +them with icy fingers as they cowered over their poor fires, and +spreading over the garret-beds in which they sought to hide from him a +premature shroud of cold white snow. + +But with morning the storm ceased, and a little before noon the sun, +peering from behind his clouds, seemed to wink with astonishment at +seeing how much had been done in his absence. + +Not only the sun, but Mr. Phineas Coffin, guardian of the "town's +poor," in the town of Newport, was astir, and, standing at the door of +the "poor-'us," bent a contemplative eye upon the progress made by two +stout youths who were clearing the snow from the sidewalks and paths +upon his premises. + +Mr. Coffin perceived that a trial of skill and speed was going on +between one of his own pioneers and a lad similarly engaged on behalf +of the next estate. About half-way between the rapidly approaching +competitors stood a rough-hewn block of stone, marking the boundaries +of the two estates. + +To first reach this, the winning-post, was evidently the emulous desire +of each. As they approached near and nearer, the snow flew from their +shovels with a force and velocity which would certainly have reminded +Mr. Coffin of a steam snow-plough, had he ever seen or heard, of such a +thing, which he most assuredly never had. + +Each boy performed prodigies of skill and valor. The "poor-'us" lad +evidently gained, and his patron did not conceal a wide smile of +satisfaction; the rival looked up, saw it, was stung with generous +rage, threw himself with fury upon his shovel, and in three enormous +plunges laid bare his own side of the post, before "poor-'us" had come +within a foot of it. + +Then, clapping his numb fingers upon his thighs, the successful +champion uttered a melodious crow, which so disgusted the spectator +that he was about to retire within doors, when his eyes fell upon a +thinly clad, timid-looking woman who was advancing along the newly +opened path, casting deprecating glances at the two boys, who from +peaceful rivalry were now proceeding to open warfare, carried on with +the ammunition so plentifully spread before them. + +Nor was the alarm of the poor woman groundless; for, as she advanced +into the battle-field, she found herself saluted upon the breast with +an immense snow-ball, which, being of loose construction, adhered to +the red broadcloth cloak of the pedestrian, forming a conspicuous and +remarkable ornament to that garment. + +"Come, stop that, you young limbs, or I'll----," shouted the chivalric +Phineas, hastily gathering, as he spoke, material for a formidable +missile, which, being completed before the sentence, was used by him as +a ready means of rounding his period, being at once more forcible and +easier to come at than the words which most men would have used. + +Besides, Nathaniel, the poorhouse lad, turning round at sound of his +master's voice, presented so fair a mark, with his gaping mouth, that, +half involuntarily, the snow-ball left Mr. Coffin's hand, and the next +instant formed the contents of Nathaniel's open mouth, leaving, +however, a liberal surplusage to ornament his cheeks, chin, and nose. +The recipient of this bulletin choked, spluttered, and pawed at his +face after the manner of a cat who has tried to eat a wasp. + +His rival did not seek to conceal the expression of his triumph and +derision, the consequence of which was, that, as soon as "poor-'us" +could see, he fell upon his antagonist, and both immediately +disappeared from view in the bosom of an enormous drift. + +"Come right along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken +woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering +and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet +extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried +heroes,--"come right along, and don't be scaart of them young uns. +They're dreffal rude, I know; but then boys will be boys." + +The woman returned no answer to this time-honored defence of youthful +enormities, but, hurrying on, reached the door, saying,-- + +"How's your health this morning, Mr. Coffin?" + +"Waal, Ma'am, I'm pooty middlln' well, thank ye," replied Phineas, +slowly, and with an evident effort at recollection; then suddenly +added, with more vivacity,-- + +"Why, it's Widder Janes,--a'n't it? Declare to goodness I didn't know +ye, with yer hood over yer face. Walk in, Miss Janes, and see my +woman,--won't ye?" + +"Waal, I dunno as I can stop," replied the widow, beginning, +nevertheless, to shake the snow from her scanty skirts, and to stamp +her numb feet, which were protected from the biting cold by a pair of +old yarn socks, drawn over the shoes. + +"I was wantin' to see ye, a minit," continued she; "but Miss Coffin +allers keeps cleaned up so slick, I don't hardly darst to come in." + +"Oh, waal," replied Phineas, with a chuckle of satisfaction at the +compliment to his wife. "Ye look nice enough for anybody's folks. Come +right in, this way." + +"I dunno how 'tis," continued the visitor, as she followed her host +through the long entry, "that Miss Coffin can allers be so forehanded +with her work, an' do sich a master sight on't, too. She don't never +seem to be in the suds, Monday nor no time." + +Mr. Coffin had reached the door of the "keeping-room" as the widow +concluded her last remark; but pausing, with his thumb upon the latch, +he turned, and, looking over his shoulder, whispered, with an emphatic +nod,-- + +"Fact is, Miss Janes, there a'n't sich a great many women jest like +Miss Coffin." + +"There a'n't no two ways about that," murmured Miss Janes, assentingly, +as the door was thrown open. + +"Walk right in. Here, Marthy, the widder Janes has called to see you +this morning." + +A quiet, middle-aged woman turned round from the table, where she was +fitting patches to a pair of pauper trousers. Her face was sweet, her +voice low, and, though she was of middle age, every one agreed that +"Miss Coffin was a real pooty woman, an' a harnsome woman too." + +"How does thee do, Keziah Janes? I am glad to see thee. Take a seat by +the fire, and warm thee after thy cold walk." + +"I can't stop a minit; but it's as cheap settin' as stannin', I do +suppose," replied the widow, with a nervous little laugh, as she seated +herself in the proffered chair upon the clean red hearth, and commenced +her business by saying,-- + +"I was wantin' to speak with you, Mr. Coffin, about poor Mr. +Widdrinton." + +"Widdrinton,--who's he?" inquired Phineas. + +"Waal," commenced the widow, settling herself in her chair, and +assuming the air of one who has a story to narrate. "You know I have my +thirds in the house my poor husband left. It wa'n't sold, as it had +ought to ben,--for Samooel (that's _his_ brother) never's ben easy that +I should have the rooms I have; but they're what was set off for me, +an' so he can't help himself; on'y he's allers a-thornin.' when he gits +a chance. + +"But that a'n't nyther here nor there. What I was a-comin' to was this. +Ruther better 'n a year ago, a man come to me and wanted to know ef I +used all my rooms. I told him I hadn't no use for the garrit, 'cept to +dry my yarbs in (for I think yarbs are drefful good in case o' +sickness, Miss Coffin,--don't you?) An' then he said he wanted a place +to sleep in, an' his breakfast an' supper, an' wanted to know if I +would take him so. + +"Waal, I thought about it a spell, an' I concluded I was too old to +mind the speech o' people, and I hadn't no other objection, so I said +he might come,--an' he did, that very day. + +"Waal, at fust he had some kind o' work to do writin', an' he seemed to +git along very comf'table,--at least, fur's I know,--for I was out +tailorin' all day mostly, same as I be now; but last fall the writin' +seemed to gin out all to oncet, an' he begun to kerry off his furnitoor +an' books to sell, an' finally he paid up all he was owin' of me, an' +told me he didn't want no more meals, but would find himself. + +"Waal, I told him, that, seein' things wuz as they wuz with him, I +shouldn't take no rent for the garrit, an' I could dry my yarbs there +jest as well as ef he warn't there; an' he looked kind o' red, and held +his head up a minit, an' then he thanked me, an' said, 'God bless you!' +an' said he'd pay me, ef he got any more work. + +"Waal, he didn't git no more; an' after the furnitoor an' the books, +his cloze begun to go. + +"Then I begun to be afeard he didn't have nothin' to eat, an' oncet in +a while I'd kerry him up a mess o' vittles; but it allers seemed +drefful hard for him to take 'em, an' fin'ly he told me not to do so no +more, an' said suthin' to himself about devourin' widders. So I didn't +darst to go up agin, he looked so kind o' furce an' sharp, till, last +night, I reck'n'd the snow would sift in through the old ruff, an' I +went up to offer him a comf'table for his bed. I knocked; but he didn't +make no answer, so I pushed the door open an' went in. It was a good +while sence I'd seen the inside o' the room,--for when he heerd me +comin' up, he'd open the door a crack an' peek out while he spoke to +me; so when I got inside the room and looked about, I was all took +aback an' gawped round like a fool, an' no wunder nyther; for of all +the good furnitoor and things he'd brought, there wa'n't the fust thing +to be seen, save and 'xcept a kind o' frame covered with cloth stannin' +ag'inst the wall, an' an old straw-bed on the floor, with him on it, +an' a mis'able old comf'table kivered over him." + +"And this bitter weather, too! Oh, Keziah, what did thee do?" asked +Mrs. Coffin, in a tearful voice. + +"Why, I went up to the bedside, (ef you may call it so,) an' said, sez +I, 'Why, Lor' sakes, Mr. Widdrinton,'----an' then I hild up, for I +ketchcd a sight of his face, an' I thought he wuz gone for sartin. He +wuz as cold an' as white as that 'ere snow, an' it warn't till I'd felt +of his heart an' foun' that it beat a little that I thought of sich a +thing as his comin' to. But as soon as I found he'd got a breath o' +life in him, I didn't waste much time till I'd got him wropped up in a +hot blanket with a jug o' water to his feet, an' some hot tea inside on +him. Then he come to a little, an' said he hadn't eat nor drank for two +days an' nights." + +"Oh, Keziah!" sobbed Mrs. Coffin; while her husband, plunging his hands +deep into his breeches-pockets, and elevating his eyebrows till they +were lost in his shaggy hair, exclaimed,-- + +"Good Je-hosaphat!" which was the nearest approach to an oath in which +he ever indulged. + +"An' so," pursued the widow, after enjoying for a moment the +consternation of her audience,--"an' so I thought I had better come an' +see ef he couldn't be took in here; not that I wouldn't do for him, an' +be glad to, fur as I could, but he a'n't in a state to be left alone, +an' you know my trade takes me away consid'able from home,--an' which, +if I don't foller it, why, when I git a little older, I shall have to +come here myself, an' be a burden on your hands an' the town's." + +"We would take good care of thee, if thee did come, Keziah," said Mrs. +Coffin, in whom the habitual equanimity of the "Friend" had conquered +the emotion of the woman. "Though I do not deny that it is pleasanter +and better for thee to support thyself, as thee always has done." + +"I don't doubt you would be good to me, Miss Coffin, an' thank ye, +Ma'am, kindly for a-sayin' of it; but you know innerpendance is sweet +to all on us." + +"Surely, surely, Keziah; and now, Phineas, I suppose thee will see at +once about this poor man, won't thee?" + +"Yes, Marthy, yes. I'll go right off and see one of the selectmen; and +I reckon, by the time you git a bed ready for him, we shall be along." + +Phineas accordingly bustled out of the room; and Mrs. Janes, after +lingering a few moments, took her leave and returned to her charge, +inwardly congratulating herself on having so new and interesting a +piece of intelligence with which to lighten her next day's "tailoring." + +Mrs. Coffin, left alone, stood for a moment considering, and then, +opening a door, called gently,-- + +"Faith!" + +"Yes, mother," replied a voice whose soft tones seemed the echo of her +own. A moment after, a slender, dark-eyed girl, about twenty years of +age, entered the room, and said cheerfully,-- + +"What is it, mother?" + +"I have somewhat to tell thee, Faith." + +And the Quakeress repeated, in calm, unemphatic language, the story +narrated by Mrs. Janes. + +"The poor man will soon be here, Faith," continued she, "and I wanted +to ask what thee thinks should be done with him. Thee knows there is no +room that can have a fire in it, except the one where Polly and Susan +sleep, and they are both too sick to be moved into the cold"-- + +"He shall have my room, mother," said Faith, quietly. + +"Thy room, child?" + +"Yes, mother; and I will sleep here on the couch. I should like it very +much indeed; for you know I never have been able to be quite the +orderly and regular girl you have tried to make me." + +"Thee is a good girl," said the mother, quietly. + +"Not half so good a girl as I ought to be, with so good a mother," +replied Faith, throwing her arms about her mother's neck and kissing +her fondly. + +The elder woman returned the caress with an involuntary warmth, which, +pure and natural though it might be, was yet at variance with the +strict rule of her sect, which had taught her to avoid everything like +compliment or caress, as savoring of the manners of the "world's +people." + +She therefore, after one kiss, gently repelled the girl, saying,-- + +"Nay, Faith, but it sufficeth. Go, then, if thee will, and make ready +thy chamber for this sick man, while I prepare him some broth." + +An hour later, a pung or box-sleigh drew up at the poor-house door, +from which was lifted a long, gaunt figure, carefully enveloped in +blankets and cloaks. As he was taken from the sleigh, he feebly +murmured a few words, to which Phineas Coffin replied kindly,-- + +"Don't be scart,--it's all safe, and Nathaniel will fetch it right in +after us." + +"What! this 'ere?" queried the youth called Nathaniel, while he lifted +from the sleigh, somewhat contemptuously, a long flat something, +carefully enveloped in a cotton case. + +"Yes. Fetch it along this way," replied Phineas; and Nathaniel followed +the chair, in which the sick man was carried, into the pretty little +maiden chamber which Faith had so quietly relinquished to one who she +thought needed it more than herself. + +Mother and daughter stood ready to receive their new charge, and see +him comfortable in the warm, soft bed which they had prepared for him. + +"Thee will soon get rested now, friend, and go to sleep,--won't thee?" +said Mrs. Coffin, in her gentle voice, as she turned down the sheet a +little more evenly. + +"Where is it?" panted the exhausted sufferer, trying to look beyond his +kind nurse into the room. + +"What does thee mean, friend?" + +"It is this thing, mother," said Faith, bringing it forward, and +leaning it against the wall at the foot of the bed. "He brought it with +him," continued she, in a low voice; "and father says, he didn't seem +to care half so much about his own comfort as to have _that_ safe." + +"It is my--property,--all I have--left. I won't be--parted from it. +You--sha'n't take it--away," gasped the sick man, in an excited tone. + +"Thee shall not be parted from it, friend," said Mrs. Coffin, +soothingly. "Surely we would not deprive thee of what is thine own, and +what thee seems to value so much. Now if thee will try to go to sleep, +I will stay with thee the while, and when thee wakes give thee some +broth to strengthen thee." + +"Let--let _her_ stay.--Go away,--the rest of you," whispered the feeble +voice, while the weary eyes rested upon Faith's grave, sweet face. + +"Thee means my daughter? Faith, does thee wish to stay? or had thee +rather I should?" + +"I will stay, mother, if he wishes it." + +"Very well, daughter. When thee is weary, come down, and I, or one of +the women, will take thy place." + +Mrs. Coffin left the room, and Faith, her sewing in her hand, was about +seating herself by the fire, when the voice of the stranger summoned +her to the bedside. + +Turning, she found his hollow and gleaming eyes fixed sternly upon her, +while a long, lean finger was pointed alternately at her and the frame +leaning against the wall. + +"Girl!" + +"Can I do something for you?" asked Faith, kindly. + +"Don't you look at it--or let any one--else, while I'm--asleep." + +"I certainly will not." + +"Promise!" + +"I do promise." + +"Swear!" + +"Nay, friend, that would be wrong," replied the girl, unconsciously +adopting the phraseology of the Quakers, while expressing a sentiment +learned from them; for though Faith had been brought up outwardly in +the creed of her father, she had, without being aware of it, adopted +many of the tenets to which her mother held. + +"I will promise you very solemnly, however," continued she, "that I +will neither look at yonder thing nor allow any one else to do so; and +you will be wrong to doubt my word." + +"I don't.--What is your name?" + +"Faith." + +"A good omen. Mine is--Ichabod." + +"Ichabod Widdrinton?" + +"Ichabod. Call me so,--all of you." + +"Very well, if it is your name, we will. Now you must go to sleep." + +"Sit there,--where I can see you." + +Faith complied with this request, although uncertain whether it was not +prompted by a distrust of her promise. The stranger soon slept, and his +young nurse then made a more attentive survey of his features than she +had yet done. He seemed not over forty years of age, and would, in +health, have been considered a handsome man,--although the fine silky +hair, thin beard, sensitive nostril, and delicate mouth could never +have expressed much of strength or resolution. + +The traces of disease and starvation were painfully apparent; but it +seemed to the thoughtful Faith that behind these she could perceive in +the sorrowful, downward curve of the lips, in the lines of the hollow, +throbbing temples, in the gloomy light of the dark eyes, symptoms of a +long corroding care, which, though secretly, had done its work of +devastation more surely and more ruthlessly than the more apparent +foes. + +"How he must have suffered!" murmured she. It seemed as if the tone of +gentle pity had penetrated the light slumber, and reached the heart of +the sick man,--for, opening his eyes, he smiled upon the girl, a wan, +sad smile, which was at once an assent and a benison. + +From that moment, until the welcome end of that sad life, Ichabod would +patiently endure no tendance but Faith's; and she, with the calm and +silent self-abnegation of her order, (for Florence Nightingale is but a +type, and there are those all about us who lack but her opportunities,) +devoted herself to him. + +Her mother sometimes remonstrated, and begged her to yield her place in +the sick-chamber to her or to one of the pauper women; but Faith, whose +grave sweetness concealed more determination than a stranger would have +guessed, would simply say,-- + +"Dear mother, what is a little fatigue to one as well as I am, compared +with the pleasure of making this poor stranger's death-bed happy and +quiet?--which it certainly would not be, if he was crossed in his fancy +for seeing me about him." And the conscientious mind of the mother was +forced to yield assent to this simple logic. + +A few weeks thus passed, and then the sick man became a dying man. The +pauper inmates of the house were all willing and anxious to watch +beside him through the long nights, but Ichabod received all their +attentions very ungraciously; nor was it till Faith told him, in her +kind, decided way, that she could not stay with him at night, that he +consented to allow the others to do so. + +At last there came the evening when the physician said to Mrs. Coffin, +as he entered the room where she sat with her husband,-- + +"He won't last till morning,--'tis impossible." + +"Then thee had better watch beside him, Phineas. It is not fitting that +Faith should do so." + +"Certain. I'll go right up, and send her down," replied Phineas, +readily. + +But when the arrangements for the night were made known to Ichabod, he +caught hold of Faith's dress, as she stood at his bedside bidding him +good-night, and gasped out,-- + +"No, no!--you!--I must have--you!--I shall die--die to-night!--And--and +I want to tell--to tell you something.--Stay,--stay, Faith!--it's the +last--last time, and I--I shall never trouble any one--any more." + +"Let me stay, mother; father, do!" pleaded Faith, looking from one to +the other. "I should be very unhappy, always, if I was obliged to deny +him this last request. I shall not be afraid, mother; and Betty can +sleep in the chair by the fire, if you wish it, so as to be at hand, if +"---- + +"Well, child, if thee feels a call to do so, and it will make thee +unhappy to be denied, I will hold my peace. But thee must certainly +have Betty here, and promise to send her to call me, if Ichabod should +be worse,--won't thee?" + +Faith gave the required promise, and in a short time the chamber was +prepared for night. The old woman (whose skill in the last awful rites +which man pays to man caused her always to be selected for such +occasions) slept soundly beside the glowing fire, the dying man dozed +uneasily, and Faith, shading the light from his eyes, opened the +large-print Bible, which her mother, careful both for the well-being of +her daughter's immortal soul and temporal eyesight, had recommended for +her night's perusal. + +The hours passed slowly on, unmarked by change, until Faith had counted +three solemn strokes from the old clock in the entry, when the sick man +suddenly awoke. + +As Faith came to his bedside, to offer him the draught for which he +always asked on awakening, she was struck with a change in his face. +The eyes were at once calmer and brighter, the look of uneasy pain had +disappeared, and the thin lips wore almost a smile. + +"Dear Faith," said he, in a gentle voice, which yet was stronger and +more unbroken than any she had heard from him before, "how good you +have been to me! I am dying; but do not call any one yet. I want to +talk to you a little, first. Put another pillow under my head, and +raise me,--so. Now light your other candle, stir the fire to a brighter +blaze, and then uncover--it." + +Faith, pale and quiet, did as she was bid, stirred the fire, till its +ruddy glow brightened every nook of the little white-washed chamber, +and made the old crone beside it wince and mutter in her sleep. Having +shielded her from its fierce light, she then, with trembling fingers, +opened a little penknife which lay upon the table, and cut the twine +with which the cover was sewed at the back. The last stitch severed, +the cloth fell with a solemn rustle at her feet, and disclosed--a +picture. + +Faith examined it with much attention and some curiosity. It was the +full-length figure of a man, dressed in rich robes of office, his +powdered hair put back from his forehead, his left hand resting on the +pommel of his sword, and his right clasping a roll of parchment. The +expression of his face was grave, majestic, and noble; and yet between +those handsome features and the attenuated face of the dying pauper +Faith soon perceived one of those resemblances, strong, yet +indefinable, which are so apparent to some persons, so undiscoverable +by others. + +"A noble gentleman, Faith,--was he not?" said Ichabod, at length. "And +they say his picture does not do him justice. He was an English +gentleman of property and station,--the heir of a good fortune and +honorable name; but he left all to come here and help found this new +country,--this glorious land of freedom and conscience,--where every +man has perfect liberty--to starve in his own fashion. + +"He came and was a great man among them. He built the finest house in +the village of Boston, and then came hither, where they made him +governor and named a bay after him. + +"He went home for a visit to England, and there he had this picture +painted by the court-painter of those days, and brought it back with +him as a present to his wife. + +"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a +very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as +they say in storybooks. + +"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small +portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried. + +"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family +found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the +traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches +of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an +end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the +family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They +met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short +conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name, +alive. + +"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by +uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it +more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the +glory has departed.' + +"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered +their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their +first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and +which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and +despair. + +"The husband soon died. Man breaks, woman bends, beneath the crushing +weight of such a life. My mother lived, a dark and silent woman, till +five years ago. Then she died, too, and I inherited my ancestor's +portrait and the curse of the Withringtons. + +"I tried to work, to earn my bread, as men all about me were doing. But +no,--the fate was upon me, the curse pursued me. Everything failed +which I attempted. I sunk lower and lower, until the name and the +picture, which had been my pride, became a shame and a reproach to me. +I abandoned the one and concealed the other, resolved to reveal neither +until the moment arrived when death should wipe out the squalor of +life, conquer fate, and expiate the curse. + +"Quick, Faith, quick! The hour has come. Take the knife you just +held,--cut the canvas from its frame,--cut it in fragments,--lay it on +the blazing fire. We will perish together,--the First and--the Last." + +"Nay, Ichabod, give it to me," said Faith, shrinking from the proposed +holocaust "I will always keep it, and value it." + +"Would you see me fall dead at your feet, while attempting to do for +myself what you refuse to do for me?" asked the dying man, with +feverish ardor, and half rising, as if to leave his bed. + +"No, no,--I will do it, since it must be so," exclaimed Faith, eagerly. +"Lie down again and watch me." + +Ichabod sunk back upon his pillows, and gazed with eyes of fitful light +upon the girl, while she, opening the keen knife, cut slowly and +laboriously round the margin of the stout canvas, which shrieked +beneath the blade, as if the spirit of the effigy which it bore were +resisting the fearful doom which threatened it. + +At last the canvas was entirely released, and Faith silently held it up +before the eyes of the dying man, upon whose face had come a dull, +leaden blankness, and whose eyes were painful to watch as they +struggled to pierce the film which was gathering over them. + +"Burn," he hoarsely murmured. + +With a sigh, Faith cut the picture into strips, and laid them gently, +reverently, upon the coals heaped in the large fireplace. + +The greedy flames leaped up to grasp their prey, and Faith turned sick +and faint as she watched them fasten upon that noble face, which seemed +to contract and shrivel in its anguish as they seized upon it. + +She gazed a moment, painfully fascinated, then turned toward the +bed,--but as her eyes fell upon Ichabod's face, she started back, and, +rousing the old woman from her slumber, sent to summon her mother. + +Mrs. Coffin came immediately,--but when she entered the little chamber, +the last fragment of the canvas was shrivelling in the flames, the last +sigh of the dying man was parting from his white lips. + +They had perished together,--the First--and the Last. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +You will know, perhaps, in the course of half an hour's reading, what +has been haunting my hours of sleep and waking for months. I cannot +tell, of course, whether you are a nervous person or not. If, however, +you are such a person,--if it is late at night,--if all the rest of the +household have gone off to bed,--if the wind is shaking your windows as +if a human hand were rattling the sashes,--if your candle or lamp is +low and will soon burn out,--let me advise you to read the "Critical +Notices" or some other paper contained in this number, if you have not +already devoured them all, and leave this to be read by daylight, with +cheerful voices round, and people near by who would hear you, if you +slid from your chair and came down in a lump on the floor. + +I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did, I am willing to +confess, when I entered the dim chamber. Did I not tell you that I was +sensitive and imaginative, and that I had lain awake with thinking what +were the strange movements and sounds which I heard late at night in my +little neighbor's apartment? It had come to that pass that I was truly +unable to separate what I had really heard from what I had dreamed in +these nightmares to which I have been subject, as before mentioned. So, +when I walked into the room, and Bridget, turning back, closed the door +and left me alone with its tenant, I do believe you could have grated a +nutmeg on my skin, such a "goose-flesh" shiver ran over it. It was not +fear, but what I call nervousness,--unreasoning, but irresistible; as +when, for instance, one looking at the sun going down says, "I will +count fifty before it disappears"; and as he goes on and it becomes +doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets strangely flurried, +and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and hell as the +issues depending on the completion or non-completion of the fifty he is +counting. Extreme curiosity will excite some people as much as fear, or +what resembles fear, acts on some other less impressible natures. + +I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little +conjurer's room. Or, again, there may be nothing in this poor invalid's +chamber but some old furniture, such as they say came over in the +Mayflower. All this is just what I mean to find out while I am looking +at the Little Gentleman, who has suddenly become my patient. The +simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most +mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace objects in +disguise. + +I wonder whether the boys that live in Roxbury and Dorchester are ever +moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the rocks +and fragments of "puddingstone" abounding in those localities. I have +my suspicions that those boys "heave a stone" or "fire a brick-bat," +composed of the conglomerate just mentioned, without any more tearful +or philosophical contemplations than boys of less favored regions +expend on the same performance. Yet a lump of puddingstone is a thing +to look at, to think about, to study over, to dream upon, to go crazy +with, to beat one's brains out against. Look at that pebble in it. From +what cliff was it broken? On what beach rolled by the waves of what +ocean? How and _when_ imbedded in soft ooze, which itself became stone, +and by-and-by was lifted into bald summits and steep cliffs, such as +you may see on Meetinghouse-Hill any day,--yes, and mark the scratches +on their faces left when, the boulder-carrying glaciers planed the +surface of the continent with such rough tools that the storms have not +worn the marks out of it with all the polishing of ever so many +thousand years? + +Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in spring-time, take from it +any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time. Some +little worm-shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are fastened +to the stick: eggs of a small snail-like shell-fish. One of these +specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an opaque mass +in its centre. And while you are looking, the opaque mass begins to +stir, and by-and-by slowly to turn upon its axis like a forming +planet,--life beginning in the microcosm, as in the great worlds of the +firmament, with the revolution that turns the surface in ceaseless +round to the source of life and light. + +A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their +mysteries, this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified slag, +or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces. Mysteries are common +enough, at any rate, whatever the boys in Roxbury and Dorchester think +of "brickbats" and the spawn of creatures that live in roadside +puddles. + +But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly plain, +when we can get at them so as to turn them over. How many ghosts that +"thick men's blood with cold" prove to be shirts hung out to dry! How +many mermaids have been made out of seals! How many times have +horse-mackerels been taken for the sea-serpent! + +----Let me take the whole matter coolly, while I see what is the matter +with the patient. That is what I say to myself, as I draw a chair to +the bedside.--The bed is an old-fashioned, dark mahogany four-poster. +It was never that which made the noise of something moving. It is too +heavy to be pushed about the room.--The Little Gentleman was sitting, +bolstered up by pillows, with his hands clasped and their united palms +resting on the back of the head,--one of the three or four positions +specially affected by persons whose breathing is difficult from disease +of the heart or other causes. + +Sit down, Sir,--he said,--sit down! I have come to the hill Difficulty, +Sir, and am fighting my way up. His speech was laborious and +interrupted. + +Don't talk,--I said,--except to answer my questions.--And I proceeded +to "prospect" for the marks of some local mischief, which you know is +at the bottom of all these attacks, though we do not always find it. I +suppose I go to work pretty much like other professional folks of my +temperament. Thus:-- + +Wrist, if you please.--I was on his right side, but he presented his +left wrist, crossing it over the other.--I begin to count, holding +watch in left hand. One, two, three, four,----What a handsome +hand!--wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle.--One, two, three, +four, five, six, seven,----Can't see much, it is so dark, except one +white object.--One, two, three, four,----Hang it! eighty or ninety in +the minute, I guess.--Tongue, if you please.--Tongue is put out. Forget +to look at it, or, rather, to take any particular notice of it;--but +what _is_ that white object, with the long arm stretching up as if +pointing to the sky, just as Vesalius and Spigelius and those old +fellows used to put their skeletons? I don't think anything of such +objects, you know; but what should _he_ have it in his chamber for?--As +I had found his pulse irregular and intermittent, I took out a +stethoscope, which is a pocket-spyglass for looking into men's chests +with your ears, and laid it over the place where the heart beats. I +missed the usual beat of the organ.--How is this?--I said,--where is +your heart gone to?--He took the stethoscope and shifted it across to +the right side; there was a displacement of the organ.--I am +ill-packed,--he said;--there was no room for my heart in its place as +it is with other men.--God help him! + +It is hard to draw the line between scientific curiosity and the desire +for the patient's sake to learn all the details of his condition. I +must look at this patient's chest, and thump it and listen to it. For +this is a case of _ectopia cordis_, my boy,--displacement of the heart; +and it isn't every day you get a chance to overhaul such an interesting +malformation. And so I managed to do my duty and satisfy my curiosity +at the same time. The torso was slight and deformed; the right arm +attenuated,--the left full, round, and of perfect symmetry. It had run +away with the life of the other limbs,--a common trick enough of +Nature's, as I told you before. If you see a man with legs withered +from childhood, keep out of the way of his arms, if you have a quarrel +with him. He has the strength of four limbs in two; and if he strikes +you, it is an arm-blow _plus_ a kick administered from the shoulder +instead of the haunch, where it should have started from. + +Still examining him as a patient, I kept my eyes about me to search all +parts of the chamber, and went on with the double process, as +before.--Heart hits as hard as a fist,--_bellows-sound over mitral +valves_ (professional terms you need not attend to).--What the deuce is +that long case for? Got his witch grandmother mummied in it? And three +big mahogany presses,--hey?--A diabolical suspicion came over me which +I had had once before,--that he might be one of our modern +_alchemists_,--you understand,--make gold, you know, or _what looks +like it_, sometimes with the head of a king or queen or of Liberty to +embellish one side of the piece.--Don't I remember hearing him shut a +door and lock it once? What do you think was kept under that lock? +Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses. +One can tell a man's business, if it is a handicraft, very often by +just taking a look at his open hand.--Ah! Four calluses at the end of +the fingers of the right hand. None on those of the left. Ah, ha! What +do those mean? + +All this seems longer in the telling, of course, than it was in fact. +While I was making these observations of the objects around me, I was +also forming my opinion as to the kind of case with which I had to +deal. + +There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's life: brain, +blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out, +followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all +three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the +fluid ceases to supply the other centres of flame, and all is soon +stagnation, cold, and darkness. The "tripod of life" a French +physiologist called these three organs. It is all clear enough which +leg of the tripod is going to break down here. I could tell you exactly +what the difficulty is;--which would be as intelligible and amusing as +a watchmaker's description of a diseased timekeeper to a ploughman. It +is enough to say, that I found just what I expected to, and that I +think this attack is only the prelude of more serious consequences, +--which expression means you very well know what. + +And now the secrets of this life hanging on a thread must surely come +out. If I have made a mystery where there was none, my suspicions will +be shamed, as they have often been before. If there is anything +strange, my visits will clear it up. + +I sat an hour or two by the side of the Little Gentleman's bed, after +giving him some henbane to quiet his brain, and some foxglove, which an +imaginative French professor has called the "Opium of the Heart." Under +their influence he gradually fell into an uneasy, half-waking slumber, +the body fighting hard for every breath, and the mind wandering off in +strange fancies and old recollections, which escaped from his lips in +broken sentences. + +----The last of 'em,--he said,--the last of 'em all,--thank God! And +the grave he lies in will look just as well as if he had been straight. +Dig it deep, old Martin, dig it deep,--and let it be as long as other +folks' graves. And mind you get the sods flat, old man,--flat as ever a +straight-backed young fellow was laid under. And then, with a good tall +slab at the head, and a footstone six foot away from it, it'll look +just as if there was a man underneath. + +A man! Who said he was a man? No more men of that pattern to bear _his_ +name!--Used to be a good-looking set enough.--Where's all the manhood +and womanhood gone to since his great-grand-father was the strongest +man that sailed out of the town of Boston, and poor Leah there the +handsomest woman in Essex, if she was a witch? + +----Give me some light,--he said,--more light,--I want to see the +picture. + +He had started either from a dream or a wandering reverie. I was not +unwilling to have more light in the apartment, and presently had +lighted an astral lamp that stood on a table.--He pointed to a portrait +hanging against the wall.--Look at her,--he said,--look, at her! +Wasn't that a pretty neck to slip a hangman's noose over? + +The portrait was of a young woman, something more than twenty years +old, perhaps. There were few pictures of any merit painted in New +England before the time of Smibert, and I am at a loss to know what +artist--could have taken this half-length, which was evidently from +life. It was somewhat stiff and flat, but the grace of the figure and +the sweetness of the expression reminded me of the angels of the early +Florentine painters. She must have been of some consideration, for she +was dressed in paduasoy and lace with hanging sleeves, and the old +carved frame showed how the picture had been prized by its former +owners. A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was +that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George +Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the +artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I +suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of +young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good +evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I +should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she +had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some +devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers, +with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his +pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight +suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to +leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly +maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses? + +She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I +are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted +me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the +board-fences. They said the doctors would want my skeleton when I was +dead.--You are my friend, if you are a doctor,--a'n't you? + +I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak. I want to lie +still,--he said,--after I am put to bed upon the hill yonder. Can't you +have a great stone laid over me, as they did over the first settlers in +the old burying-ground at Dorchester, so as to keep the wolves from +digging them up? I never slept easy over the sod;--I should like to lie +quiet under it. And besides,--he said, in a kind of scared whisper,--I +don't want to have my bones stared at, as my body has been. I don't +doubt I was a _remarkable case_; but, for God's sake, oh, for God's +sake, don't let 'em make a show of the cage I have been shut up in and +looked through the bars of for so many years! + +I have heard it said that the art of healing makes men hardhearted and +indifferent to human suffering. I am willing to own that there is often +a professional hardness in surgeons, just as there is in +theologians,--only much less in degree than in these last. It does not +commonly improve the sympathies of a man to be in the habit of +thrusting knives into his fellow-creatures and burning them with +red-hot irons, any more than it improves them to hold the +blinding-white cautery of Gehenna by its cool handle and score and +crisp young souls with it until they are scorched into the belief of +--Transubstantiation or the Immaculate Conception. And, to say the +plain truth, I think there are a good many coarse people in both +callings. A delicate nature will not commonly choose a pursuit which +implies the habitual infliction of suffering, so readily as some +gentler office. Yet, while I am writing this paragraph, there passes by +my window, on his daily errand of duty, not seeing me, though I catch a +glimpse of his manly features through the oval glass of his chaise, as +he rides by, a surgeon of skill and standing, so friendly, so modest, +so tender-hearted in all his ways, that, if he had not approved himself +at once adroit and firm, one would have said he was of too kindly a +mould to be the minister of pain, even if it were saving pain. You +may be sure that some men, even among those who have chosen the task of +pruning their fellow-creatures, grow more and more thoughtful and truly +compassionate in the midst of their cruel experience. They become less +nervous, but more sympathetic. They have a truer sensibility for +others' pain, the more they study pain and disease in the light of +science. I have said this without claiming any special growth in +humanity for myself, though I do hope I grow tenderer in my feelings as +I grow older. At any rate, this was not a time in which professional +habits could keep down certain instincts of older date than these. +This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed +rapacity of Science, which he feared would have her "specimen," if his +ghost should walk restlessly a thousand years, waiting for his bones to +be laid in the dust, touched my heart. But I felt bound to speak +cheerily.--We won't die yet awhile, if we can help it,--I said,--and +I trust we can help it. But don't be afraid; if I live longest, I will +see that your resting-place is kept sacred till the dandelions and +buttercups blow over you. He seemed to have got his wits together by +this time, and to have a vague consciousness that he might have been +saying more than he meant for anybody's ears.--I have been talking a +little wild, Sir, eh?--he said.--There is a great buzzing in my head +with those drops of yours, and I doubt If my tongue has not been a +little looser than I would have it, Sir. But I don't much want to live. +Sir; that's the truth of the matter; and it does rather please me to +think that fifty years from now nobody will know that the place where I +lie doesn't hold as stout and straight a man as the best of 'em that +stretch out as if they were proud of the room they take. You may get me +well, if you can, Sir, if you think it worth while to try; but I tell +you there has been no time for this many a year when the smell of fresh +earth was not sweeter to me than all the flowers that grow out of it. +There's no anodyne like your good clean gravel, Sir. But if you can +keep me about awhile, and it amuses you to try, you may show your skill +upon me, if you like. There is a pleasure or two that I love the +daylight for, and I think the night is not far off, at best.--I believe +I shall sleep now; you may leave me, and come, if you like, in the +morning. Before I passed out, I took one more glance round the +apartment. The beautiful face of the portrait looked at me, as +portraits often do, with a frightful kind of intelligence in its eyes. +The drapery fluttered on the still outstretched arm of the tall object +near the window;--a crack of this was open, no doubt, and some breath +of wind stirred the hanging folds. In my excited state, I seemed to see +something ominous in that arm pointing to the heavens. I thought of the +figures in the Dance of Death at Basle, and that other on the panels of +the covered Bridge at Lucerne; and it seemed to me that the grim mask +who mingles with every crowd and glides over every threshold was +pointing the sick man to his far home, and would soon stretch out his +bony hand and lead him or drag him on the unmeasured journey towards +it. The fancy had possession of me, and I shivered again as when I +first entered the chamber. The picture and the shrouded shape; I saw +only these two objects. They were enough. The house was deadly still, +and the night-wind, blowing through an open window, struck me as from a +field of ice, at the moment I passed into the creaking corridor. As I +turned into the common passage, a white figure, holding a lamp, stood +full before me. I thought at first it was one of those images made to +stand in niches and hold a light in their hands. But the illusion was +momentary, and my eyes speedily recovered from the shock of the bright +flame and snowy drapery to see that the figure was a breathing one. It +was Iris, in one of her statue-trances. She had come down, whether +sleeping or waking, I knew not at first, led by an instinct that told +her she was wanted,--or, possibly, having overheard and interpreted the +sound of our movements,--or, it may be, having learned from the servant +that there was trouble which might ask for a woman's hand. I sometimes +think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they +cannot see or hear, are in suffering. How surely we find them at the +bedside of the dying! How strongly does Nature plead for them, that we +should draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last +upon their faithful breasts! + +With white, bare feet, her hair loosely knotted, dressed as the +starlight knew her, and the morning when she rose from slumber, save +that she had twisted a scarf round her long dress, she stood still as a +stone before me, holding in one hand a lighted coil of wax-taper, and +in the other a silver goblet. I held my own lamp close to her, as if +she had been a figure of marble, and she did not stir. There was no +breach of propriety then, to scare the Poor Relation with and breed +scandal out of. She had been "warned in a dream," doubtless suggested +by her waking knowledge and the sounds which had reached her exalted +sense. There was nothing more natural than that she should have risen +and girdled her waist, and lighted her taper, and found the silver +goblet with "_Ex dono pupillorum_" on it, from which she had taken her +milk and possets through all her childish years, and so gone blindly +out to find her place at the bedside,--a Sister of Charity without the +cap and rosary; nay, unknowing whither her feet were leading her, and +with wide, blank eyes seeing nothing but the vision that beckoned her +along.--Well, I must wake her from her slumber or trance. I called her +name, but she did not heed my voice. + +The Devil put it into my head that I would kiss one handsome young girl +before I died, and now was my chance. She never would know it, and I +should carry the remembrance of it with me into the grave, and a rose +perhaps grow out of my dust, as out of Lord Lovel's, in memory of that +immortal moment! Would it wake her from her trance? and would she see +me in the flush of my stolen triumph, and hate and despise me ever +after? Or should I carry off my trophy undetected, and always from that +time say to myself, when I looked upon her in the glory of youth and +the splendor of beauty, "My lips have touched those roses and made +their sweetness mine forever"? You think my cheek was flushed, perhaps, +and my eyes were glittering with this midnight flash of opportunity. On +the contrary, I believe I was pale, very pale, and I know that I +trembled. Ah, it is the pale passions that are the fiercest,--it is the +violence of the chill that gives the measure of the fever! The +fighting-boy of our school always turned white when he went out to a +pitched battle with the bully of some neighboring village; but we knew +what his bloodless cheeks meant,--the blood was all in his stout +heart,--he was a slight boy, and there was not enough to redden his +face and fill his heart both at once. + +Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the +internal conflicts in the heart of a quiet person something more than +juvenile and something less than senile, as to whether he should be +guilty of an impropriety, and, if he were, whether he would get caught +in his indiscretion. And yet the memory of the kiss that Margaret of +Scotland gave to Alain Chartier has lasted four hundred years, and put +it into the head of many an ill-favored poet, whether Victoria or +Eugénie would do as much by him, if she happened to pass him when he +was asleep. And have we ever forgotten that the fresh cheek of the +young John Milton tingled under the lips of some high-born Italian +beauty, who, I believe, did not think to leave her card by the side of +the slumbering youth, but has bequeathed the memory of her pretty deed +to all coming time? The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a +cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer. + +There is one disadvantage which the man of philosophical habits of mind +suffers, as compared with the man of action. While he is taking an +enlarged and rational view of the matter before him, he lets his chance +slip through his fingers. Iris woke up, of her own accord, before I had +made up my mind what I was going to do about it. + +When I remember how charmingly she looked, I don't blame myself at all +for being tempted; but if I had been fool enough to yield to the +impulse, I should certainly have been ashamed to tell of it. She did +not know what to make of it, finding herself there alone, in such +guise, and me staring at her. She looked down at her white robe and +bare feet, and colored,--then at the goblet she held in her hand,--then +at the taper; and at last her thoughts seemed to clear up. + +I know it all,--she said.--He is going to die, and I must go and sit by +him. Nobody will care for him as I shall, and I have nobody else to +care for. + +I assured her that nothing was needed for him that night but rest, and +persuaded her that the excitement of her presence could only do harm. +Let him sleep, and he would very probably awake better in the morning. +There was nothing to be said, for I spoke with authority; and the young +girl glided away with noiseless step and sought her own chamber. + +The tremor passed away from my limbs, and the blood began to burn in my +cheeks. The beautiful image which had so bewitched me faded gradually +from my imagination, and I returned to the still perplexing mysteries +of my little neighbor's chamber. All was still there now. No plaintive +sounds, no monotonous murmurs, no shutting of windows and doors at +strange hours, as if something or somebody were coming in or going out, +or there was something to be hidden in those dark mahogany presses. Is +there an inner apartment that I have not seen? The way in which the +house is built might admit of it. As I thought it over, I at once +imagined a Bluebeard's chamber. Suppose, for instance, that the narrow +bookshelves to the right are really only a masked door, such as we +remember leading to the private study of one of our most distinguished +townsmen, who loved to steal away from his stately library to that +little silent cell. If this were lighted from above, a person or +persons might pass their days there without attracting attention from +the household, and wander where they pleased at night,--to Copp's-Hill +burial-ground, if they liked,--I said to myself, laughing, and pulling +the bed-clothes over my head. There is no logic in superstitious +fancies any more than in dreams. A she-ghost wouldn't want an inner +chamber to herself. A live woman, with a valuable soprano voice, +wouldn't start off at night to sprain her ankles over the old graves of +the North-End cemetery. + +It is all very easy for you, middle-aged reader, sitting over this page +in the broad daylight, to call me by all manner of asinine and anserine +unchristian names, because I had these fancies running through my head. +I don't care much for your abuse. The question is not, what it is +reasonable for a man to think about, but what he actually does think +about, in the dark, and when he is alone, and his whole body seems but +one great nerve of hearing, and he sees the phosphorescent flashes of +his own eyeballs as they turn suddenly in the direction of the last +strange noise,--what he actually does think about, as he lies and +recalls all the wild stories his head is full of, his fancy hinting the +most alarming conjectures to account for the simplest facts about him, +his common-sense laughing them to scorn the next minute, but his mind +still returning to them, under one shape or another, until he gets very +nervous and foolish, and remembers how pleasant it used to be to have +his mother come and tuck him up and go and sit within call, so that she +could hear him at any minute, if he got very much scared and wanted +her. Old babies that we are! + +Daylight will clear up all that lamplight has left doubtful. I longed +for the morning to come, for I was more curious than ever. So, between +my fancies and anticipations, I had but a poor night of it, and came +down tired to the breakfast-table. My visit was not to be made until +after this morning hour;--there was nothing urgent, so the servant was +ordered to tell me. + +It was the first breakfast at which the high chair at the side of Iris +had been unoccupied.--You might jest as well take away that +chair,--said our landlady,--he'll never want it again. He acts like a +man that's struck with death, 'n' I don't believe he'll ever come out +of his chamber till he's laid out and brought down a corpse.--These +good women do put things so plainly! There were two or three words in +her short remark that always sober people, and suggest silence or brief +moral reflections. + +----Life is dreadful uncerting,--said the Poor Relation,--and pulled in +her social tentacles to concentrate her thoughts on this fact of human +history. + +----If there was anything a fellah could do,--said the young man John, +so called,--a fellah'd like the chance o' helpin' a little cripple like +that. He looks as if he couldn't turn over any handier than a turtle +that's laid on his back; and I guess there a'n't many people that know +how to lift better than I do. Ask him if he don't want any watchers. I +don't mind settin' up any more 'n' a cat-owl. I was up all night twice +last month. + +[My private opinion is, that there was no small amount of punch +absorbed on those two occasions, which I think I heard of at the +time;--but the offer is a kind one, and it isn't fair to question how +he would like sitting up without the punch and the company and the +songs and smoking. He means what he says, and it would be a more +considerable achievement for him to sit quietly all night by a sick man +than for a good many other people. I tell you this odd thing: there are +a good many persons, who, through the habit of making other folks +uncomfortable, by finding fault with all their cheerful enjoyments, at +last get up a kind of hostility to comfort in general, even in their +own persons. The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is +hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. Look at old misers; first +they starve their dependants, and then themselves. So I think it more +for a lively young fellow to be ready to play nurse than for one of +those useful but forlorn martyrs who have taken a spite against +themselves and love to gratify it by fasting and watching.] + +----The time came at last for me to make my visit. I found Iris sitting +by the Little Gentleman's pillow. To my disappointment, the room was +darkened. He did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept +nearly closed. It was good enough for me;--what business had I to be +indulging my curiosity, when I had nothing to do but to exercise such +skill as I possessed for the benefit of my patient? There was not much +to be said or done in such a case; but I spoke as encouragingly as I +could, as I think we are always bound to do. He did not seem to pay any +very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life +and more than her own life were depending on the words I uttered. She +followed me out of the room, when I had got through my visit. + +How long?--she said. + +Uncertain. Anytime; to-day,--next week,--next month,--I answered.--One +of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or +slow. + +The women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. But +Iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and +kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she'd +be killin' herself; if she begun at that rate, and haf to give up, if +she didn't want to be clean beat out in less than a week. + +At the table we were graver than common. The high chair was set back +against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her +nearest neighbor's on the right. But the nest morning, to our great +surprise, that good-looking young Marylander had very quietly moved his +own chair to the vacant place. I thought he was creeping down that way, +but I was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous +parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. There was +no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair, as they sat +side by side. But whatever the young girl may have thought of her new +neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little +friend who had been taken from her side. There are women, and even +girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. One might as well reason with +a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the +construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from +their own way of doing their own work. It was not a question with Iris, +whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of +things to play the part of a nurse. She was a wilful creature that must +have her way in this matter. And it so proved that it called for much +patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the +kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share +in the household where accident had thrown her. She had that genius of +ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked +even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet +footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to +the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep, +or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with. + +Day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she +kept her place by the pillow.--That girl will kill herself over me, +Sir,--said the poor Little Gentleman to me, one day,--she will kill +herself, Sir, if you don't call in all the resources of your art to get +me off as soon as may be. I shall wear her out, Sir, with sitting in +this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you +leave me to the care of Nature without dosing me. + +This was rather queer pleasantly, under the circumstances. But there +are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the +larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to +them as death and death as life.--How am I getting along?--he said, +another morning. He lifted his shrivelled hand, with the death's-head +ring on it, and looked at it with a sad sort of complacency. By this +one movement, which I have seen repeatedly of late, I know that his +thoughts have gone before to another condition, and that he is, as it +were, looking back on the infirmities of the body as accidents of the +past. For, when he was well, one might see him often looking at the +handsome hand with the flaming jewel on one of its fingers. The single +well-shaped limb was the source of that pleasure which in some form or +other Nature almost always grants to her least richly endowed children. +Handsome hair, eyes, complexion, feature, form, hand, foot, pleasant +voice, strength, grace, agility, intelligence,--how few there are that +have not just enough of one at least of these gifts to show them that +the good Mother, busy with her millions of children, has not quite +forgotten them! But now he was thinking of that other state, where, +free from all mortal impediments, the memory of his sorrowful burden +should be only as that of the case he has shed to the insect whose +"deep-damasked wings" beat off the golden dust of the lily-anthers, as +he flutters in the ecstasy of his new life over their full-blown summer +glories. + +No human being can rest for any time in a state of equilibrium, where +the desire to live and that to depart just balance each other. If one +has a house, which he has lived and always means to live in, he pleases +himself with the thought of all the conveniences it offers him, and +thinks little of its wants and imperfections. But once having made up +his mind to move to a better, every incommodity starts out upon him +until the very ground-plan of it seems to have changed in his mind, and +his thoughts and affections, each one of them packing up its little +bundle of circumstances, have quitted their several chambers and nooks +and migrated to the new home, long before its apartments are ready to +receive their bodily tenant. It is so with the body. Most persons have +died before they expire,--died to all earthly longings, so that the +last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already +deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity with which the great +majority of dying persons await this locking of those gates of life +through which its airy angels have been going and coming, from the +moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have been often +called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always there is +a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on the +smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk-tooth. The roots which +hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its +place. Some of the dying are weary and want rest, the idea of which is +almost inseparable in the universal mind from death. Some are in pain, +and want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the +legend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. Some are stupid, mercifully +narcotized that they may go to sleep without long tossing about. And +some are strong in faith and hope, so that, as they draw near the next +world, they would fain hurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster +over the sands when the foremost travellers send word along the file +that water is in sight Though each little party that follows in a +foot-track of its own will have it that the water to which others think +they are hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all +ages and for human beings of every creed which recognized a future, +that those who have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert +have dreamed at least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its +murmurs as they lay dying. + +The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the +future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is +extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not +insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness, +on the strength of that odious fore-knowledge often imparted by +science, before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call +_death_, has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness. +There is a singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate +of his own vital force. His physician knows the state of his material +frame well enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less +impaired or disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold +out so much longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while, +though by the logic of disease he ought to die without any delay. + +The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his +remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was +a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various +modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The +landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had +saved somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me +to carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to +the title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more +than twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to +"A Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned +before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and +forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he +said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate. +Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the +late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was +something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was +a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of talents. Could +not always agree with his statements,--thought he was a little +over-partial to this city, and had some free opinions; but was sorry to +lose him,--and if--there was anything--he--could----. In the midst of +these kind expressions, the gentleman with the _diamond_, the +Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way, +bow the old boy was likely to cut up,--meaning what money our friend +was going to leave behind. + +The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish +snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the +Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult +him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r +intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young +man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his +chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and +they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out. + +The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one +quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man +down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such +encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to +knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do +happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be +angry, and get up and give you a thrashing. + +So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the +yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm +round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble +art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having +completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side +of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens +that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as +much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter +than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary +was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against +his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone, +judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat +backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little, +the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered +between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to +grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with +that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so +frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and +negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the +spot by "knocking the man down." + +We are in the habit of handling our faces so carefully, that a heavy +blow, taking effect on that portion of the surface, produces a most +unpleasant surprise, which is accompanied with odd sensations, as of +seeing sparks, and a kind of electrical or ozone-like odor, +half-sulphurous in character, and which has given rise to a very vulgar +and profane threat sometimes heard from the lips of bullies. A person +not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this +surprise. The Koh-i-noor, exasperated by his failure, and still a +little confused by the smart hit he had received, but furious, and +confident of victory over a young fellow a good deal lighter than +himself, made a desperate rush to bear down all before him and finish +the contest at once. That is the way all angry greenhorns and +incompetent persons attempt to settle matters. It doesn't do, if the +other fellow is only cool, moderately quick, and has a very little +science. It didn't do this time; for, as the assailant rushed in with +his arms flying everywhere, like the vans of a windmill, he ran a +prominent feature of his face against a fist which was travelling in +the other direction, and immediately after struck the knuckles of the +young man's other fist a severe blow with the part of his person known +as the _epigastrium_ to one branch of science and the _bread-basket_ to +another. This second round closed the battle. The Koh-i-noor had got +enough, which in such cases is more than as good as a feast. The young +fellow asked him if he was satisfied, and held out his hand. But the +other sulked, and muttered something about revenge.--Jest as y' +like,--said the young man John.--Clap a slice o' raw beefsteak on to +that mouse o' yours 'n' 't'll take down the swellin'. (_Mouse_ is a +technical term for a bluish, oblong, rounded elevation occasioned by +running one's forehead or eyebrow against another's knuckles.) The +young fellow was particularly pleased that he had had an opportunity of +trying his proficiency in the art of self-defence without the gloves. +The Koh-i-noor did not favor us with his company for a day or two, +being confined to his chamber, _it was said_, by a _slight feverish +attack_. He was chop-fallen always after this, and got negligent in his +person. The impression must have been a deep one; for it was observed, +that, when he came down again, his moustache and whiskers had turned +visibly white--_about the roots_. In short, it disgraced him, and +rendered still more conspicuous a tendency to drinking, of which he had +been for some time suspected. This, and the disgust which a young lady +naturally feels at hearing that her lover has been "licked by a fellah +not half his size," induced the landlady's daughter to take that +decided step which produced a change in the programme of her career I +may hereafter allude to. + +I never thought he would come to good, when I heard him attempting to +sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man +begins to attack the State-House, when he gets bitter about the +Frog-Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. Poor Edgar +Poe died in the hospital soon after he got into this way of talking; +and so sure as you find an unfortunate fellow reduced to this pass, you +had better begin praying for him, and stop lending him money, for he is +on his last legs. Remember poor Edgar! He is dead and gone; but the +State-House has its cupola fresh-gilded, and the Frog-Pond has got a +fountain that squirts up a hundred feet into the air and glorifies that +humble sheet with a fine display of provincial rainbows. + +--I cannot fulfil my promise in this number. I expected to gratify your +curiosity, if you have become at all interested in these puzzles, +doubts, fancies, whims, or whatever you choose to call them, of mine. +Next month you shall hear all about it. + +--It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As I paused at +the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the +wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:--no, this was the voice +of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in +her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them. + + + + +HYMN OF TRUST. + + +O Love Divine, that stooped to share + Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear, +On Thee we cast each earthborn care, + We smile at pain while Thou art near! + +Though long the weary way we tread, + And sorrow crown each lingering year, +No path we shun, no darkness dread, + Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near! + +When drooping pleasure turns to grief, + And trembling faith is changed to fear, +The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf + Shall softly tell us, Thou art near! + +On Thee we fling our burdening woe, + O Love Divine, forever dear, +Content to suffer, while we know, + Living and dying, Thou art near! + + + * * * * * + +ART. + +PICTURES AT SEVILLE AND MADRID. + + +_Seville, January, 1859_. + +I do not know whether I ought not to take you to the Museo on so bright +a morning, although I should like better to stroll with you on the +Paseo by the pretty river across which I look to the faintly seen hills +of Ronda, with the rich palm-trees in the foreground, and a great stone +pine in the middle distance, which would recall to us the Campagna and +Italy. Many people have said to me, "You cannot judge of Murillo till +you see him at Seville,"--they, of course, having been at Seville. This +is so far true, that his best picture is undoubtedly in the Cathedral +here; but in all other ways, Murillo is perfectly to be seen in other +cities. _You_ know, therefore, just what the pictures and the Museo +have to say to you. They speak of a most clever artist, who evidently +consulted Nature conscientiously, and who perceived and understood very +often many phases of her grace and beauty. The most masterly of his +fifteen or twenty pictures in the gallery is the one of Saint Thomas of +Villanueva giving Alms to the Poor; and it is, certainly, charmingly +arranged, with great breadth of effect and clever drawing,--on a cool +scale of color throughout. The Saint is in a black robe, relieved +against a light background of gray wall. The beggar who is receiving +alms is capitally understood, and carries the light broadly through the +picture. A charming little boy leans against his mother in the +left-hand corner, in half shadow, and shows her the coin in his hand. A +few other heads fill up the right-hand of the picture behind the Saint. +A red drapery, of a dull color, and a touch of brown-red here and +there, warm the agreeable grayness of the rest of the canvas. I like +much, also, a "Conception," in many respects like the usual picture +which Murillo repeated so often; but the Virgin in this one is +represented as very young,--about twelve or fourteen years old,--and +the whole effect is most silvery and delicate. + +But the Saint Antonio in the Cathedral is, I should say, his great +picture. It is very simple, and full of feeling. The Saint, half +kneeling, stretches forward to the vision of the Christ-Child, which +descends in a glory of cherubim toward him. The great mass of light +falls directly upon the kneeling figure and the upturned face, and +throws strong shadows on the ground. One is reminded, in some of the +angel-figures, of the brilliant light and shadow on the little flying +cherubs in the "Assumption," at Venice. Here all is silvery, where in +Titian all burns with the glory of a Venetian sunset. But this picture +of Murillo seems to me what one must call an eminently "happy" picture. +It gives one the idea that the painter enjoyed painting it, for the +expressive movement of the Saint is most admirably given, and the +extreme simplicity of every part of the picture is most agreeable; so +that we are ready to give great praise to Murillo for what he did, and +to say that he was earnest and tried to represent what he really felt. +And when we say that, we say a great deal; do we not? But we cannot, +for a moment, compare him to the great Venetians. He did not attempt +what they did, because he did not feel it at all; and, as a painter, he +is not comparable to them. One sees that he executed with rapidity and +a sort of dash, as it were. The Venetian concealed his execution, as +Nature does, and attempted to render the most subtile things which he +knew his art alone _could_ give, in their full force and beauty. As a +painter, therefore, he cannot be compared with men who wrought from so +different a principle. And when we think of the lovely elevation and +noble thought in the great Venetians, we must quietly rest grateful for +those great blessings,--grateful and happy that they exist, and that +we, in some measure at least, understand and appreciate their meaning. +Is it not delightful to think of them and know them in their precious +old corners and over their dear old altars? + + +_Madrid, March, 1859_. + + +You see that we have at last left Andalusia, and are here in what is +like a bit of Paris,--shops, dress, carriages, and now and then the +smell of asphalt pavement being renewed. Still, mantillas are the +coverings for the female head, and peasants in costumes drive mules and +donkeys through the crowds in the busy streets, and one is still in +Spain. We came, you know, for the gallery, and the first glimpse of it +showed us that we have enough to do to see that, during our proposed +stay of a month. I must tell you just a few things about the pictures, +and give you a peep at Madrid through my eyes, since you are not here +to use your own. + +Murillo is here the same as everywhere else. I very much prefer his +pictures in Seville. Velasquez, however, is to be really seen nowhere +so well as here. I do not know how many pictures there are here by him, +but a great quantity, it seems to me: Philips without number, in +childhood, youth, and age; Dons with curled moustaches; Queens with +large hoops and disfigured heads; an actor, full of life and character, +one of his very best. But his greatest picture, and really a wonder, is +his portrait of himself painting the little Infanta, who is in the +foreground of the picture with two young girls, her court ladies, her +dwarf, and a diminutive page. It is quite like a photograph, in clear, +broad effect of light and dark. From the other side of the room, full +of truth and vigor,--as you approach it, you find it is dashed in with +a surety of touch and a breadth truly extraordinary,--no details, no +substance even; painted with one huge brush, it would almost seem, all +is vigorous, dashing, clever, the triumph of _chic_, as shown by a +master hand. The dog in the immediate foreground is capital, the page +pushing him playfully with his foot. The dwarf stands next, full of a +sort of quaint truth, with her big head and heavy chin. The mass of +light falls on the Infanta, who takes a cup of something, chocolate, I +suppose, from one of the kneeling girls, while the other makes a +reverence on the other side. Beyond are a nun and a _guarda-damas_, and +in the mirror at the other end of the room are most cleverly indicated +the portraits of Philip and his wife. Velasquez stands on the left of +the picture, behind the Infanta, painting, with his canvas turned back +toward us as we look into the room. The black figure of an attendant +has passed out of the apartment and is going up a stair against a clear +white wall. The skilful way in which you are led into the picture is +astonishing, and the whole thing is quite by itself as a piece of +painting. There is no attempt at anything subtile or even delicate in +the treatment, speaking from the point of view of a result achieved by +paint on canvas,--no texture, no difference of handling, no imitation; +all is _paint_, admirably put on, for the effect across the room. I +think we must set Velasquez quite by himself as a truthful and surely +most gifted portrait-master. With a peculiar gift,--genius, I think we +might say,--certainly he is like no one else, and nobody else is like +him. Then there is his equestrian portrait of Philip IV., of which you +may remember the sketch in the Pitti Gallery,--also one of the Duke of +Olivarez, fresh, dashing, and spirited. But I prefer the portrait of +--some actor, I am sure,--full of character, against a gray wall +background,--one of those faces one is sure one has seen somewhere in +Spain, and he is declaiming evidently with the most capital action.--So +much for Velasquez. + +But I hardly dare attempt to tell you of the glory of the great Titian, +who seems almost newly revealed, in many _perfect_ works. Nothing can +equal the superb style of a portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara; it is like +nothing but Nature,--a splendid, dark, manly face and figure, standing +and looking thoughtfully at you, or rather, beyond you, caressing in an +absent way a little silky dog who puts his paw up to attract his +master's notice. The glowing flesh, the superbly painted dress of deep +blue with fine arabesques of gold,--the delicate hand lying on the +soft, silky hair of the dog, with its turquoise ring on the second +joint of one of the fingers,--you can imagine it, can you not? Next him +stands Philip II., pale, elegant, and repulsive, in gorgeous armor worn +over festal, glittering white satin. Charles V. is on the other side; +and I hardly know which of these portraits is the finest as a work of +Art, for all are _perfect_. Charles is standing, with a noble dog +leaning up against his hand; there is something _simpática_ in his gray +eyes, his worn face, and even in his protruding jaw, it is so admirably +rendered, and gives such a firm character to the face. His costume is +_elegantísimo_, white satin and gold,--with a tissue-of-gold doublet, +and a cassock of silver-damask, with great black fur collar and lining, +against which is relieved the under-dress; he wears his velvet cap and +plume, and a deep emerald satin curtain hangs on his right hand. These +portraits are just about as wonderful as any you may remember,--in his +best style and in capital condition. But I know you would say that the +great portrait of Charles on horseback is more grand. It is a sort of +heroic poem; he looks like Sir Galahad, or Chivalry itself, going forth +to conquer wrong and violence. His eager, worn face looks out from the +helmet so calmly and so steadily, the flash of his armor, which gleams +like real metal, the coal-black horse, which comes forward out of the +landscape shaking his head-piece of blood-red plumes against the golden +sunset sky and champing the golden bit, the grasp of the lance by the +noble rider: well, painting can do no more than that. It is history, +poetry, and the beauty of Nature recreated by the grand master. An +entirely different phase of his character is seen in his Ariadne Asleep +surrounded by the Bacchanals. This is full of antique Grecian feeling; +and such a subtile, delicious piece of painting! Ariadne is in the +foreground, full of warm, breathing life, her arm thrown over her +lovely head, and her golden hair falling over the vase of gold and onyx +on which she rests; a river of red wine runs through the emerald grass; +two beautiful girls have just put by their music and instruments, and +one turns her exquisite face toward us to speak to the other reclining +on the grass. The one who turns to us is the beauty of the Louvre, or +some one very like her, in full Venetian loveliness. In her bosom are +one or two violets and a paper with _Titianus_ written on it. The bit +of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the +middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying +great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny +hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam +on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity. +It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking +on the green among flowers and fruits. A figure full of action and +passion holds up a glass to the statue of the goddess in one corner. +The children are kissing each other and carrying about baskets of +fruit; these baskets are hung with rich pearls and rubies and gems of +all kinds. The green, fresh trees wave against a summer sky, and the +work is full of tender, sensitive elegance and love. It shows to me an +entirely new side of Titian in its extreme delicacy and sweetness. +Nobody can ever speak of a "want of refinement" in Titian, if they +thought so before, after seeing these pictures. Then there is the +Herodias, the same as the girl in Dresden who holds up the +casket,--wonderfully delicate and beautiful; and several other +portraits and pictures, which I cannot tell you of, even if you are not +already tired. I ought, however, to say that Paul Veronese has a very +fine Venus and Adonis here, full of sunlight and summer beauty, and +Christ Teaching the Doctors, nobly serious in character and admirable +in treatment; also two sketches of Cain and of Vice and Virtue, very +full of feeling for his subject. The Cain has his back toward you. His +wife and child look up at him entreatingly. There is a fine, solemn +horizon with a gleam of twilight. There are several Tintorets, but no +favorable specimens,--a portrait is the best. There is also a Giovanni +Bellini, which brings back the Venetian altar-pieces, quiet and lovely; +and a Giorgione, like the large one in the Louvre, in many ways; a +Madonna and Infant, with a fine female Saint and a noble Saint George. + +These are some of the glorious treasures which the Spaniards own. If we +could only have some of these! or if, while we or our country are +committing the sin of coveting the Spanish possessions, we would only +covet something worth the having! I confess, I should delight to take +away one or two fine jewels of pictures that nobody here would miss. + +I had almost forgotten to mention the great Raphael, the "Spasimo." It +is in his Roman style, with much that is, to me, forced in the action +and expression. The head of Christ, however, is beautiful, and +exquisitely drawn. Beside the Spasimo, there is a little picture of the +Virgin and Child, with Saint Joseph, in Raphael's early manner, very +lovely, and reminding one of the "Staffa" Madonna, at Perugia. It is +faint in color, and most charming in careful execution. + +Then there are the finest Hemmlings I have ever seen,--finer than those +at Munich: lovely Madonnas, meek and saintly; superb adoring Kings, all +glowing with cloth-of-gold and velvets and splendid jewels; beautiful +quiet landscapes, seen through the arches of the stable; and angels, +with wings of dazzling green and crimson. The real love with which +these wonderful pictures are caressed by the careful, thoughtful artist +makes them most precious. Every little flower is delicately and +artistically done, and everything is invested with a sort of sacred +reverence by this earnest Pre-Raphaelite. One or two Van Eycks have the +same splendor and depth of feeling. These pictures look as if they were +painted yesterday, so clear and brilliant are their colors. + +It is a pleasant circumstance, that some of the great Venetian pictures +in the gallery here were gained for Spain by the judgment and taste of +Velasquez. When he went to Italy with a commission from Philip IV., +which it must have delighted him to execute, "to buy whatever pictures +were for sale that he thought worth purchasing," he spent some time in +Venice, and there bought, among other things, the Venus and Adonis of +Paul Veronese, and several of the works of Tintoretto. The Titians had +come to Spain before, and it was from the study of them, perhaps, that +Velasquez learned to paint so well. At any rate, we know what he +thought of Titian; for Mr. Sterling gives an extract from a poem by a +Venetian, Marco Boschini, which was published not long after +Velasquez's journey to Italy, in which part of a conversation is given +between him and Salvator Rosa, who asked him what he thought of +Raphael. You will like to see it, if you have not Sterling by you. + +"Lu storse el cao cirimoniosamente, +E disse: 'Rafael (a dirve el vero, +Piasendome esser libero e sinciero) +Stago per dir che nol me piase niente.' + +"'Tanto che,' replichè quela persona, +'Co' no ve piase questo gran Pitor, +In Italia nissun ve dà in l' umor, +Perche nu ghe donemo la corona.' + +"Don Diego replichè con tal maniera: +'A Venetia se trova el bon e 'l belo; +Mi dago el primo luogo a quel penelo; +Tician xè quel che porta la bandiera.'" + +Here is a translation:-- + +The master, with a ceremonious air, +Bowed, and then said, "Raphael, truth to tell, +For to be free and honest suits me well, +Pleases me not at all, I must declare." + +"Since, then," replied the other, "you so frown +On this great painter, in Italy is none +By whom, indeed, your favor can be won; +For upon him we all bestow the crown." + +Don Diego thereupon to him replies, +"At Venice may be found the good and fair; +I give the first place to the pencil there; +Titian is he who carries off the prize." + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +1. _Dictionary of Americanisms_. A Glossary of Words and Phrases +usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. By JOHN RUSSELL +BARTLETT. Second Edition, greatly improved and enlarged. Boston: +Little, Brown, & Company, 1859. pp. xxxii., 524. + +2. _A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the +Thirteenth Century_. By HERBERT COLERIDGE. London: Trübner & Company. +1859. pp. iv., 104. + +3. _Outlines of the History of the English Language_, for the Use of +the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools. By +GEORGE L. CRAIK, Professor of History and of English Literature in +Queen's College, Belfast. Third Edition, revised and improved. London: +Chapman & Hall. 1859. pp. xii., 148. + +4. _The Vulgar Tongue_. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases, +used in London from 1839 to 1859; Flash Songs, Essays on Flash, and a +Bibliography of Canting and Slang Literature. By DUCANGE ANGLICUS. +Second Edition, improved and much enlarged. London: Bernard Quaritch. +1859. pp. 80. + +5. _A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words_, etc., etc. +By a London Antiquary. London: John Camden Holten. 1859. pp. lxxxviii., +160. + +6. _On the English Language, Past and Present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX +TRENCH, D.D. New Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Blakeman & +Mason. 1859. pp. 238. + +7. _A Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses +different from their present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New +York: Redfield. 1859. pp. xi., 218. + +8. _Rambles among Words; their Poetry, History, Wisdom_. By WILLIAM +SWINTON. New York. Scribner. 1859. pp. 302. + + +The first allusion we know of to an Americanism is that of Gill, in +1621,--"_Sed et ab Americanis nonnulla mutuamur, ut_ MAIZ _et_ KANOA." +Since then, English literature, not without many previous wry faces, +has adopted or taken back many words from this side of the water. The +more the matter is looked into, the more it appears that we have no +peculiar dialect of our own, and that men here, as elsewhere, have +modified language or invented phrases to suit their needs. When Dante +wrote his "De Vulgari Eloquio," he reckoned nearly a thousand distinct +dialects in the Italian peninsula, and, after more than five hundred +years, it is said that by far the greater part survive. In England, +eighty years ago, the county of every member of Parliament was to be +known by his speech; but in "both Englands," as they used to be called, +the tendency is toward uniformity. + +In spite of the mingling of races and languages in the United States, +the speech of the people is more uniform than that of any European +nation. This would inevitably follow from our system of common-schools, +and the universal reading of newspapers. This has tended to make the +common language of talk more bookish, and has thus reacted unfavorably +on our literature, giving it sometimes the air of being composed in a +dead tongue rather than written from a living one. It gladdens us, we +confess, to see how goodly a volume of _Americanisms_ Mr. Bartlett has +been enabled to gather, for it shows that our language is alive. It is +only from the roots that a language can be refreshed; a dialect that is +taught grows more and more pedantic, and becomes at last as unfit a +vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin. This is the danger which +our literature has to guard against from the universal Schoolmaster, +who wars upon home-bred phrases, and enslaves the mind and memory of +his victims, as far as may be, to the best models of English +composition,--that is to say, to the writers whose style is faultlessly +correct, but has no blood in it. No language, after it has faded into +_diction_, none that cannot suck up feeding juices from the +mother-earth of a rich common-folk-talk, can bring forth a sound and +lusty book. True vigor of expression does not pass from page to page, +but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the lips are +limbered by downright living interests and by passions in the very +throe. Language is the soil of thought; and our own especially is a +rich leaf-mould, the slow growth of ages, the shed foliage of feeling, +fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth-change, that the +vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself anew with living +green. There is death in the Dictionary; and where language is limited +by convention, the ground for expression to grow in is straitened also, +and we get a _potted_ literature, Chinese dwarfs instead of healthy +trees. + +We are thankful to Mr. Bartlett for the onslaught he makes in his +Introduction upon the _highfaluting_ style so common among us. But we +are rather amused to find him falling so easily into that _Anglo-Saxon_ +trap which is the common pitfall of those half-learned men among whom +we should be slow to rank him.[A] He says, "The _unfortunate tendency_ +to _favor_ the Latin at the _expense_ of the Saxon _element_ of our +_language_, which _social_ and _educational causes_ have long _tended_ +to foster in the mother _country_, has with us _received_ an +_additional_ _impulse_ from the great _admixture_ of _foreigners_ in +our _population_." (p. xxxii.) We have underscored the words of Latin +origin, and find that they include _all_ the nouns, all the adjectives +but two, and three out of five verbs,--one of these last (the auxiliary +_have_) being the same in both Latin and Saxon. Speaking of the +Bostonians, Mr. Bartlett says, "The great _extent_ to which the +_scholars_ of New England have carried the _study_ of the _German +language_ and _literature_ for some years back, _added_ to the _very +general neglect_ of the old _master-pieces_ of English _composition_, +have [has] had the _effect_ of giving to the writings of many of them +an _artificial, unidiomatic character_, which has an _inexpressibly +unpleasant effect_ to those who are not _habituated_ to it." (p. xxv. +We again underscore the un-Saxon words.) Now if there be any short cut +to the Anglo-Saxon, it is through the German; and how far the +Bostonians deserve the reproach of a neglect of old English +masterpieces we do not pretend to say, but the first modern reprint of +the best works of Latimer, More, Sidney, Fuller, Selden, Browne, and +Feltham was made in Boston, under the care of the late Dr. Alexander +Young. We have no wish to defend Boston; we mean only to call Mr. +Bartlett's attention to the folly of asking people to write in a +dialect which no longer exists. No man can write off-hand a page of +Saxon English; no man with pains can write one and hope to be commonly +understood. At least let Mr. Bartlett practise what he preaches. When a +deputation of wig-makers waited on George III. to protest against the +hair-powder-tax, the mob, seeing that one of them wore his own hair, +ducked him forthwith in Tower-Ditch,--a very Anglo-Saxon comment on his +inconsistency. We should not have noticed these passages in Mr. +Bartlett's Introduction, had he not, after eleven years' time to weigh +them in, let them remain as they stood in his former edition, of 1848. + +In other respects the volume before us greatly betters its forerunner. +That contained many words which were rather vulgarisms than +provincialisms, and more properly English than American. Almost all +these Mr. Bartlett has left out in revising his book. Once or twice, +however, he has retained as Americanisms phrases which are proverbial, +such as "born in the woods to be scared of an owl," "to carry the foot +in the hand," and "hallooing before you're out of the woods." But it +will be easier to follow the alphabetical order in our short list of +_adversaria_ and comments. + +ALEWIFE. We doubt if Mr. Bartlett is right in deriving this from a +supposed Indian word _aloof_. At least, Hakluyt speaks of a fish called +"old-wives"; and in some other old book of travels we have seen the +name derived from the likeness of the fish, with its good, round belly, +to the mistress of an alehouse. + +BANK-BILL. Is not an Americanism. It is used by Swift, Pope, and +Fielding. + +BOGUS. Mr. Bartlett quotes a derivation of this word from the name of a +certain _Borghese_, said to have been a notorious counterfeiter of +bank-notes. But is it not more probably a corruption of _bagasse_, +which, as applied to the pressed sugarcane, means simply something +worthless? The word originally meant a worthless woman, whence our +"baggage" in the same sense. + +[Footnote A: This, perhaps, was to be expected; for he calls Dr. +Latham's _English Language_ "unquestionably the most valuable work on +English philology and grammar--which has yet appeared," (p. xxx., +note,) and refers to the first edition of 1841. If Mr. Bartlett must +allude at all to Dr. Latham, (who is reckoned a great blunderer among +English philologers,) he should at least have referred to the second +edition of his work, in two volumes, 1855.] + +CHAINED-LIGHTNING. More commonly chain-lightning, and certainly not a +Western phrase exclusively. + +CHEBACCO-BOAT. Mr. Bartlett says, "This word is doubtless a corruption +of _Chedabucto_, the name of a bay in Nova Scotia, from which vessels +are fitted out for fishing." This is going a great way down East for +what could be found nearer. _Chebacco_ is (or was, a century since) the +name of a part of Ipswich, Massachusetts. + +TO FALL a tree Mr. Bartlett considers a corruption of to _fell_. But, +as we have commonly heard the words used, to _fell_ means merely to cut +down, while to fall means to make it fall in a given direction. + +TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative +language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the +prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit +for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German +_untergehen_ (fig.), to perish. + +HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_, +except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has +befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern +sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr. +Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard +the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in +England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon +than _bonnet_ and _gown_. + +IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I +left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among +us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made +better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled +_Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was +published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result +of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the +title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find, +"Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were +_improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract +has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should +have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use +long before with the same meaning. + +To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And +Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good +scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and +_imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:-- + + "Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_ + Donna piú su." + +LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an +herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_. + +LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon, +and used wherever English is spoken. + +LOAFER. We think there can be no doubt that this word is German. +_Laufen_ in some parts of Germany is pronounced _lofen_, and we once +heard a German student say to his friend, _Ich lauf'_ (lofe) _hier bis +du wiederkehrst_: and he began accordingly to saunter up and down,--in +short, to _loaf_ about. + +TO MULL. "To soften, to dispirit." Mr. Bartlett quotes +_Margaret_,--"There has been a pretty considerable _mullin_ going on +among the doctors." But _mullin_ here means stirring, bustling in an +underhand way, and is a metaphor derived from _mulling wine_. _Mull_, +in this sense, is probably a corruption of _mell_, from Old Fr. +_mesler_, to mix. + +TO BE NOWHERE (in the sense of failure) is not an Americanism, but +_Turf_-Slang. + +SALLY-LUN, a kind of cake, is English. + +TO SAVE, meaning to kill game so as to get it, is not confined to the +Far West, but is common to hunters in all parts of the country. + +SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of +Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a +vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had +what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and +Hector Boece. + +SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and +Western." Used also in New York. + +SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low). + +TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of +his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is, +perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary. + +TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self." +It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital +metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the +Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces +in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _étaler_. + +STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is +surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently +explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in +the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their +shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious. + +SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of +the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in +almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the +name. + +A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett. + +A CARRY: portage. _Passim_. + +CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England. + +CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England. + +COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of +certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the +archaic form, _Quo' he_. + +TO COTTON TO. + +DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to +acknowledging ignorance. + +GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England. + +LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts. + +LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair. + +LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means +weak-willed. Massachusetts. + +MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water. +Massachusetts. + +OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England. + +OLD DRIVER: } euphemistic for the +OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil. + +ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger. + +ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New +England. + +SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be +suited, for couldn't be suited. + +STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it +from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of +the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in +Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be +called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it. + +STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins. + +SWALE: a hollow. New England. English also; see Forby. + +TORMENTED: euphemistic, as "not a _tormented_ cent." New England. + +WELL-SWEEP. + +We have gone through Mr. Bartlett's book with the attention which a +work so well done deserves, and are thoroughly impressed with the +amount of care and labor to which it bears witness. We have quarrelled +with it wherever we could, because it cannot fail to become the +standard authority in its department. Its value will increase from year +to year. For instance, the Spanish words, in which it is especially +rich, are doomed to undergo strange metamorphoses on Anglo-Saxon lips; +for it is the instinct of the unlearned to naturalize words as fast as +possible, and to compel them to homebred shapes and sounds. There is +often an unwitting humor in these perversions,[A] and they are always +interesting as showing that it is the nature of man to use words with +understanding, however appearances might lead us to an opposite +conclusion. + +[Footnote A: We remember once hearing a man say of something, that it +was written in a "very grand delinquent [grandiloquent] style,"--a +phrase certainly not without modern application. We have heard also +Angola-Saxons and Angular-Saxons,--the latter, at least, not an unhappy +perversion.] + +The least satisfactory part of Mr. Bartlett's book is the Appendix, in +which he has got together a few proverbs and similes, which, it seems +to us, do no kind of justice to the humor and invention of the people. +Most of them have no characteristic at all, except coarseness. We hope +there is nothing peculiarly American in such examples as these:--"Evil +actions, like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all"; and +"Vice is a skunk that smells awfully rank when stirred up by the pole +of misfortune." These have, beside, an artificial air, and are quite +too long-skirted for working proverbs, in which language always "takes +off its coat to it," if we may use a proverbial phrase, left out by Mr. +Bartlett. We confess, we looked for something racier and of a more +_puckery_ flavor. One hears such now and then, mostly from the +West,--like "Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog"; "I take my +tea _bar-foot_," the answer of a backwoodsman, when asked if he would +have cream and sugar. Some are unmistakably Eastern; as, "All deacons +are good,--but there's odds in deacons"; "He's a whole team and the dog +under the wagon"; "That's first-rate and a half"; "Handy as a pocket in +a shirt" (ironical). Almost every county has some good die sinker in +language, who mints phrases that pass into the currency of a whole +neighborhood. We picked up two such the other day, both of the same +coinage. The county-jail (the only stone building where all the +dwellings were of wood) was described as "the house whose underpinning +comes up to the eaves"; while the place unmentionable to ears polite +was "where they don't rake up the fires at night." A man, speaking to +us once of a very rocky clearing, said, "Stone's got a pretty heavy +mortgage on that farm"; and another, wishing to give us a notion of the +thievishness common in a certain village, capped his climax +thus:--"Dishonest! why, they have to take in their stone walls o' +nights." Any one who has driven over a mountain-stream by one of those +bridges made of _slabs_ will feel the force of a term we once heard +applied to a parson so shaky in character that no dependence could be +placed on him,--"A slab-bridged kind o' feller!" During some very cold +weather, a few years ago, we picked a notable saying or two. "The fire +don't seem to git no kind o' _purchase_ on the cold." "They say Cap'n +M'Clure's gone through the Northwest Passage." "Has? Think likely, and +left the door open, too!" Elder Knapp, the once noted itinerant +preacher, had a kind of unwashed poetry in him. We heard him say +once,--"Do you want to know when a Unitarian" (we think it was) "will +get into heaven? When hell's froze over, and he can skate in!" We quote +merely for illustration, and do not mean to compare the Elder with +Taylor or South. + +The element of exaggeration has often been remarked on as typical of +American humor. In Dr. Petri's "Compact Handbook of Foreign Words,"[A] +(from which Mr. Bartlett will be surprised to learn that _Hoco-pocos_ +is a nickname for the Whig party in the United States,) we are told that +the word _humbug_ "is commonly used for the exaggerations of the +North-Americans." One would think the dream of Columbus half-fulfilled, +and that Europe had found in the West the near way to Orientalism, at +least of diction. But it seems to us that a great deal of what is set +down as mere exaggeration is more fitly to be called intensity and +picturesqueness, symptoms of the imaginative faculty in full health and +strength, though producing, as yet, only the raw material.[B] +By-and-by, perhaps, the world will see it worked up into poem and +picture, and Europe, which will be hard-pushed for originality ere +long, may thank us for a new sensation. The French continue to find +Shakspeare exaggerated, because he treated English just as our folk do +when they speak of "a steep price," or say that they "freeze to" a +thing. The first postulate of an original literature is, that a people +use their language as if they owned it. Even Burns contrived to write +very poor English. Vulgarisms are often only poetry in the egg. The +late Horace Mann, in one of his Addresses, commented at some length on +the beauty of the French phrase _s'orienter_, and called on his young +hearers to practise it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience +whose problem had not always been to find out what was "_about east_" +and shape his course accordingly. The Germans have a striking proverb; +_Was die Gans gedacht, das der Schwan vollbracht_; What the goose but +thought, that the swan fullbrought; or, to de-Saxonize it a little, +_pace_ Mr. Bartlett, What the goose conceived, that the swan +achieved;--and we cannot help thinking, that the life, invention, and +vigor shown in our popular speech, and the freedom with which it is +shaped to the need of those who wield it, are of the best omen for our +having a swan at last. + +[Footnote A: _Gedrängtes Handbuch der Fremdwörter_, etc., etc., +Leipzig, 1852.] + +[Footnote B: Take, for instance, the "negro so black that charcoal made +a chalk-mark on him," or the "shingle painted to look so like stone +that it sank in water,"--itself overpersuaded by the skill of the +painter. We overheard the following dialogue last winter. +(Thermometer,--12°.) "Cold, this morning."--"That's _so_. Hear what +happened to Joe?"--"No, I didn't."--"Well, the doctors had ben givin' +him one thing another with merc'ry in't, and he walked out down to the +Post-Office and back, and when he come home he kind o' felt somethin' +hard in his boots. Come to pull 'em off, they found a lump o' +quicksilver in both on 'em."--"Sho!"--"Fact; it had shrunk clean down +through him with the cold." This rapid power of dramatizing a dry fact, +of putting it into flesh and blood, and the instantaneous conception of +Joe as a human thermometer, seem to us more like the poetical faculty +than anything else. It is, at any rate, humor, and not mere quickness +of wit,--the deeper, and not the shallower quality. Humor tends always +to overplus of expression; wit is mathematically precise. Captain Basil +Hall denied that our people had humor; but did he possess it himself? +for, if not, he would never find it. Did he always feel the point of +what was said to himself? We doubt, because we happen to know a chance +he once had given him in vain. The Captain was walking up and down the +_piazza_ of a country tavern while the couch changed horses. A +thunderstorm was going on, and, with that pleasant European air of +indirect self-compliment in condescending to American merit, which is +so conciliating, he said to a countryman lounging near, "Pretty heavy +thunder, you have here." The other, who had taken his measure at a +glance, drawled gravely, "Waal, we _du_, considerin' the number of +inhabitants."] + +Even persons not otherwise interested in the study of provincialisms +will find Mr. Bartlett's book an entertaining one. The passages he +quotes in illustration are sometimes strangely comic. Here is one: "To +SAVE. To make sure, i.e., to kill game, or an enemy, whether man or +beast. _To get_ conveys the same meaning.... The notorious Judge W---- +of Texas ... once said in a speech at a barbecue, (after his political +opponent had been apologizing for taking a man's life in a duel,)-- + +"'The gentleman need not make such a fuss about _getting_ such a +rascal; everybody knows that I have shot three, and two of them I +_saved_.'" + +We have but one fault to find with Mr. Bartlett's Dictionary, and that +it shares with all other provincial glossaries. No accents are given. +No stranger could tell, for example, whether _hacmatack_ should be +pronounced hac'matack, hacma'tack, or hacmatack'. The value of Mr. +Wright's otherwise excellent dictionary is very much impaired by this +neglect. Ignorance of the pronunciation enhances tenfold the difficulty +of tracing analogies or detecting corruptions. The title of Mr. +Coleridge's volume (the second on our list) is enough to give scholars +a notion of its worth. It is the first instalment of the proposed +comprehensive English Dictionary of the Philological Society, a work +which, when finished, will be beyond measure precious to all students +of their mother-tongue. At the end of the volume will be found the Plan +of the Society, with minute directions for all those who wish to give +their help. Cooperation on this side the water will be gladly welcomed. + +Of Dean Trench's two volumes, one is new, and the other a revised +edition. No one has done more than he to popularize the study of words, +which is only another name for the study of thought. His new book has +the same agreeable qualities which marked its forerunners, maintaining +an easy conversational level of scholarly gossip and reflection, the +middle ground between learning and information for the million. Without +great philological attainments, and without any pretence of such, he +gives the results of much good reading. + +Mr. Craik's book is a compact and handy manual. + +The SLANG Dictionaries are both as ill-done as possible, and the author +of the smaller one deserves to be put under the pump for taking the +name of the illustrious Ducange, one of those megatheria of erudition +and industry that we should look on as an extinct species, but for such +men as the brothers Grimm. The larger book has the merit of including a +bibliography of the subject, for which the author deserves our thanks, +though in other respects showing no least qualification for the task he +has undertaken. We trust there are not many "London Antiquaries" so +ignorant as he. One curious fact we glean from his volume, namely, the +currency among the London populace of certain Italian words, chiefly +for the smaller pieces of money. What a strident invasion of +organ-grinders does this seem to indicate! The author gives them thus: +"Oney saltec, a penny; Dooe saltee, twopence; Tray saltee, threepence," +etc., and adds, "These numerals, as will be seen, are of mongrel +origin,--the French, perhaps, predominating."! He must be the gentleman +who, during the Exhibition of 1851, wrote on his door, "No French +spoken here." _Dooe saltee_ and _tray saltee_ differ little but in +spelling from their Italian originals, _due soldi_ and _tre soldi_. On +another page we find _molto cattivo_ transmogrified into "_multee +kertever_, very had." Very bad, indeed! For one more good thing beside +the Bibliography, we are indebted to the "London Antiquary." In his +Introduction he has reprinted the earliest list of _cant_ words in the +language, that made by Thomas Harman in Elizabeth's time. We wish we +could only feel sure of the accuracy of the reprint. In this list we +find already the adjective _rum_ meaning _good, fine_,--a word that has +crept into general use among the lower classes in London, without ever +gaining promotion. The fate of new words in this respect is curious. +Often, if they are convenient, or have knack of lodging easily in the +memory, they work slowly upward. The Scotch word _flunky_ is a case in +point. Our first knowledge of it in print is from Fergusson's Poems. +Burns advertised it more widely, and Carlyle seems fairly to have +transplanted it into the English of the day. As we believe its origin +is still obscure, we venture on a guess at it. French allies brought +some words into Scotland that have rooted themselves, like the +Edinburgh _gardyloo_. _Flunky_ is defined in Fergusson's glossary as "a +better kind of servant." This is an exact definition of the Scotch +_hench-man_, the most probable original of which is _haunch-man_ or +body-guard. Turn haunch-man into French and you get _flanquier_; +corrupt it back into Scotch and you have _flunky_. Whatever liberties +we take with French words, the Gauls have their revenge when they take +possession of an English one. We once saw an Avis of the police in +Paris, regulating _les chiens et les boule dogues_, dogs and bull-dogs. + +Vocabularies of vulgarisms are of interest for the archaisms both of +language and pronunciation which we find in them. The dictionaries say +_coverlet_, as if the word were a diminutive; the rustic persists in +the termination _lid_, which points to the French _lit_, bed. On the +other hand, he still says _hankercher_, having been taught so by his +betters, though they have taken up the final _f_ again. Sewel, in the +Introduction to his Dutch Dictionary, 1691, gives _henketsjer_, and +Voltaire, forty years later, _hankercher_, as the received +pronunciation. Sewel tells us also that the significant _l_ was still +sounded in _would_ and _should_, as it still is by the peasantry in +many parts of England. + +Mr. Swinton's book, the last on our list, is an entertaining one, and +gives proof of thought, though sometimes smothered in fine writing. It +is written altogether too loosely for a work on philology, one of the +exactest of sciences. But we have a graver fault to find with Mr. +Swinton, and that is for his neglect to give credit where he is +indebted. He seems even desirous to conceal his obligations. The +general acknowledgment of his Preface is by no means enough, where the +debt is so large. The great merit of Dr. Richardson's Dictionary being +the number of illustrative passages he has brought together, it is +hardly fair in Mr. Swinton so often to make a show of learning with +what he has got at second hand from the lexicographer. Dr. Trench could +also make large reclamations, and several others. There is beside an +unpleasant assumption of superiority in the book. An author who says +that _paganus_ means village, who makes _ocula_ the plural of _oculus_, +and who supposes that _in petto_ means _in little_, is not qualified to +settle Dr. Webster's claims as a philologer, much less to treat him +with contempt. The first two blunders we have cited may be slips of the +pen or the press, but this cannot be true of the many wrong etymologies +into which Mr. Swinton has fallen. We hope that in another edition he +will correct these faults, for he shows a power to appreciate ideas +which is worth more than mere scholarship, vastly more than the +reputation of it among the unscholarly. + +_A History and Description of New England, General and Local._ By A. J. +COOLIDGE and J. B. MANSFIELD. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. In +Two Volumes. Vol. I. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin +J. Coolidge, 1859. pp. xxv., 1023. + +This is a book of great labor, being nothing less in plan than a +condensed town-history of New England. In spite of all efforts to the +contrary, one is forced to admit that there is very little poetry in +American history. It is a record of advances in material prosperity, +and scarce anything more. The only lumps of pure ore are the _Idea_ +which the Pilgrims were possessed with and its gradual incarnation in +events and institutions. Beyond this all is barren. There is a fearful +destitution of the picturesque elements. It is true that our local +historians commonly avoid all romance as if it were of the Enemy; but +if we compare their labors with "The Beauties of England and Wales," +for example, the work certainly of uninspired men, we shall be +convinced that the American Dryasdust suffers from poverty of material. +There is no need to remind us of Hawthorne; but he is such a genius as +is rare everywhere, and could conjure poetry out of a country +meeting-house. + +In books of this kind we see evidence of what is called the +"enterprise" of our people on every page,--one almost hears the hum of +the factory-wheels, as he reads,--but that is all. It is not to be +wondered at that foreigners fail to find our country interesting, and +that the only good book of American travels is that of De Tocqueville, +who deals chiefly with abstract ideas. It is possible to conceive minds +so constituted that they may reach before long the end of their +interest in the number of shoes, yards of cotton, and the like, which +we produce in a year. The only immortal Greek shoemaker is he who had +the good luck to be snubbed by Apelles, and Penelope is the only +manufacturer in antiquity whose name has come down to us. + +One thing in the narrative part of this volume is striking,--the +continual recurrence of massacre by the French and Indians. This is +something to be borne in mind always by those who would understand the +politics of our New England ancestors. We confess that we were +surprised, the other day, to see a journal so able and generally so +philosophical as the London "Saturday Review" joining in the outcry +about the treatment of the Acadians. If our forefathers were ever wise +and foreseeing, if they ever showed a capacity for large political +views, it is proved by their early perception that the first question +to be settled on this continent was, whether its destiny should be +shaped by English or Keltic, by Romish or Protestant ideas. By what +means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another +question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history +written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans +doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_. + +The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils +honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way +of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the +enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are +to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak +highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it +is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply +the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating +cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the +pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only +been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no +bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the +same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the +heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the +coast, _and Pemaquid in particular._" Of a certain tavern we are told +that the daughters of the landlord were "genteel, sprightly, +intelligent young ladies, ambitious of display and of setting a rich +and elegant table." This is no doubt true, but surely History should +sift her tacts with a coarser sieve. + +In spite of these faults, the book is one which all New Englanders will +find interesting, and we hope that in their second volume the authors +will balance their commendable profusion of industry with a +corresponding economy of fine writing. + +_An Oration, delivered before the Municipal Authorities of the City of +Boston, July_ 4, 1850. By GEORGE SUMNER, etc, etc, Boston. 1859. pp. +125. + +The opposition in the Common Council to the order (usual on such +occasions in Boston) to print the oration of Mr. Sumner, and the series +of assaults it has encountered front the administration press, have +given it a considerable, though secondary, importance. Intrinsically a +performance of great merit, those on whom the weight of his arguments +and learning fell disclosed their sense of its power by the anger of +their debate and their efforts to repel it. + +Its value, as containing a fresh and instructive contribution to the +knowledge of our Revolutionary history, derived from original sources +of inquiry, explored by Mr. Sumner in person, would alone have rescued +from neglect any ordinary Fourth-of-July oration. + +The services and aids of Spain, material and moral, pecuniary and +diplomatic, to the American Revolutionary cause,--the introduction, +through the fortunes of Captain John Lee of Marblehead, of the American +question into the policy and polities of Spain,--the effect of the +arrival of our National Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, on the +fate of that gallant New England cruiser, then detained as a pirate, +for his heroic exploits under our infant and unknown flag,--the +incidents of vast and varied labor and accomplishment in our behalf, +connected with the name and administration of the eminent Spanish +minister and statesman, Florida Blanca,--the weaving and spreading out +of that network of influences and circumstances, in the toils of which +France and Spain entangled Great Britain, until she found herself +confronted by much of the physical and all the moral power of the +Continent, and from which all extrication was made hopeless, until the +American Colonies should be free,--the origin of "the armed +neutrality," and the shock it gave to the naval power of England, in +the very crisis of the hopes of American liberty,--are presented in a +narrative, clear, condensed, and original. + +From the aspect of peace and freedom in which our country so happily +reposes, going on prospering and increasing, "by confidence in +democratic principles, by faith in the people, and by the spirit of +mutual forbearance and charity," the orator turns to that Europe to +which our fathers there looked for succor, now "echoing to the clang of +arms, and hostile legions arrayed for combat." + +A tribute to Italy, for the gifts, poured out from her treasures of +art, science, medical skill, and political knowledge, of literature and +philosophy, to all the uses and adornments of human life, introduces a +reference to the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, which are shown +to have been based on these great principles:--That all authority over +the people emanates from the people,--should return to them at stated +intervals,--and that its holders should be accountable to the people +for its use. "To those Republics," it is added, "we also owe the +practical demonstration of the great truth, that no state can long +prosper or exist where intelligent labor is not held in honor, and that +labor cannot be honorable where it is not free." + +Mr. Sumner's defence of democratic republican ideas,--of the fitness of +the European peoples for self-government,--his repulse of those +unbelieving theorists who would consign the French and the Italians to +the eternal doom of oppression,--are manly, powerful, and unanswerable. +His hearty love of genuine democratic principles, as taught by the old +republican school of statesmen and philosophers, and his zealous pride +of country, which always made him one of the most intensely American, +in thought, word, and deed, of all the Americans who have ever +sojourned in the Old World, shine forth from every page of the Oration. +And in the honest ardor of his defence of the natural and political +rights of man, as they were taught by Turgot, by Montesquieu, by +Jefferson, not content with declamation or rhetoric, he ploughs deep +into the reasoning by which they were demonstrated or defended, and +ranges wide over the fields of learning by which they were illustrated. +Careful for nothing but for the truth itself, he refutes the errors of +a French writer who had charged practical ingratitude on the part of +America towards de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of +France to these Colonies, and arraigns and exposes the historical +mistakes of Lord Brougham and of President Fillmore, unfavorable to +Republican France and to Continental liberty. + +The crimes of Austria are shown to have been made possible by the moral +support Austria has received from the government of England. The fruits +of the reverses suffered by Hungary, and by other nationalities +struggling for independence and popular liberty, are exhibited in the +sacrifices since endured by England in the war in the Crimea, and in +the embarrassments of the present hour. + +Among our own duties and responsibilities to the great and world-wide +cause of liberty,--discussed thus far in its relations to Europe,--Mr. +Sumner proceeds to present the grand duty we owe, not less to ourselves +than to Europe, of giving to the struggling nations an example of +government true to the memories of our National Anniversary, and to the +fundamental ideas of civil freedom "implied in an independent, but +rigidly responsible judiciary, and a complete separation of the +legislative and judicial functions." + +From Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall, and Story,--to say nothing +of English and French jurists,--Mr. Sumner brings authority to define +and illustrate the true place of the judicial office in the political +system of a free government. And here, fidelity to those principles of +liberty he had explained and defended, fidelity to the "good old cause" +itself, at home and in the grand forum of the nations, demanded and +received the frank avowal, that "a recent scene in the Supreme Court of +the United States has shown that Jefferson was no false prophet, and +has furnished at the same time a serious warning to all who prefer a +government based upon law to either despotism or anarchy." + +The clear and sharp, merciless and logical veracity with which he +discriminates between the solemn judgment of a tribunal and a stump +speech from the bench,--the startling narration of decisions and +statutes, practice and precedent, condensed into a few of the closing +pages of the Oration, with which the discussion read by Chief Justice +Taney in the famous case of Dred Scott is confronted and exposed,--are +among the greater merits of this elaborate and able discourse. It must +have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a +large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of +an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of +self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for +his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience +and many of his countrymen. + +It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery +that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of +republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the +model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good +government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station, +quality, and character of the active offender. + +And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land, +and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary +between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce, +and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is +tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political +_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America. + +Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the +humblest comprehension. The chief justice and a majority of his +associates held that Dred Scott, who sued his master for his freedom in +the Federal court, had been already legally declared to be the slave of +that same master by the highest court of the State of Missouri, in +which State Scott resided at the time. They held that this decision of +the Missouri court was binding on all other tribunals; and that the +Federal court had no authority to reverse it, even if wrong. + +The _merits_ of the cause then before the court were thus conclusively +disposed of, whether the decision be regarded as bearing on the main +issue between the parties, or on the plea in abatement filed by the +defendant, avowing that Scott was not a _citizen_ of Missouri,--an +averment, if true, fatal to his standing in the Federal court,--since +its jurisdiction of the cause depended on the citizenship of the +litigants. In a word, if he was a _slave_, he was no _citizen_, If he +was the slave of Sanford, his doom was fixed, his dream of rights +dissolved. If the decision of the Missouri court was finally binding, +the functions of the Federal tribunal were at an end. + +What, then, was the pertinency of going on to argue the effect of the +Ordinance of 1787 over Scott while a resident in Illinois, or of the +Missouri Compromise on him during his residence in Wisconsin, or the +effect of his color, race, or ancestral disabilities upon a cause +controlled finally and beyond appeal by the authority of a decision +already made and recorded? + +Mr. Buchanan made hot haste to use this _pronunciamento_ of his chief +justice, issued only a few hours after his inauguration as President, +and withheld until after the election of 1856 had taken place. He +proclaimed--on its authority as a judicial exposition of a point of +constitutional law--the existence of slavery in the Territory of +Kansas. And he endeavored to make it efficient and powerful by +practical application in the administration of the government of the +Territory, and by interpolating these bastard dogmas, dropped from the +Federal bench, into the creed of the political party of which he was +the official chief. + +These _dicta_ of Mr. Chief Justice Taney made Dred Scott neither more +nor less a _slave_, neither more nor less a _citizen_, than he had been +without their utterance. But they aided the purpose of subjugating +Kansas, of opening all American territory to slavery, of Africanizing +the continent by reopening the slave-trade, of breaking down barriers +which State legislation has interposed against the introduction of +slaves, and of putting the propagandists of slavery in full possession +of every power. + +We gladly record our sense of the skill, learning, and intrepidity with +which Mr. Sumner fulfilled his task of presenting, defining, and +defending, within the brief limits of a single oration, the cause of +Liberty,--Liberty,--American, European, universal. + + + * * * * * + +_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan & +Co. 8vo. pp. 381. + +The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a +trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may +follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has +been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its +present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or +the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of +which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized +society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means +of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty +in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in +the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so +revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's +experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one +productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class +that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so +indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this +kind which could be studied and talked about. Dumas _fils_' "Dame aux +Camelias" is a great melodramatic story; but it is so exceptional in +its incidents and episodical in its character, that its heroine is +quite worthless as a specimen for examination and analysis; and it is, +beside, so very French as to be almost valueless in this regard, for +that reason alone. What it would be well to have written is the story +of an abandoned woman, told simply and without any reserve, except that +of decency, and purely from a woman's point of view. But, except by a +woman, and at the cost of the experience to be recounted, this is +manifestly possible only to genius. The author of "Out of the Depths" +has not attained the _desideratum_; but has yet approached so near it, +that we fear the right man, or, possibly, woman, may be deterred from +the attempt to do better. If so, there is a good subject--good for the +making of a grand psychological, physiological, and dramatic +study--lost. + +The subject of this professed autobiography, Mary Smith, is the +daughter of a gardener on a large English estate. Her family is much +noticed and favored by the ladies of the mansion, and she, who is +handsome and intellectual, soon acquires tastes and an education above +her position; and as she is vain and selfish and of a voluptuous +temperament, the consequence seems inevitable. Her first fault, +however, is committed with her betrothed husband, a young gentleman, +destined for the Church, by whose sudden death, at a time when his life +was more than ever essential to her happiness, she is left an outcast, +a creature to be spurned from the door of those upon whose tender care +Nature and themselves had given her unextinguishable claims. She finds +shelter and kind treatment with two girls who belong, though not +ostensibly, to the class into which she is about to fall, and soon she +appears as the mistress of a foolish young nobleman, for whom she has +not the least affection. At last he wearies of and parts with her, and +she finds a second companion and protector in an eminent barrister, who +takes pleasure in cultivating her literary tastes. Her unfaithfulness +to him results in a separation, and she passes into the hands of a +third keeper, who abandons her on occasion of his approaching marriage. +Infuriated at his desertion, she intrudes upon him at a social party at +his private chambers, and behaves so outrageously that she is handed +over to the police, and her name appears in public as that of an +infamous and disorderly woman. From this point she rapidly descends to +the lowest rank of her unfortunate class. On her way, a strong hand is +put out to save her. It is that of a gigantic young clergyman, who +allows her to think that she has decoyed him to her room, but who +really goes there to endeavor to turn her from her course of life. She +scorns his exhortations, and attempts to browbeat him; but she finds +him ready for a row upon the spot. He offers to fight her crowd of +bullies singlehanded, and when she locks the door upon him, twists the +lock off, hasp and all, with a turn of his wrist. Although they +part,--he none the worse, she none the better, for the interview,--it +is not without fruits; for he leaves her his address, and when, after +being reduced to the lowest depths of degradation and brought to the +last endurable pinch of suffering, she determines, at the death-bed of +a repentant companion, to reform at any cost, and does set her face +upward, and is beaten back and trodden under foot by the righteously +uncharitable of her own sex, she thinks of her big clergyman, seeks him +out, and by his instrumentality is taken into the country, and made the +mistress of a school in his parish. Here the friends of her youth find +her, forgive her, and cherish her; and she receives a proposal of +marriage from an estimable and wealthy farmer, who persists in his +suit, even after she has told him of her former life, and after the +small-pox, caught on a ministration of mercy, has harrowed all the +beauty from her face. But rapid consumption supervenes, and relieves +the author from the embarrassing position into which he had brought +himself. + +This is all the story that Mary Smith has to tell; and it will be seen, +that, so far as the incidents are concerned, it is commonplace enough. +It is not distinguished by one novel incident, or one fresh character, +except, perhaps, the muscular divine. Even in the grouping and +narration of its old incidents it exhibits no dramatic power, and +little skill of characterization in the portraiture of its personages. +And not only does a matter-of-fact air pervade the narrative, but the +tale is told with such reticence of fact as well as of feeling, that it +reveals but little of the real life of a London courtesan, and leaves +the reader almost as ignorant as he was when he took up the book of +what it is that makes the horror of such existence; all of which might +have been imparted without any violation of the decorum proper to such +a book, and which, therefore, should not have been withheld. The book, +too, is much too goody-goody. There is too much preaching throughout +it, and in certain parts a suddenness in the kneeling down to pray that +is quite startling. This stupid sort of goodness helps much to defeat +the purpose of the work. Even the strong minister, although his is not +the old-fashioned way, seems to have more beef on his bones than brains +in his head, or he would not answer to a desperate exclamation of Mary +Smith,--"Don't say that. God only knows what is best for us all; even +you, and all like you, may begin to live for the good of society, +without being its bane." This is very true,--as true as Justice +Shallow's original observation, that "we must all die." But the idea of +attempting to impress a degraded woman of the town by telling her that +she, and all like her, might be brought to live _for the good of +society!_ + +But in spite of these faults, the book has one great merit, which is +not too common; it seems to be the truthful story of a real life. This +impression is partly the result of a peculiarity of style which is very +difficult to express otherwise than by saying that the use of language +seems to indicate that the writer is of the condition of life in which +Mary Smith professes to have been born, and has acquired a knowledge of +language and literature in the manner in which she relates that she +acquired hers. There is no vulgarity, but a certain air of constrained +propriety, and an absence of any elegance, or grace, or indications of +a slow and unconsciously acquired acquaintance with the phraseology of +cultivated society. If this be really assumed, the author has exhibited +a delicate refinement in the art of writing not surpassed in any work +of imagination known to us. Another ground for the seeming actuality of +the story, to those who have any knowledge of the class to which its +heroine belongs, is the cause to which she attributes her fall. This +was not seduction; for she confesses, what hardly one in a thousand of +her sisters in shame will fail to confess, if they speak the truth, +that she was not seduced;--and neither was it poverty; for her father +was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a +young lady of wealth and station;--but it was her vanity and her +unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as +regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life; +and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate of +prudence; just as to a man whose great purpose is the getting of money, +honesty is but the best policy. After she has met the man who brings +her fate with him, (it might as well have been any other of his class,) +she writes,--"The one great pleasing and wretched hope of my mind was +that I should see him again; for it is so pleasant to believe that any +man in a higher station should take an interest in me." And again she +speaks of "exultation at the prospect which opened before me of being +raised out of the station in life from which I sprang by birth"; and +again, of her "desire of being a lady." This vanity it is, this desire +to dress and live like the women above them, and have intercourse with +the men above them, which leads the greater number of our fallen women +to their ruin, or, rather, sends them to it with their eyes open; and +for the rest, when Mary Smith, living in her own fine house, the petted +mistress of the wealthy Mr. Plowden, was unfaithful to him, it was not +for love of fine clothes or fine society. It is not long since our +whole country was shocked by the dire results of a similar abandonment +to vanity and wantonness, about which the usual amount of commonplace +and cant was uttered. It is time that the very truth was told about +this matter, in sad earnestness and singleness of purpose. We hoped to +find the whole truth in "Out of the Depths"; but, finding only a part +of it, we can greet it only with a partial welcome. + +_Reply to the "Statement of the Trustees" of the Dudley Observatory._ +By BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, JR. Albany: Printed by Charles Van +Benthuysen. 1859. 8vo. pp. 366. + +The question between Dr. Gould and the Trustees of the Albany +Observatory was not one of merely private or passing interest. It +concerned not only all men of science, but all men of honor. It +concerned all who like pluck, and who, in a quarrel, instinctively take +sides with one against many. It was of interest to men of science, +because the question was between show and reality, between newspaper +notoriety and the quiet advancement of real and enduring knowledge. It +concerned men of honor, because it was of some consequence to know +whether public sentiment in America would justify, nay, tolerate even, +the printing of confidential letters, and not only the printing, but +the garbling of them to suit the ends of personal spite. It concerned +lovers of fair-play, because it was to be settled whether it is right +to accuse a man of peculation whom you wish to convict of disagreeable +manners. + +Dr. Gould's pamphlet is a thorough vindication of himself. It is so not +only as to graver charges, but incidentally, by its perfect quietness +of tone, it answers the accusation of bad temper. The hitting is none +the less severe that it is done with scientific precision, and the +astronomer shows his ability to make his antagonists "see stars" in a +less comfortable way than through a telescope. There is a grim humor, +too, as well as dignity, in the Cool way in which Dr. Gould +recapitulates all the charges made against him,--especially where he +condenses them in the Index. Better pamphlet-fighting has not been seen +since Bentley. The hardship of the matter is, that people are commonly +more ready to believe slander than to trouble themselves with reading a +refutation of it. It gave us particular satisfaction to see that the +American Association for the Advancement of Science had shown its sense +of the merits of the quarrel by electing Dr. Gould vice-president of +their body. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Black Diamonds, gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South. By Edward A. +Pollard, of Virginia. New York. Pudney and Russell. 12mo. pp. 122. 50 +cts. + +Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders; or the Cogitations +and Confessions of an Aged Physician. By William A. Alcott, M.D. +Boston. John P. 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Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/9391-8.zip b/9391-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e94c99 --- /dev/null +++ b/9391-8.zip diff --git a/9391.txt b/9391.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d878f02 --- /dev/null +++ b/9391.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9188 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, +1859, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #9391] +Release Date: November, 2005 +First Posted: September 28, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NOVEMBER 1859 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. IV.--NOVEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXV. + + + + +E. FELICE FORESTI. + + +Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the +harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such +exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers +who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not +the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy +of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor the +fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new +country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees +of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and +breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and +self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the +bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud +consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and +being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when +first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of +the lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to +watch their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest +thought or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its +spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were +extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open. +Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple +facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and +cordial greeting. + +Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose +high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man of +moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul. Traces +of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent; but +with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave and +ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE FORESTI,--subsequently, and for +years, the favorite professor of his beautiful native language and +literature in New York,--the favorite guest and the cherished friend in +her most cultivated homes and among her best citizens,--the Italian +patriot, which title he vindicated by consistency, self-respect, and +the most genial qualities. The vocation he adopted, because of its +availability, only served to make apparent comprehensive endowments and +an independent spirit; the lady with whom he read Tasso, beside the +chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem Delivered," learned to appreciate +modern knighthood; and the scholar to whom he expounded Dante, from the +political chart of the Middle Ages, turned to an incarnation of +existent patriotism. Not only by the arguments of Gioberti, the graphic +pictures of Manzoni, and the terse pathos of Leopardi, did he +illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius; but through his own +eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her achievements and faith in +her destiny. The savings of years of patient toil were sacrificed to +the subsistence of his poor countrymen who came hither after bravely +fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara, to have their fruits of +victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity, consequent upon +early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn chains, laid the +stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed of pain. He +uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which no courage +can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious privilege of +being independent": yet his American friends must have surmised the +truth; for, one day, he received a letter stating that a sum, fully +adequate for two years' support, remained to his credit on the books of +a merchant,--one of those mysterious provisions, such as once redeemed +a note of Henry Clay's, and of which no explanation can be given, +except that "it is a way they have" among the merchant princes of New +York. By a providential coincidence, surgical skill, at this juncture, +essentially improved his physical condition; but it became +indispensable, at the same time, that he should exchange our rigorous +clime for one more congenial; and he sailed five years ago for Italy, +taking up his residence in Piedmont, where dwell so many of the eminent +adherents of the cause he loved, and where the institutions, polity, +and social life include so many elements of progress and of faith. It +was now that those who knew him best, including some of the leading +citizens of his adopted city, applied to the Executive for his +appointment as United States Consul at Genoa. There was a singular +propriety in the request. Having passed and honored the ordeal of +American citizenship, and being then a popular resident of the city +which gave birth to the discoverer of this continent,--familiar with +our institutions, and endeared to so many of the wise and brave in +America and Italy,--illustrious through suffering, a veteran disciple +and martyr of freedom,--he was eminently a representative man, whom +freemen should delight to honor; and while it then gratified our sense +of the appropriate that this distinction and resource should cheer his +declining years, we are impelled, now that death has canonized +misfortune and integrity, to avail ourselves of the occasion to +rehearse the incidents and revive the lessons of his life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is to be lamented that Foresti had not anticipated our +purpose with that consecutive detail possible only in an autobiography. +"_Le Scene del Carcere Duro in Austria_," writes the Marquis +Pallavicino, "non sono ancora la storia del Ventuno. Un uomo potrebbe +scriverla e svelare molte infamie tuttavia occulte del governo +Austriaco. Quest' uomo e Felice Foresti. Il quale abbandono gli agi +Americani per combattere un' altra volta, guerriero canuto, le gloriose +battaglie dell' Italico risorgimento. Il martire scriva: e la sua +penna, come quella d' un altro martire,--Silvio Pellico,--sara una +spada nel cuoro dell' Austria."--Notes to _Spielbergo e Gradisca_.] + +Underlying the external apathy and apparently frivolous life of the +Italian peninsula, there has ever been a resolute, clear, earnest +patriotism, fed in the scholar by memories of past glory, in the +peasant by intense local attachment, and kindled from time to time in +all by the reaction of gross wrongs and moral privations. Sometimes in +conversation, oftener in secret musing, now in the eloquent outburst of +the composer, and now in the adjuration of the poet or the vow of the +revolutionist, this latent spirit has found expression. Again and +again, spasmodic and abortive _emeutes_, the calm protest of a +D'Azeglio and the fanaticism of an Orsini, sacrifices of property, +freedom, and life,--all the more pathetic, because to human vision +useless,--have made known to the oppressor the writhings of the +oppressed, and to the world the arbitrary rule which conceals injustice +by imposing silence. The indirect, but most emphatic utterance of this +deep, latent self-respect of the nation we find in Alfieri, whose stern +muse revived the terse energy of Dante; and in our own day, this +identical inspiration fired the melancholy verse of Leopardi, the +letters of Foscolo, the novels of Guerrazzi, and the tender melody of +Bellini. Recent literature has exhibited the conditions under which +Italian Liberals strive, and the method of expiating their +self-devotion. The novels of Ruffini, the letters of the Countess +d'Ossoli, the rhetoric of Gavazzi, and the parliamentary reports of +Gladstone, the leading reviews, the daily journals, intercourse with +political refugees, and the personal observations of travel, have, more +or less definitely, caused the problem called the "Italian Question" to +come nearer to our sympathies than any other European exigency apart +from practical interests. Moreover, the complicated and dubious aspect +of the subject, viewed by transatlantic eyes, has, within the last ten +years, been in a great measure dispelled by experimental facts. That +Italy needs chiefly to be _let alone_, to achieve independence and +realize a noble development, civic, economical, and social, every +intelligent traveller who crosses the Austrian frontier and enters the +Sardinian state, knows. + +A greater contrast, as regards productive industry, intellectual +enterprise, religious progress, comfort, and happiness, no adjacent +countries ever exhibited; constitutional freedom, an unrestricted +press, toleration, and public education on the one hand, and foreign +bayonets, espionage, and priestcraft on the other, explain the anomaly. +In Venice the very trophies of national life are labelled in a foreign +tongue, the _caffes_ of Milan resound with Teutonic gutturals, and +under the arcades of Bologna every other face wears the yellow beard of +the North; yet the family portraits in the vast palace-chambers, the +eyes and dialect of the people, the monumental inscriptions, announce +an indigenous and superseded race; their industry, civil rights, +property, and free expression in art, literature, and even speech, +being forcibly and systematically repressed: while in the mountains of +Savoy, the streets of Turin, and the harbor of Genoa, the stir and +zest, the productiveness, and the felicity of national life greet the +senses and gladden the soul. Statistics evidence what observation +hints; Cavour wins the respect of Europe; D'Azeglio illustrates the +inspiration which liberty yields to genius; journalism ventilates +political rancor; debate neutralizes aggressive prejudice; physical +resources become available; talent finds scope, character +self-assertion; Protestantism builds altars, patriotism shrines; and +genuine Italian nationality has a vital existence so palpably +reproachful of circumjacent stagnation, ruin, and wrong, that no laws +or material force can interpose a permanent obstacle to its indefinite +extension and salutary reign. + +In his first youth, Foresti imbibed the creative spirit breathed into +the social and civic life of Italy by Napoleon's victories and +administration; it was at that vivid epoch when the military, +political, artistic, and literary talent of the land, so long repressed +and thwarted by superstition and despotism, broke forth, that his +studies were achieved. We have only to compare what was done, thought, +and felt in the Peninsula, during the ten years between the coronation +of Bonaparte at Milan and his overthrow at Waterloo, with the +subsequent dearth of national triumphs in every sphere, and with the +inert, apprehensive, baffled existence of the Italians in the grasp of +reinstated and reinforced imbecile, yet tyrannic governments, to +appreciate the feelings of a young, well-born, gifted citizen, when +suddenly checked in a liberal and progressive career, and remanded, as +it were, from the bracing atmosphere of modern civilization and +enlightened activity, to the passive, silent endurance of obsolete +feudalism. It was the inevitable and deliberate protest against this +wicked and absurd reaction which gave birth to the political +organization of the _Carbonari_; wherein the noblest men and the wisest +princes of that day enrolled themselves; and the inefficiency of whose +far-reaching, secret, and solemn aims can be accounted for only by the +fatal error of trusting in the magnanimity of an order born to +hereditary power, and overlooking, in their municipal fraternities, the +vast importance of the more scattered, but not less capable and +patriotic agricultural class. + +Foresti was born at Conselice in the Ferrarese. Few American travellers +linger in Ferrara. Fresh from the more imposing attractions of Florence +or Venice, this ancient Italian city offers little in comparison to +detain the eager pilgrim; and yet to one cognizant of its history and +alive to imaginative associations, this neglect might increase the +charm of a brief sojourn. It is pleasant to explore the less hackneyed +stories of history and tradition, to enjoy an isolated scene fraught +with grand or tender sentiment, to turn aside from the trampled highway +and the crowded resort, to listen to some plaintive whisper from the +Past amid the deserted memorials of its glory and grief. Such a place +is Ferrara. The broad and regular streets and the massive palaces +emphatically declare its former splendor; and its actual decadence is +no less manifest in the grass-grown pavement of the one and the +crumbling and dreary aspect of the other. It requires no small effort +of fancy, as we walk through some deserted by-way, wherein our +footsteps echo audibly at noonday, to realize that this was the +splendid arena where the House of Este so long held sway, limited in +extent, but in its palmy days the centre of a brilliant court, a famous +school of pictorial art, the seat of a university whose fame drew +scholars from distant Britain, and whose ducal family gave birth to the +Brunswick dynasty, whence descended the royalty of England. The city +dates its origin from the fifth century, when its marshy site gave +refuge from the pursuing Huns, and the ambition of its rulers gradually +concentrated around the unpromising domain those elements of +ecclesiastical prestige, knightly valor, artistic and literary +resources which enriched and signalized the Italian cities of the +Middle Ages. Enlightened, though capricious patronage made this +halting-place between Bologna and Venice, Padua and Rome, the nucleus +of talent, enterprise, and diplomacy, the fruits whereof are permanent. +But there are two hallowed associations which in a remarkable degree +consecrated Ferrara and endeared her to the memory of later +generations: she gave an asylum to the persecuted Christian Reformers, +and was the home and haunt of poets. It is this recollection which +stays the feet and warms the heart of the transatlantic visitor, as he +roams at twilight around the venerable castle "flanked with towers," +traces the dim fresco in a church Giotto decorated, reads "Parisina" in +Byron's paraphrase near the dungeons where she and her lover were +slain, or gazes with mingled curiosity and love on the chirography of +St. Chrysostom, the original manuscripts of Tasso, Ariosto, and +Guarini, or the inscription of Victor Alfieri in the Studio Publico. It +is because Calvin was here sheltered, and Olympia Morata found sympathy +and respect,--because the author of "Jerusalem Delivered" here loved, +triumphed, and despaired, and the author of the "Orlando Furioso" so +assiduously labored for his orphaned family, the exacting Cardinal +Ippolito, and the cause of learning, and strung a lyre which has for +centuries vibrated in the popular heart and fancy,--because, in a word, +Ferrara contains the prison of Tasso, and the home of Ariosto, who +called her "_citta bene avventurosa_," as did Tassoni the "_gran donna +del Po_,"--that the desolate old city is revived to the imagination, +with its hundred thousand people, its gay courtiers and brave knights, +the romance of its feats of minstrelsy and arms whereat noble beauties +and immortal bards assisted, and Art, Chivalry, Learning, Church, and +State held festival with the Muses to adorn and perpetuate the +transient pageant, the loveliness, and the rule,--otherwise since +consigned to the monotonous record of vanished pomp and arbitrary sway. + +When Napoleon fell, Foresti was a student at the University of Bologna, +whence he returned to his native capital, after obtaining the degree of +Doctor of Laws. His earliest forensic labors, like those of our young +advocates, were in the defence of accused criminals; and, limited as is +this sphere, he must have displayed unusual maturity of judgment and +natural eloquence, to have received successively the eminent +appointments of Provisory Assistant Judge in the Court of Justice of +Ferrara, Supplementary Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the +Lyceum, and Judge of the Peace, by virtue of which latter office he +crossed the Po to practise at Polesino,--wisely preferring the Austrian +to the Papal jurisdiction. In Crespino, in the province of Rovigo, in +the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, Foresti was made Praetor under the +Emperor's warrant. Coincident with this recognition of his judicial +knowledge and skill, was a kindred appreciation on the part of his +liberal and patriotic countrymen; they beheld in the vigorous and +disciplined mind and generous heart of Foresti, in his civic wisdom and +courage, the representative and ally they sought in this portion of +their beautiful and unhappy land. To disseminate the principles and +secure the cooperation of Venice became the special office of the +Carbonari leaders of Ferrara, and they had only to reveal the high and +holy object they cherished, to one who so well knew the wants and woes +of his country as Foresti, to enlist his adventurous sympathy. The +delicate and difficult mission, fraught with the dearest prospects of +Italy, was nearly consummated, when a treacherous colleague revealed to +the accredited agents both of Austria and the Pope the system of this +mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara. The latter +shrank from extreme measures, and was content with an oath of +retraction; but the Austrian government gave instant orders to the +chiefs of police, both there and at Venice, to arrest those whom the +perjured Count Villa named as adherents of Carbonarism. The decree was +executed with military force; and, without warning, preparation, or +even a parting interview with their families and friends, the suspected +were hurried off to the Piombi, that Venetian prison so graphically +described by Pellico. All correspondence and personal intercourse was +denied. Meantime, an ingenious and persevering investigation went on, +to ascertain the scope of the enterprise thus summarily baffled, the +means proposed, and the individuals implicated. To complicate still +further the situation of the victims, in other quarters the flame they +had secretly fed burst forth conspicuously; Naples and Piedmont were in +arms; and Austria conceived an alarming idea of the national spirit she +had partially contravened. The rigor of espionage towards the +imprisoned and their friends increased; the prosecution was insidiously +prolonged; privation and solitude, vigilance and suspense were made +instruments for subduing the resolution and invading the confidence of +the captives; they pined in desolation, ignorant of their fate, +uninformed of the welfare of those most dear to them, without resources +of defence or consolation, except what the strength of individual +character yields; physically weakened, morally isolated; sometimes +roused from sleep and bewildered with questions; at other times told +they were to die, that some companion had confessed, or that some loved +one had ceased to exist;--and all these crises of feeling and anxiety, +of surprise and despair, induced with a fiendish deliberation, to +startle honor into self-betrayal, wring from exhausted Nature what +conscious rectitude would not divulge, or agonize human love into +inadvertent disloyalty. + +At length their fate was decided. Foresti's companion in prison was the +son of a judge of Ferrara; and, one November midnight, their +conversation was interrupted by the unexpected entrance of the jailer, +who bade Foresti follow him. The hour and the manner of the official +convinced both him and his comrade that his sacrifice was resolved +upon; they embraced, and he left the cell to find himself strictly +guarded by six soldiers. This nocturnal procession marched silently +through the vast, lonely, and magnificent rooms of the Ducal Palace to +the door which leads to the Bridge of Sighs: it was the old road to +destruction,--the mysterious process, made familiar by novelists and +poets, by which the ancient and sinister republic made more fearful the +vengeance of government. As the unfortunate youth passed through a +labyrinth of gloomy corridors, he recognized the haunts of the ancient +Inquisition; the atmosphere was clogged with damp; moisture dripped +from the stones. A dungeon, lighted only by a lamp suspended from the +vault, and narrow, humid, and unfurnished, except with a pile of straw +and a rude table, proved the dreary goal of their heavy steps. Left to +his own reflections, Foresti contemplated his prospects with deliberate +anguish; that he had been found guilty was apparent; if the fact of his +direct agency in initiating the oath of self-emancipation, the sacred +compact of national self-assertion in the Austrian dominions, had +transpired, he felt that his prominence as a judicial officer, and the +firmness with which he had refused to explain the purposes or betray +the associates of this memorable league, made him the most probable +victim of extreme measures, should one be chosen from the Carbonari of +Ferrara. At that period of his life he entertained the opinion that +suicide was justifiable to avoid an ignominious death at the hands of +arbitrary power. Believing his fate sealed, he gave a few moments of +tender reminiscence to his dead mother and his living father and +sisters, to the dreams of his youth, and the patriotic aspirations to +which he was about to fall a sacrifice. The jailer returned, bringing a +book and a bottle of wine, for which he had asked; a few tears were +shed, a prayer for forgiveness breathed, and then he plunged a knife +into his breast; the blade broke; he shattered the bottle at his side +and swallowed the fragments, and then fell bleeding and exhausted on +the straw. If left long alone, life would have ebbed away; but, +probably in anticipation of such a catastrophe, the officer ere many +hours revisited the cell to put chains upon the prisoner. Discovering +his condition, a surgeon was called, remedies were applied, and two +Austrian sentinels carried Foresti into the presence of the judge. It +was scarcely dawn; the venerable and courteous, but inflexible +representative of the Emperor expressed solicitude and sympathy; a +secretary and physician, with the guard and their prisoner, confronted +each other by the dim light of two candles. Irritated by the +conventional politeness of this arbiter of his destiny at such a +crisis, having vainly sought death, and bitterly conscious of the long +outrages perpetrated under the name of justice, Foresti burst forth +into stern invectives, and boldly declared his liberal sentiments, his +allegiance to the principles for the sake of which he thus suffered, +and his absolute enmity to the usurpers of his country's freedom. The +Cavalier Mazzetti treated this overflow of emotion as the ebullition of +a youthful mind, romantic and intrepid, but unreasonable; he professed +the sincerest pity for so gifted and brave a youth, lamented his +delusion, painted in emphatic words his want of gratitude and +allegiance, treated his political creed and organization as chimerical, +and wound up by informing Foresti that he was condemned to die on the +public square of Venice, and that nothing would save him but a complete +revelation of the true plan, arrangements, and members of the secret +conclave to which he belonged. Threats and blandishments failed to move +the prisoner; he was silent, accepted his doom, and was remanded with +two allies,--one of whom purchased a remission by treason to his vows. +Such was the climax of two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by +ingenious moral torture. + +If the modern history of liberty is written by a comprehensive +humanitarian, he will not look exclusively to the battle-field for +picturesque and impressive _tableaux_; in that record most signally +will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of +victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler +will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that +which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve, +1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more +distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,--the only +spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous +old city of the sea,--the gay centre of a recreative population, where +the costumes and physiognomies of the Orient and the West mingle in +dramatic contrast,--the nucleus of historical and romantic +associations, singularly domesticated in two hemispheres by the +household lore of Shakspeare and Otway, Byron and Rogers, Cooper and +Ruskin. The ancient temple of St. Mark, the bronze horses of Lysippus, +the arched galleries of the Palace, the waters of the Adriatic, the +firmament above, and the stones beneath seem instinct with the fame of +commercial grandeur, maritime triumphs, and diplomatic prowess; the +cheerful arcades that shade the _caffes_ remind us of the "harmless +comedy of life" which Goldoni recorded; the flush of sunset on dome, +balcony, and canal seems warm with the peerless tints which Titian here +caught and transmitted; the crowd of pleasure-seekers recall the music, +love, and chivalry, of which this was once the splendid centre; while +the shadow of a dark _facade_ whispers of the mysterious oligarchy, the +anonymous accusers, the secret council, and the venerable Doge;--a more +remarkable union of gloom and gayety, of romance and reality, of the +beautiful and the tragic, directly suggested by inevitable local +associations, cannot be found in the whole range of European travel. +Imagine this memorable square, on the afternoon of a great Christmas +festival;--fair faces at every window,--the adjacent roofs crowded with +spectators,--an Austrian regiment drawn up around a scaffold,--the +Viceroy, brother of the Emperor, standing in the large balcony of the +Palace,--two cannon placed between the columns of San Marco and San +Teodoro,--every inch of the vast Piazza, without the circle of +soldiery, occupied by eager spectators. Over this vast assemblage, amid +the impending thoughts which the incidents of the hour and the memory +of the Past inspired, reigned a profound silence; no laugh or jest, +such as bespeaks a holiday, no heartless curiosity, such as accompanies +a mere public show, no vulgar excitement was evident; on many faces +dwelt an expression of awe and pity,--on others an indignant frown,--on +all painful and sympathetic expectancy. Every class was represented, +from the swarthy fishermen of the lagoons to the dark-eyed countess of +the Palazzo,--pale students, venerable citizens, the shopkeeper and the +marquis, the priest and the advocate. It was not merely the fate of the +few prisoners on the scaffold, deep as was the public sympathy, which +occasioned this profound suspense; they represented the national cause, +and in every city of the land there were scores of the bravest and the +best equally involved in the patriotic sacrifice, and whose destiny +had, for long and weary months, agonized their relations, friends, and +countrymen. The anomalous tyranny under which the nation had collapsed +was demonstrated not so much by the outward aspect as by the moral +facts of that fatal day in the Piazza of San Marco. On the scaffold +were a group of educated, courageous, honest Italians, guarded by +Austrian soldiers and overlooked by the official representative of +imperial despotism; their attitude was criminal, their acts sublime; +ostensibly condemned, they were in reality glorified. Not a being in +that vast multitude, except the official creatures of Austria, but +gazed with respect, love, sorrow, pride, tenderness, and admiration +upon her noble victims; it was the apparent triumph of physical force, +and the actual realization of moral superiority: the silence of that +multitude was the eloquent protest of humanity. + +And this ominous silence was all at once broken by the clear, +well-emphasized voice of a judicial officer, reading the sentence; it +was listened to with such breathless attention, that, when the phrase, +_condemned to death_, was uttered, a visible shudder vibrated, like an +electric shock, through the dense mass of human beings, and upturned +faces flushed or grew pallid in an instant; but scarcely were these +simultaneous emotions recognized, when another phrase, _life granted_, +called forth a cry as of one mighty voice. All were spared: but a +sentence, to such as understood its meaning, of living death,--_carcere +duro_ in Spielberg and the Castle of Lubiano,--some for ten, others for +fifteen, and the remainder for twenty years,--was substituted. + +This entire ceremony was characteristic of Austrian despotism, aware of +the profound sympathy among the Italians for their patriot martyrs, of +the widespread disaffection, of the necessity of exciting vague and +terrible apprehension,--and at the same time conscious that policy +forbade arousing the fury of despair. The accused were thus kept more +than two years alternating from hope to desperation, the people in +ignorance of the issue, and then, when led out, as they supposed, to +die, they served as a warning to those who dared imperial vengeance, +while, by a sudden act of apparent clemency, the government at once rid +itself of formidable opponents and assumed the character of merciful +executors of law! It was rumored that the consideration of his youth +saved the life of Foresti;--he was sentenced to twenty years' +imprisonment. + +From, the scaffold the prisoners were transferred to the Island of St. +Michael. Their transit was more like an ovation than a disgrace. The +better class of spectators embarked in gondolas and followed the +_cortege_ with shouts of encouragement and waving of handkerchiefs; +"Courage, courage, brave patriots!" was their salutation; and when +night fell upon the scene, there rose from the lagoons strains of +instrumental and vocal melody, and improvised recitations breathing +honor, compassion, and hope; so that in spite of bayonets and police, +terrorism and espionage, the voice of their fettered country wafted to +every captive the assurance that he had not striven and been faithful +unto death in vain. + +These scenes in Venice were reenacted, with unimportant modifications, +within a few months, at Rome and Turin, at Modena, Parma, and Naples. +The rolls of victims embraced the most highly endowed and heroic men of +the day. Many of them, after years of incarceration, distinguished +themselves in civil and literary life; some perished miserably in +durance; and a few yet survive and enjoy social consideration or +European fame. Among them were representatives of every rank, vocation, +and section of the land,--noblemen, professors, military officers, +advocates, physicians, priests, men of wealth, of genius, and of +character. Those known in America, either personally or by their +writings, are Count Gonfalonieri of Milan, Silvio Pellico, Castilla, +Borsieri, Maroncelli, and Foresti. The abortive revolutions of 1831 and +1848 sent other refugees to our shores, and canonized other saintly +heroes in the Calendar of Freedom; but these were the original, and, as +a body, the remarkable men, who, imbued with the intelligent and +progressive Liberalism of the nineteenth century, practically +established in Italy by Napoleon, bravely initiated the vital reaction +invoked by humanity as well as patriotism, before which European +despotism has never ceased to tremble, and which, however baffled, +postponed, and misunderstood, by the law of God as well as the +development of man, is absolutely destined to an ultimate triumph. + +The show of justice and clemency was made at noonday with every +circumstance of pomp and authority to give it popular effect; the trial +and punishment were enacted in darkness and isolation. On a cold, still +night of January came police commissioners to the island, whither the +condemned patriots had been conveyed amid tears and benedictions, and +chained them in couples like galley-slaves. By the light of torches +they were placed in boats which glided noiselessly by sleeping Venice +to Mestre, and there they were transferred to carriages, two prisoners +and four guards to each vehicle, and in this manner, for four dreary +weeks, borne through the winter days farther and farther from country +and home,--sleeping at night in town-jails, by-way fortresses, or, when +neither were available, in the worst apartments of lonely inns. Who can +adequately describe the wretchedness of that journey, the bitterness of +soul, the prospective desolation, the tender regrets of those unhappy +prisoners,--torn from the embrace of kindred, the dignity and motive of +a high career, the most beautiful of countries, and the most sacred of +ties and duties, to bury their youth, with all its high dreams and +noble fervor and consecrated gifts, in a distant dungeon? Even the +strangers through whose domain they passed testified by looks, signs, +respectful greetings, and, when possible, kind attentions, their +sympathy and esteem; people of rank continued to approach them in +disguise merely to indicate their humane recognition; the very +commissioners sent to attest the execution of the sentence parted from +their charge with tearful respect. Grief, privation, and fatigue, +greatly aggravated by the shackles which bound them in pairs, had +exhausted body and mind at the end of the journey. From the city of +Brunn, the capital of Moravia, their wan looks sought the mountain +prison above, where frowned the bastions of Spielberg, once a mediaeval +castle, then a fortress, built by the Emperor Charles, and, just before +the battle of Austerlitz, dismantled by Napoleon, and now the place of +confinement for the most degraded criminals of Austria, nearly a +thousand of whom there expiate their offences. Into this herd of +malefactors were thrust gentlemen, scholars, citizens, for the crime of +patriotism. To each was assigned a cell, twelve feet in length and +eight in breadth, with a small iron-barred window, a plank with, a +mattress and blanket, an iron chair secured to the wall, and an earthen +jug for water. Arrayed in convict uniform, here the brave youths were +immured. Sentinels were continually on guard in the corridors and court +and around the bastions; the food was inadequate and often loathsome; +an hour's walk in the yard daily, between two soldiers with loaded +muskets, was the only respite from solitude and inaction; "Lives of the +Saints" were the only books allowed; intercourse with the outward world +was entirely cut off; surveillance was incessant; on Sunday they were +guarded to the chapel, but kept apart; every quarter appeared a priest, +who strove, by rigid examination, to elicit political secrets; the +agents and officials maintained an unmitigated reserve; what transpired +in the world, how it fared with their country and their loved ones, was +unknown; existence so near to death itself, in passivity, "cold +obstruction," alienation from all the interests, the hopes, and the +very impressions of human life, it is impossible to imagine. +Subsequently reforms were introduced, and the rigors of this system +somewhat modified; but the era of Foresti's confinement at Spielberg +was that which has become accursed in political history as the reign of +Francesco Primo. He insisted to the last on chains, the badge of crime, +and the severest _regime_ possible to life. He had even visited Brunn, +and been within hearing of his victims, and sent his physician to +ascertain their condition; but refused any mitigation of sufferings, +moral and physical, which involved sanity, health, and almost vitality. + +The details of this experience are familiar through current European +memoirs. Silvio Pellico has made the life of an Austrian +prisoner-of-state, in its outward environment and inward struggles, as +well known as that of the Arctic explorer or the English +factory-operative. A confirmatory supplement to this dark chapter in +the history of modern civilization has recently appeared from the pen +of another of Foresti's fellow-martyrs, Pallavicino. [Footnote: +_Spielbergo e Gradisca: Scene del Carcere Duro di_ GIORGIO PALLAVICINO. +Torino. 1856.] But while they were undergoing the bitter ordeal, it was +all but unknown in Europe and undreamed of in America; literature, that +noble vantage-ground for oppressed humanity, has now broken the silence +and proclaimed the truth. There was one solace ingeniously obtained by +these buried members of the living human family,--occasional indirect +intercourse with each other: the telegraphs of eye and ear conveyed +their mutual feelings. One after another succumbed, from the vital +injuries of the _regime_; in one case the brain grew weak, in another +the blood was impoverished or fevered; this one was prostrated by +gangrene in wounds caused by chafing fetters, and that attenuated by +insufficient nourishment: yet they contrived to make known to each +other how it fared with them respectively. Pellico, through an +indulgent guard, sent Foresti verses on his birthday; Maronchelli +sounded on the wall the intimation of his continued existence after his +leg was amputated; and when marshalled for a walk or convened on Sunday +in the chapel, the devoted band had the melancholy satisfaction of +beholding each other, though the different groups were not permitted to +communicate. Andryane, a French officer, included in the original +edict, though upon most inadequate evidence, describes, with keen +interest, his first impressions when permitted to go to mass at +Spielberg. His companion speculated on the identity of each of the +captives. "That one, with dejected looks and hollow eyes, who seems so +exhausted, and, though a tall man, is bent down into a dwarf, is Villa. +Poor fellow! he has but a few months to live. As for the last one, with +the stern looks and bushy black hair, he appears to bear his fate in +such a manner as ought to make us resigned to our own." "That," +whispered a fellow-prisoner, "is Foresti, who, like Ajax, doubtless +mutters between his teeth, 'I will foil them yet, though even the gods +oppose me!'" [Footnote: "_Memoires d'un Prisonnier d'Etat_." Par +ALEXANDRE ANDRYANE. Paris.] + +This observation was sagacious. It was by calm resolution and +philosophic self-possession, through faith in the ultimate triumph of +justice and freedom, that Foresti kept at bay the corrosive despair +which irritated less noble characters into melancholy or wasted spirits +of gentler mould to insanity. Yet his physical torture was extreme. Of +robust frame and in the plenitude of youthful vigor when arrested, the +want of food during the earlier years of his captivity made serious and +permanent inroads upon a naturally powerful constitution. We have heard +him relate, with a humorous emphasis indicative of brave endurance, yet +suggestive of the keenest pangs, how eagerly he one day seized a +pudding, thrust under his dress, as he passed the lodge of an official +in the court, by a compassionate woman,--how ingeniously he concealed +it from the sentinels, at the risk of burning his hands,--with what +triumph he unfolded and with what voracity he devoured it in the +solitude of his cell. Sometimes an indignity overcame his +self-possession, as, on one occasion, when the jailer's attendant +rudely awoke him with a kick, as he deposited a basin of hot broth, +which Foresti indignantly seized and dashed its scalding contents into +the face of the brutal menial, who thenceforward was more respectful in +his salutations. But it was the moral suffering against which all his +wisdom and courage were invoked to struggle,--the resolute maintenance +of healthful mental activity, without an object or motive underived +from will,--the repression of hopeless, vague, self-tormenting +reverie, which perverts intellect and drains moral energy,--the +habitual exercise of memory, reflection, and fancy, to preserve their +functions unimpaired. Such expedients were of special necessity at +Spielberg; for never were educated men so barbarously deprived of the +legitimate resources of mind and heart; thought and love were left +uninvited, unappeased. Sir Walter Raleigh had the materials, at the +Tower, to write a history; Lafayette, at Olmutz, lived in perpetual +expectancy of release; Moore and Byron, children, flowers, birds, and +the Muses cheered Leigh Hunt's year of durance: but in this bleak +fortress, innocent and magnanimous men beheld the seasons come and go, +night succeed day, and year follow year, with no cognizance of kindred +or the world's doings,--no works of bard or sage,--no element of +life,--but a grim, cold, deadly routine within stone walls,--all tender +sympathies, the very breath of the soul, denied,--all influx of +knowledge, the food of the mind, prohibited, experience a blank, +existence a void! + +Had we need of evidence that conscience is a normal attribute of +humanity, that the soul is endowed with relations to the Infinite, we +should find it in the self-preservation realized under such +circumstances as these. Only conscious rectitude could arm humanity +against the sense of degradation and deprivation thus surrounding and +pressing upon it for years,--only the belief in a Power above and +beyond human will and perversity,--only, in a word, the recuperative +force of moral individuality and aspiration, could keep intact and +uninvaded the integrity of conscious being. Of course, the method +thereof depends on character; a cheerful heart In one, a buoyant +imagination in another, and the sweet self-oblivion which Faith imparts +in a third, sentiment here and will there, work the same miracle. +Foresti belonged to that class of Italians who combine perspicacity and +force of reasoning with a frank, affectionate, and trustful +disposition,--types of the manly intellect, the childlike heart; +incarceration, while it failed to enfeeble the former, by seclusion +from life's game and the world's encroachments from early youth to +middle age, perhaps confirmed the latter into the candid and loving +nature which endeared him to so many friends in Europe and America. +Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress; +and Isaac Taylor has observed, that the devout heart can find in a +single blade of grass the evidence of a Divine Creator. We have all +read of Bruce testing his fate, when a captive, by the gyrations of a +spider, of Baron Trenck finding solace in a dungeon in the +companionship of a mouse, and the imaginative prisoner of Fenestrelle +absorbed in vigilant and even affectionate observation of a little +plant,--its germination, slow approach to maturity, and consummate +flowering. But there were alleviating circumstances in the situation of +these captives,--a definite hope of release or a certainty of +life-bondage, either of which alternatives is more favorable to +tranquillity of soul than absolute suspense; they enjoyed tidings from +without or indulgences within. At Spielberg, the _sistema diabolico_, +as it has been justly called, especially at the epoch of Foresti's +incarceration, retained the galling chain on the limbs, cut off the +supply of moral and intellectual vitality, refused appropriate +occupation, baffled hope, eclipsed knowledge, and kept up a vile +inquisitorial process to goad the crushed heart, sap the heroic will, +and stupefy or alienate the mental faculties; dawn ushered in the +twilight of a mausoleum, noon fell dimly on paralyzed manhood, night +canopied aggravating dreams. + + "To such sad pitch their gathering griefs were wrought, + Life seemed not life, save when convulsed by thought." + +Casual evasions of this fiendish torture, through ingenuity or the +compassion of officials, are among the few animated episodes of their +dreary experiences recorded by the victims. At length the Emperor died +(an event they had surmised from a change in the form of the public +prayer); his son Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, and signalized his +accession by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning +them to perpetual exile in America. Those long years of such captivity +did not even gain them the privilege of again enjoying civil rights, +their country, and kindred! Protests were vain, appeals disregarded. In +November, 1835, their chains were removed; the same blacksmith who had +welded Foresti's shackles fourteen years before, now severed them, and +wept with joy as they fell! One night they were all summoned to the +director's room, and he, too, announced their enfranchisement with +congratulations; the prison garb was exchanged for citizen's dress, and +they were taken in carriages to the police prison of Brunn, where +comfortable apartments, good food, free intercourse, books, and +newspapers awaited them. Imagine the vividness of their sensations, the +hilarity of feeling inspired by the first sight of scenes and objects +associated with their youth! It was like a new birth. To grasp the +hands and hear the voices of their fellow-creatures,--to behold +streets, _caffes_, and shops, the tokens of industry, the insignia of +life,--to taste viands unknown for years,--to see the horizon,--to feel +the breath of heaven,--to trace once more those charts of living +history, the journals, resume acquaintance with favorite authors, +converse together, move unchained, think aloud,--this sudden and entire +transition awakened a sensation of almost infantile joy. But privation +had too long been their lot to be instantly ignored with impunity; a +reaction followed; the weakness incident to long confinement, +prostrated faculties, and inadequate nourishment brought on illness; +they could not, at once, bear the excitement, digest the food, or +sustain the keen pleasure; and a rigorous climate quelled their +sensitive vitality. But universal sympathy now environed them; their +very custodian ministered to their wants; and the Emperor ordered them +to be removed to the Castle of Gradisca, on the confines of Italy, +where a milder atmosphere prevailed. + +How much had occurred while these years of arbitrarily imposed +monasticism crept heavily by, to excite the speculative thought and +kindle the sympathies of educated men! To what new aspects of +civilization and fresh phases of contemporaneous history their +liberation suddenly introduced them! + +Their journey from Brunn to Gradisca was a perfect contrast to that +melancholy transit, so many years before, from Venice to Spielberg. It +was near the beginning of April, 1836, when they started in carriages +with a commissary and a few guards; in every town and village through +which they passed, crowds surrounded them with gratulations; the inns +where they stopped were besieged with well-wishers; Nature, too, seemed +to hail their release with vernal beauty; and so they journeyed on, to +be received as honored guests rather than prisoners-of-state at the +Castle of Gradisca. Their sojourn here was as recreative as was +consistent with that degree of supervision necessary to prevent escape; +they were at liberty to walk about, to make and receive visits, to +bathe in the sea, to attend the fairs, and examine the local +celebrities of Friuli; a single commissary often accompanied their +excursions, and personally the most delicate consideration was paid +them. Here, too, the most affecting reunions of long-severed kindred +and friends took place; their relatives hastened hither to embrace +them. + +Foresti used to relate many anecdotes illustrative of the sympathy and +respect felt and manifested by strangers during this interlude between +prison and exile. One deserves record here. Two travelling-carriages +arrived at a village-inn, one evening, where they were resting. While +the gentlemen were inspecting the apartments, a lady of distinguished +appearance inquired of a bystander, who the strangers were towards whom +so many friendly glances were directed; soon after, the landlord bore +to them her request for an interview; they rose at her entrance; she +attempted to speak, but her voice faltered, and, with tears, she turned +to her little boys and said, "Kneel, my darlings, to these brave +Italian patriots; they are illustrious victims in the great cause of +Liberty; and you, gentlemen, bless my sons; your blessing will be +fruitful to them of good; it will make them love their country and die +for it, if need be. I am a Pole. My country is oppressed like yours. I +have two brothers compromised in the last insurrection in Cracow. May +God preserve them!"--and weeping bitterly, she retired. They afterwards +learned that her husband was Counsellor of State to the King of +Prussia. + +On the 1st of August, 1836, they were transported by night to Trieste, +and, by a singular coincidence, placed on board the same brig-of-war +whence Kozsta was subsequently taken at Smyrna,--an incident memorable +in our subsequent diplomacy, as having occasioned the celebrated letter +of Webster to the Austrian envoy. Provided by that government with warm +clothing, the money they had taken to Spielberg was restored to them, +not, however, in the original gold coin, but in the Vienna bills for +which it had been then exchanged by the police, diminished nearly +two-thirds in value during the interval of fourteen years. The vessel +was uncomfortably crowded; the voyage occupied three months; but they +fared alike with the officers. Towards the close of October, they +beheld the noble bay of New York; and so intense was the satisfaction +with which they first trod American soil, the goal and terminus of such +protracted suffering, that, ever after, the Battery, where they landed, +was hallowed to their memories as consecrated ground. + +Within a few days of their arrival, a banquet was given them by their +compatriots; and from that hour, Foresti became the oracle and the +consoler, the teacher, almoner, and chief of his fellow-exiles. +Subsequent events drove many other Italian patriots to our shores; his +purse and his counsel were ever ready for the impoverished and +inexperienced, who regarded him with filial admiration; while to the +more educated he was the intimate companion or sympathetic friend. +Through his personal influence, employment was constantly obtained and +kindness enlisted for his countrymen. When the great political crisis +of 1848 occurred, Foresti hastened to Europe; Pius IX., at the urgent +prayer of his sisters and cousins, offered him free entrance to his +dominions, a favor his predecessor might have granted but for the +strong opposition of Cardinal Lambruschini. He took counsel with the +revolutionary leaders at Paris, and passed through Italy to the +frontiers of the Papal States, whence the fatal reaction, supported by +French bayonets, at Rome, sent him back once more to the land of his +adoption, whither he was soon followed by many of the heroic and +unfortunate men who redeemed the martial fame, without being able to +retrieve the fate of Italy. + +Of the many Italian exiles who have found an asylum in the United +States, Foresti was preeminently the representative man. The period of +his arrival, the circumstances of his life, and the traits of his +character united thus to distinguish him even among the best educated +and most unfortunate of the political refugees from Southern Europe. At +the time of his arrest, the vilest modern despotism of the Continent +had reached its acme; and the patriotic movements it then sought to +annihilate by a cruelty unparalleled since the Middle Ages were +justified even by conservative reformers, on account of their stringent +moral necessity, the intelligent scope of their advocates, and the high +and cultivated spirit of their illustrious martyrs. As scholars, +citizens, gentlemen, and, in more than one instance, authors of real +genius, these Liberals stand alone, and are not to be confounded with +the perverse Radicals of a subsequent epoch. Moreover, their +aspirations were, as we have seen, more reactionary than experimental; +for the rights for which they conspired had been in a great measure +enjoyed under Europe's modern conqueror, then impotent in action, but +most efficient in remembrance, although isolated on his prison-rock. +Foresti's companion in misfortune has made their mutual wrongs +"familiar as household words"; and to be associated in captivity with +the author of "Le Mie Prigioni" was of itself a passport to the +sympathy of the civilized world. + +The interest his previous history inspired was deepened and confirmed +by intimate acquaintance with Foresti. He lived for many years +domesticated in the family of a fellow-countryman; and an _habitue_ of +his apartments was transported in a moment from bustling, prosperous, +and republican New York, to the land of song, of martyrdom, and of +antiquity. The soulful ardor and childlike ingenuousness, the keen +perceptions and earnest will of Foresti suggested an obsolete, or at +least rare type of character; he belonged essentially to the olden days +of loyalty and lore which gave birth to self-reliance on the one hand, +and disinterested feeling on the other. His manner and conversation +had, as it were, an historical as well as national flavor, by virtue +whereof we were borne away from the prosaic and practical spirit of the +age, to the days of chivalry, feudal zeal, and genuine humanity,--when +faith was an inspiration, friendship a moral fact, and manhood, in its +virile simplicity, greater than wealth. Nor were the generous exile's +humble surroundings alien to these impressions: the effigies of his +country's poets were the favorite ornaments of his sitting-room; a +volume of Foscolo on the table, or a fresh letter from Silvio Pellico +under his snuffbox,--the grim, old-fashioned type of his _Sentenza_, as +it was originally distributed through Austrian Italy, and hanging in +its black frame, a memorial of startling import to a freeman's eyes,--a +landscape representing the Castle of Ferrara, the far-away scene of his +youthful life,--and a primitive engraving from one of the old masters +of that city, dedicated to him in one of those euphonious inscriptions +peculiar to Italian artists,--these and such as these tokens of his +experience and tastes gave interesting significance to his +companionship. Nor were indications of present consideration and +usefulness wanting: flowers or dainty needle-work, the offerings of his +fair pupils, applications to him, as President of the Italian +Benevolent Society, diplomas from American colleges, and invitations to +the country, to dinner, and to domestic _fetes_, from the numerous +friends he had won in the free land of his adoption, gave evidence of +social enjoyment and genial activity. + +Whoever enjoyed Foresti's hospitality, in the conversations as well as +the viands has found an epitome and reflex of his most genial hours in +Italy: brave soldiers, like Avezzana and Garibaldi, scholars, artists, +every form of the national character, were gratefully exhibited in +reunions, of which he was the presiding genius, and to which his +American friends were admitted with fraternal cordiality. It was then +that his clear and strong mind often displayed itself with the +spontaneity of his race. + +Chastened, though unsubdued by misfortune, Foresti cherished a truly +Christian spirit of forgiveness, and the liberality which large +experience invariably fosters in enlightened minds: it was the system, +rather than its agents, which he ever held up to condemnation in +discussing the Austrian policy. Familiarity with American and English +politics and the modern history of Europe induced a wise modification +of his opinions on government; a fervent republican in sentiment, he +yet recognized the radical benefits of a constitutional monarchy, like +those of England and Sardinia. He was a natural orator, and, on several +occasions, memorably addressed the public with rare eloquence and power +on subjects of national or beneficent interest. During his long sojourn +in New York, he was not merely the acknowledged representative of +Italy, but her eloquent advocate, her wise expositor, her illustrious +son, whose literature he memorably unfolded, whose history he +sagaciously analyzed, whose misfortunes he tenderly portrayed, whose +glory he proudly vindicated, and whose nationality he incessantly +affirmed. Well did one of the leading Turin journals indicate the +prevalent graces of his character:--"A pure and just man, he knew +always how to appreciate those who dissented from him about forms of +government, because he could discover in them the true love of +nationality, to which Italy aspires. Wise without pretension, +beneficent without ostentation, chaste in deed and word, exquisitely +tender-hearted, he tempered the harsh lessons of experience by the +unchanged serenity of his bearing." + +Foresti was the most charming of correspondents; in a chirography +almost feminine, he wrote, in the old cavalier style, such quaintly +pleasant epistles, with graceful turns of expression, beautiful +epithets, and appropriate adjectives, that, to one fond of the writer +and cognizant of his native tongue, the most casual note was a prize to +be treasured. "Truly," remarks one of his friends, "he was +_squisitamente affetuoso di cuore_," and now the sweetest proof thereof +is to be found in his correspondence. In his two visits to Italy, he +used to walk daily to the shores, when within reach of the +Mediterranean, and salute, with tears, the _bandiera stellata_,--as he +called our national banner, under which his exile had been protected +and honored. + +The pleasure expressed at Foresti's consular appointment, as well as +the high order of applicants in his behalf, afforded the best evidence +of the friendship and interest he had awakened and maintained in a +foreign land. On the shores of the Hudson, by the cliffs of Newport, +under the elms of New Haven, as well as in the metropolis where he had +so long dwelt, faithful hearts rejoiced at the announcement. "Few are +aware," said Hillhouse, in his Eulogy on Lafayette, "how hallowed and +how deep are their feelings who worship Liberty as a mistress they may +never possess." And it was the constancy and intelligence of his +devotion to her which won for him such peculiar regard; for he did not +belong to the sentimental and spasmodic, but to the resolute and +philosophic devotees at her shrine; his native taste was more wedded to +the wise satire of Casti and the acute generalities of Vico than +satisfied with the soft beauties of Petrarch or the luxurious graces of +Boccaccio; the stoical Alfieri, more than the epicurean Metastasio, +breathed music to his soul. "You belong," wrote Pellico to him, "you +belong to those who to a generous disposition unite an intellect to see +things wisely; never can I forget the gifts of genius and of courage +developed in you in the days of misfortune." It was an auspicious sign +of the times when the land which protected such an exile was +represented by him in that of his nativity. + +Brief, however, was Foresti's enjoyment of the distinction and resource +thus secured for him through the considerate efforts of his American +friends. "I write to you," says his last letter to one of them, dated +immediately after the reception of his commission, "with my left hand +pressed on a heart overflowing with gratitude for the means thus +honorably afforded to solace the last years of the old prisoner of +Spielberg." Three months after, that noble heart ceased to beat; an +effusion on the chest, which ultimately defied the best medical skill +and the most assiduous friendly devotion, ended fatally on the morning +of the 14th of September, 1858, "By his death," said one of his +eulogists, "is broken one of the links that bind the New World to the +Old"; and as if to evidence the sympathy of mourners in two hemispheres +and attest the varied associations which embalm the example and memory +of Foresti, his funeral was typical of his life, and so illustrative of +his character, that we can imagine no peculiar honor wanting, grateful +to the patriot, the liberal, the martyr, or the man. In that ancient +city of Genoa, of old renowned for commercial glory and maritime valor, +the birthplace of the discoverer of the land of his adoption, now the +refuge of more who had sacrificed all for their country, and the state +where that country's best prospects are centred and her highest +aspirations cherished, in the home of the moral, civic, and social +vanguard of modern Italy, he found a grave. The American flag was his +pall; American mariners carried his bier; before it was borne the +Cross. His remains were followed from the Piazza della Maddelena, +through the principal streets and the Porta Romana to the Campo Santo, +by the officers and crew of the United States frigate "Wabash," the +captains of the American merchantmen in port, the Society of +Operatives, the industrial representative of a progressive state, of +which he was an honorary member, a vast multitude of emigrants from the +less favored Italian provinces, and a numerous body of literary, +official, and private gentlemen who enjoyed his personal friendship. + + + * * * * * + + +LARVAE. + + +My little maiden of four years old + (No myth, but a genuine child is she, +With her bronze-brown eyes, and her curls of gold) + Came, quite in disgust, one day, to me. + +Rubbing her shoulder with rosy palm,-- + As the loathsome touch seemed yet to thrill her, +She cried,--"Oh, mother, I found on my arm + A horrible, crawling caterpillar!" + +And with mischievous smile she could scarcely smother, + Yet a glance, in its daring, half-awed and shy, +She added,--"While they were about it, mother, + I wish they'd just finished the butterfly!" + +They were words to the thought of the soul that turns + From the coarser form of a partial growth, +Reproaching the Infinite Patience that yearns + With an unknown glory to crown them both. + +Ah, look thou largely, with lenient eyes, + On whatso beside thee may creep and cling, +For the possible beauty that underlies + The passing phase of the meanest thing! + +What if God's great angels, whose waiting love + Beholdeth our pitiful life below, +From the holy height of their heaven above, + Couldn't bear with the worm till the wings should grow? + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING.[*] + +[Footnote *: Copyright secured by the Author in Great Britain and +France.] + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE QUILTING. + +By six o'clock in the morning, Miss Prissy came out of the best room to +the breakfast-table, with the air of a general who has arranged a +campaign,--her face glowing with satisfaction. All sat down together to +their morning meal. The outside door was open into the green, turfy +yard, and the apple-tree, now nursing stores of fine yellow jeannetons, +looked in at the window. Every once in a while, as a breeze shook the +leaves, a fully ripe apple might be heard falling to the ground, at +which Miss Prissy would bustle up from the table and rush to secure the +treasure. + +As the meal waned to its close, the rattling of wheels was heard at the +gate, and Candace was discerned, seated aloft in the one-horse wagon, +with her usual complement of baskets and bags. + +"Well, now, dear me! if there isn't Candace!" said Miss Prissy; "I do +believe Miss Marvyn has sent her with something for the quilting!" and +out she flew as nimble as a humming-bird, while those in the house +heard various exclamations of admiration, as Candace, with stately +dignity, disinterred from the wagon one basket after another, and +exhibited to Miss Prissy's enraptured eyes sly peeps under the white +napkins with which they were covered. And then, hanging a large basket +on either arm, she rolled majestically towards the house, like a +heavy-laden Indiaman, coming in after a fast voyage. + +"Good-mornin', Miss Scudder! good-mornin', Doctor!" she said, dropping +her curtsy on the door-step; "good-mornin', Miss Mary! Ye see our folks +was stirrin' pootty 'arly dis mornin', an' Miss Marvyn sent me down wid +two or tree little tings." + +Setting down her baskets on the floor, and seating herself between +them, she proceeded to develop their contents with ill-concealed +triumph. One basket was devoted to cakes of every species, from the +great Mont-Blanc loaf-cake, with its snowy glaciers of frosting, to the +twisted cruller and puffy doughnut. In the other basket lay pots of +golden butter curiously stamped, reposing on a bed of fresh, green +leaves,--while currants, red and white, and delicious cherries and +raspberries, gave a final finish to the picture. From a basket which +Miss Prissy brought in from the rear appeared cold fowl and tongue +delicately prepared, and shaded with feathers of parsley. Candace, +whose rollicking delight in the good things of this life was +conspicuous in every emotion, might have furnished to a painter, as she +sat in her brilliant turban, an idea for an African Genius of Plenty. + +"Why, really, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder, "you are overwhelming us!" + +"Ho! ho! ho!" said Candace, "I's tellin' Miss Marvyn folks don't git +married but once in der lives, (gin'ally speakin', dat is,) an' den dey +oughter hab plenty to do it wid." + +"Well, I must say," said Miss Prissy, taking out the loaf-cake with +busy assiduity,--"I must say, Candace, this does beat all!" + +"I should rader tink it oughter," said Candace, bridling herself with +proud consciousness; "ef it don't, 'ta'n't 'cause ole Candace ha'n't +put enough into it. I tell ye, I didn't do nothin' all day yisterday +but jes' make dat ar cake. Cato, when he got up, he begun to talk +someh'n' 'bout his shirt-buttons, an' I jes' shet him right up. Says I, +'Cato, when I's r'ally got cake to make for a great 'casion, I wants my +mind _jest_ as quiet an' _jest_ as serene as ef I was a-goin' to de +sacrament. I don't want no 'arthly cares on't. Now,' says I, 'Cato, de +ole Doctor's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's his quiltin'-cake,--an' +Miss Mary, she's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's _her_ +quiltin'-cake. An' dar'll be eberybody to dat ar quiltin'; an' ef de +cake a'n't right, why, 'twould be puttin' a candle under a bushel. An' +so,' says I, 'Cato, your buttons mus' wait' An' Cato, he sees de +'priety ob it, 'cause, dough he can't make cake like me, he's a 'mazin' +good judge on't, an' is dre'ful tickled when I slips out a little loaf +for his supper." + +"How is Mrs. Marvyn?" said Mrs. Scudder. + +"Kinder thin and shimmery; but she's about,--habin' her eyes eberywar, +'n' lookin' into eberyting. She jes' touches tings wid de tips ob her +fingers an' dey seem to go like. She'll be down to de quiltin' dis +arternoon. But she tole me to take de tings an' come down an' spen' de +day here; for Miss Marvyn an' I both knows how many steps mus' be taken +sech times, an' we agreed you oughter favor yourselves all you could." + +"Well, now," said Miss Prissy, lifting up her hands, "if that a'n't +what 'tis to have friends! Why, that was one of the things I was +thinking of, as I lay awake last night; because, you know, at times +like these, people run their feet off before the time begins, and then +they are all limpsey and lop-sided when the time comes. Now, I say, +Candace, all Miss Scudder and Mary have to do is to give everything up +to us, and we'll put it through straight." + +"Dat's what we will!" said Candace. "Jes' show me what's to be done, +an' I'll do it." + +Candace and Miss Prissy soon disappeared together into the pantry with +the baskets, whose contents they began busily to arrange. Candace shut +the door, that no sound might escape, and began a confidential +outpouring to Miss Prissy. + +"Ye see," she said, "I's _feelin's_ all de while for Miss Marvyn; +'cause, ye see, she was expectin', ef eber Mary was married,--well--dat +'twould be to somebody else, ye know." + +Miss Prissy responded with a sympathetic groan. + +"Well," said Candace, "ef't had been anybody but de Doctor, _I_ +wouldn't 'a' been resigned. But arter all he's done for my color, dar +a'n't nothin' I could find it in my heart to grudge him. But den I was +tellin' Cato t'oder day, says I, 'Cato, I dunno 'bout de rest o' de +world, but I ha'n't neber felt it in my bones dat Mass'r James is +r'ally dead, for sartin.' Now I feels tings _gin'ally_, but _some_ +tings I feels _in my bones_, an' dem allers comes true. An' dat ar's a +feelin' I ha'n't had 'bout Mass'r Jim yit, an' dat ar's what I'm +waitin' for 'fore I clar make up my mind. Though I know, 'cordin' to +all white folks' way o' tinkin', dar a'n't no hope, 'cause Squire +Marvyn he had dat ar Jeduth Pettibone up to his house, a-questionin' on +him, off an' on, nigh about tree hours. An' r'ally I didn't see no hope +no way, 'xcept jes' dis yer, as I was tellin' Cato,--_I can't feel it +in my bones_." + +Candace was not versed enough in the wisdom of the world to know that +she belonged to a large and respectable school of philosophers in this +particular mode of testing evidence, which, after all, the reader will +perceive has its conveniences. + +"Anoder ting," said Candace; "as much as a dozen times, dis yer last +year, when I's been a-scourin' knives, a fork has fell an' stuck +straight up in de floor; an' de las' time I pinted it out to Miss +Marvyn, an' she on'y jes' said, 'Why, what o' dat, Candace?'" + +"Well," said Miss Prissy, "I don't believe in _signs_, but then strange +things do happen. Now about dogs howling under windows,--why, I don't +believe in it a bit, but I never knew it fail that there was a death in +the house after." + +"Ah, I tell ye what," said Candace, looking mysterious, "dogs knows a +heap more'n dey likes to tell!" + +"Jes' so," said Miss Prissy. "Now I remember, one night, when. I was +watching with Miss Colonel Andrews, after Marthy Ann was born, that we +heard the _mournfulest_ howling that ever you did hear. It seemed to +come from right under the front stoop; and Miss Andrews she just +dropped the spoon in her gruel, and says she, 'Miss Prissy, do, for +pity's sake, just go down and see what that noise is.' And I went down +and lifted up one of the loose boards of the stoop, and what should I +see there but their Newfoundland pup?--there that creature had dug a +grave, and was a-sitting by it, crying!" + +Candace drew near to Miss Prissy, dark with expressive interest, as her +voice, in this awful narration, sank to a whisper. + +"Well," said Candace, after Miss Prissy had made something of a pause. + +"Well, I told Miss Andrews I didn't think there was anything in it," +said Miss Prissy; "but," she added, impressively, "she lost a very dear +brother, six months after, and I laid him out with my own hands,--yes, +laid him out in white flannel." + +"Some folks say," said Candace, "dat dreamin' 'bout white horses is a +sartin sign. Jinny Styles is bery strong 'bout dat. Now she come down +one mornin' cryin', 'cause she'd been dreamin' 'bout white horses, an' +she was sure she should hear some friend was dead. An' sure enough, a +man come in dat bery day an' tole her her son was drownded out in de +harbor. An' Jinny said, 'Dar! she was sure dat sign neber would fail.' +But den, ye see, dat night he come home. Jinny wa'n't r'ally +disappinted, but she allers insisted he was _as good as drownded_, any +way, 'cause he sunk tree times." + +"Well, I tell you," said Miss Prissy, "there are a great many more +things in this world than folks know about." + +"So dey are," said Candace. "Now, I ha'n't neber opened my mind to +nobody; but dar's a dream I's had, tree mornin's runnin', lately. I +dreamed I see Jim Marvyn a-sinkin' in de water, an' stretchin' up his +hands. An' den I dreamed I see de Lord Jesus come a-walkin' on de +water, an' take hold ob his hand, an' says he, 'O thou of little faith, +wherefore didst thou doubt?' An' den he lifted him right out. An' I +ha'n't said nothin' to nobody, 'cause, you know, de Doctor, he says +people mus'n't mind nothin' 'bout der dreams, 'cause dreams belongs to +de ole 'spensation." + +"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I am sure I don't know what to +think. What time in the morning was it that you dreamed it?" + +"Why," said Candace, "it was jest arter bird-peep. I kinder allers +wakes myself den, an' turns ober, an' what comes arter dat is apt to +run clar." + +"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I don't know what to think. You +see, it may have reference to the state of his soul." + +"I know dat," said Candace; "but as nigh as I could judge in my dream," +she added, sinking her voice and looking mysterious, "as nigh as I can +judge, _dat boy's soul was in his body!_" + +"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Prissy, looking astonished at the +confidence with which Candace expressed her opinion. + +"Well, ye see," said Candace, rather mysteriously, "de Doctor, he don't +like to hab us talk much 'bout dese yer tings, 'cause he tinks it's +kind o' heathenish. But den, folks as is used to seein' sech tings +knows de look ob a sperit _out_ o' de body from de look ob a sperit +_in_ de body, jest as easy as you can tell Mary from de Doctor." + +At this moment Mrs. Scudder opened the pantry-door and put an end to +this mysterious conversation, which had already so affected Miss +Prissy, that, in the eagerness of her interest, she had rubbed up her +cap border and ribbon into rather an elfin and goblin style, as if they +had been ruffled up by a breeze from the land of spirits; and she flew +around for a few moments in a state of great nervous agitation, +upsetting dishes, knocking down plates, and huddling up contrary +suggestions as to what ought to be done first, in such impossible +relations that Mrs. Katy Scudder stood in dignified surprise at this +strange freak of conduct in the wise woman of the parish. + +A dim consciousness of something not quite canny in herself seemed to +strike her, for she made a vigorous effort to appear composed; and +facing Mrs. Scudder, with an air of dignified suavity, inquired if it +would not be best to put Jim Marvyn in the oven now, while Candace was +getting the pies ready,--meaning, of course, a large turkey, which was +to be the first in an indefinite series to be baked that morning; and +discovering, by Mrs. Scudder's dazed expression and a vigorous pinch +from Candace, that somehow she had not improved matters, she rubbed her +spectacles into a diagonal position across her eyes, and stood glaring, +half through, half over them, with a helpless expression, which in a +less judicious person might have suggested the idea of a state of +slight intoxication. + +But the exigencies of an immediate temporal dispensation put an end to +Miss Prissy's unwonted vagaries, and she was soon to be seen flying +round like a meteor, dusting, shaking curtains, counting napkins, +wiping and sorting china, all with such rapidity as to give rise to the +notion that she actually existed in forty places at once. + +Candace, whom the limits of her corporeal frame restricted to an +altogether different style of locomotion, often rolled the whites of +her eyes after her and gave vent to her views of her proceedings in +sententious expressions. + +"Do you know why _dat ar_ neber was married?" she said to Mary, as she +stood looking after her. Miss Prissy had made one of those rapid +transits through the apartment. + +"No," answered Mary, innocently. "Why wasn't she?" + +"'Cause neber was a man could run fast enough to cotch her," said +Candace; and then her portly person shook with the impulse of her own +wit. + +By two o'clock a goodly company began to assemble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel +arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy +Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye, and a +most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad, +expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the +cabbage-garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced +our tea-party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some +fresh butter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new +Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon +Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and +tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned. + +The quilt-pattern was gloriously drawn in oak-leaves, done in indigo; +and soon all the company, young and old, were passing busy fingers over +it; and conversation went on briskly. + +Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with +hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall +china vases on the mantel-pieces, and, departing from the usual rule of +an equal mixture of roses and asparagus-bushes, had constructed two +quaint and graceful bouquets, where garden-flowers were mingled with +drooping grasses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful +combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it. + +"It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw grass put into a +flower-pot," said Miss Prissy; "but I must say it looks as handsome as +a picture. Mary, I must say," she added, in an aside, "I think that +Madame de Frongenac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I +ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a +minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of grass, or +leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come +just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would +understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a +dress fitted here, to let me try it." + +At the quilting, Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won +the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her +needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among +the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as +being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging Papistical +opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their +minister's bed-quilt; but the younger part of the company were quite +captivated by her foreign air, and the pretty manner in which she +lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her +mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent +herself,--a declaration which arose less from native depravity than +from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young +people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of +course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with +the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a +forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the +parish, was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company. + +Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by +declaring, that, for her part, she never could see into it, how any +girl could marry a minister,--that she should as soon think of setting +up housekeeping in a meeting-house. + +"Oh, Cerinthy Ann!" exclaimed her mother, "how can you go on so?" + +"It's a fact," said the adventurous damsel; "now other men let you have +some peace,--but a minister's always round under your feet." + +"So you think, the less you see of a husband, the better?" said one of +the ladies. + +"Just my views," said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread +with her scissors; "I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four-years' +voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married, +I'm going up to have one of those fellows." + +It is to be remarked, in passing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this +very time receiving surreptitious visits from a consumptive-looking, +conscientious, young theological candidate, who came occasionally to +preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the Deacon, her +father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine +of Election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to illustrate it in a +most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the +consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison +that added vigor to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen +confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at +the demonstration. + +"You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann," said her mother; "they say that +'those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.' Girls talk +about getting married," she said, relapsing into a gentle didactic +melancholy, "without realizing its awful responsibilities." + +"Oh, as to that," said Cerinthy, "I've been practising on my pudding +now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney +with any girl." + +This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no +young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled +Indian-pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up chimney +and come down on the ground, outside, without breaking; and the +consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh. + +"Girls a'n't what they used to be in my day," sententiously remarked an +elderly lady. "I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she +could knit a long cotton stocking in a day." + +"I haven't much faith in these stories of old times,--have you, girls?" +said Cerinthy, appealing to the younger members at the frame. + +"At any rate," said Mrs. Twitchel, "our minister's wife will be a +pattern; I don't know anybody that goes beyond her either in spinning +or fine stitching." + +Mary sat as placid and disengaged as the new moon, and listened to the +chatter of old and young with the easy quietness of a young heart that +has early outlived life, and looks on everything in the world from some +gentle, restful eminence far on towards a better home. She smiled at +everybody's word, had a quick eye for everybody's wants, and was ready +with thimble, scissors, or thread, whenever any one needed them; but +once, when there was a pause in the conversation, she and Mrs. Marvyn +were both discovered to have stolen away. They were seated on the bed +in Mary's little room, with their arms around each other, communing in +low and gentle tones. + +"Mary, my dear child," said her friend, "this event is very pleasant to +me, because it places you permanently near me. I did not know but +eventually this sweet face might lead to my losing you, who are in some +respects the dearest friend I have." + +"You might be sure," said Mary, "I never would have married, except +that my mother's happiness and the happiness of so good a friend seemed +to depend on it. When we renounce self in anything, we have reason to +hope for God's blessing; and so I feel assured of a peaceful life in +the course I have taken. You will always be as a mother to me," she +added, laying her head on her friend's shoulder. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Marvyn; "and I must not let myself think a moment how +dear it might have been to have you more my own. If you feel really, +truly happy,--if you can enter on this life without any misgivings"-- + +"I can," said Mary, firmly. + +At this instant, very strangely, the string which confined a wreath of +sea-shells around her glass, having been long undermined by moths, +suddenly broke and fell down, scattering the shells upon the floor. + +Both women started, for the string of shells had been placed there by +James: and though neither was superstitious, this was one of those odd +coincidences that make hearts throb. + +"Dear boy!" said Mary, gathering the shells up tenderly; "wherever he +is, I shall never cease to love him. It makes me feel sad to see this +come down; but it is only an accident; nothing of him will ever fail +out of my heart." + +Mrs. Marvyn clasped Mary closer to her, with tears in her eyes. + +"I'll tell you what, Mary; it must have been the moths did that," said +Miss Prissy, who had been standing, unobserved, at the door for a +moment back; "moths will eat away strings just so. Last week Miss +Vernon's great family-picture fell down because the moths eat through +the cord; people ought to use twine or cotton string always. But I came +to tell you that the supper is all set, and the Doctor out of his +study, and all the people are wondering where you are." + +Mary and Mrs. Marvyn gave a hasty glance at themselves in the glass, to +be assured of their good keeping, and went into the great kitchen, +where a long table stood exhibiting all that plenitude of provision +which the immortal description of Washington Irving has saved us the +trouble of recapitulating in detail. + +The husbands, brothers, and lovers had come in, and the scene was +redolent of gayety. When Mary made her appearance, there was a moment's +pause, till she was conducted to the side of the Doctor; when, raising +his hand, he invoked a grace upon the loaded board. + +Unrestrained gayeties followed. Groups of young men and maidens chatted +together, and all the gallantries of the times were enacted. Serious +matrons commented on the cake, and told each other high and particular +secrets in the culinary art, which they drew from remote +family-archives. One might have learned in that instructive assembly +how best to keep moths out of blankets,--how to make fritters of Indian +corn undistinguishable from oysters,--how to bring up babies by +hand,--how to mend a cracked teapot,--how to take out grease from a +brocade,--how to reconcile absolute decrees with free will,--how to +make five yards of cloth answer the purpose of six,--and how to put +down the Democratic party. All were busy, earnest, and certain,--just +as a swarm of men and women, old and young, are in 1859. + +Miss Prissy was in her glory; every bow of her best cap was alive with +excitement, and she presented to the eyes of the astonished Newport +gentry an animated receipt-book. Some of the information she +communicated, indeed, was so valuable and important that she could not +trust the air with it, but whispered the most important portions in a +confidential tone. Among the crowd, Cerinthy Ann's theological admirer +was observed in deeply reflective attitude; and that high-spirited +young lady added further to his convictions of the total depravity of +the species by vexing and discomposing him in those thousand ways in +which a lively, ill-conditioned young woman will put to rout a serious, +well-disposed young man,--comforting herself with the reflection, that +by-and-by she would repent of all her sins in a lump together. + +Vain, transitory splendors! Even this evening, so glorious, so +heart-cheering, so fruitful in instruction and amusement, could not +last forever. Gradually the company broke up; the matrons mounted +soberly on horseback behind their spouses; and Cerinthy consoled her +clerical friend by giving him an opportunity to read her a lecture on +the way home, if he found the courage to do so. + +Mr. and Mrs. Marvyn and Candace wound their way soberly homeward; the +Doctor returned to his study for nightly devotions; and before long, +sleep settled down on the brown cottage. + +"I'll tell you what, Cato," said Candace, before composing herself to +sleep, "I can't feel it in my bones dat dis yer weddin's gwine to come +off yit." + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +AN ADVENTURE. + + +A day or two after, Madame de Frontignac and Mary went out to gather +shells and seaweed on the beach. It was four o'clock; and the afternoon +sun was hanging in the sultry sky of July with a hot and vaporous +stillness. The whole air was full of blue haze, that softened the +outlines of objects without hiding them. The sea lay like so much +glass; every ship and boat was double; every line and rope and spar had +its counterpart; and it seemed hard to say which was the more real, the +under or the upper world. + +Madame de Frontignac and Mary had brought a little basket with them, +which they were filling with shells and sea-mosses. The former was in +high spirits. She ran, and shouted, and exclaimed, and wondered at each +new marvel thrown out upon the shore, with the _abandon_ of a little +child. Mary could not but wonder whether this indeed were she whose +strong words had pierced and wrung her sympathies the other night, and +whether a deep life-wound could lie bleeding under those brilliant eyes +and that infantine exuberance of gayety; yet, surely, all that which +seemed so strong, so true, so real could not be gone so soon,--and it +could not be so soon consoled. Mary wondered at her, as the Anglo-Saxon +constitution, with its strong, firm intensity, its singleness of +nature, wonders at the mobile, many-sided existence of warmer races, +whose versatility of emotion on the surface is not incompatible with +the most intense persistency lower down. + +Mary's was one of those indulgent and tolerant natures which seem to +form the most favorable base for the play of other minds, rather than +to be itself salient,--and something about her tender calmness always +seemed to provoke the spirit of frolic in her friend. She would laugh +at her, kiss her, gambol round her, dress her hair with fantastic +coiffures, and call her all sorts of fanciful and poetic names in +French or English,--while Mary surveyed her with a pleased and innocent +surprise, as a revelation of character altogether new and different +from anything to which she had been hitherto accustomed. She was to her +a living pantomime, and brought into her unembellished life the charms +of opera and theatre and romance. + +After wearying themselves with their researches, they climbed round a +point of rock that stretched some way out into the sea, and attained to +a little kind of grotto, where the high cliffs shut out the rays of the +sun. They sat down to rest upon the rocks. A fresh breeze of declining +day was springing up, and bringing the rising tide landward,--each +several line of waves with its white crests coming up and breaking +gracefully on the hard, sparkling sand-beach at their feet. + +Mary's eyes fixed themselves, as they were apt to do, in a mournful +reverie, on the infinite expanse of waters, which was now broken and +chopped into a thousand incoming waves by the fresh afternoon breeze. +Madame de Frontignac noticed the expression, and began to play with her +as if she had been a child. She pulled the comb from her hair, and let +down its long silky waves upon her shoulders. + +"Now," said she, "let us make a Miranda of thee. This is our cave. I +will be Prince Ferdinand. Burr told me all about that,--he reads +beautifully, and explained it all to me. What a lovely story that +is!--you must be so happy, who know how to read Shakspeare without +learning! _Tenez!_ I will put this shell on your forehead,--it has a +hole here, and I will pass this gold chain through,--now! What a pity +this seaweed will not be pretty out of water! it has no effect; but +there is some green that will do;--let me fasten it so. Now, fair +Miranda, look at thyself!" + +Where is the girl so angelic as not to feel a slight curiosity to know +how she shall look in a new and strange costume? Mary bent over the +rock, where a little pool of water lay in a brown hollow above the +fluctuations of the tide, dark and still, like a mirror,--and saw a +fair face, with a white shell above the forehead and drooping wreaths +of green seaweed in the silken hair; and a faint blush and smile rose +on the cheek, giving the last finish to the picture. + +"How do you find yourself?" said Madame. "Confess now that I have a +true talent in coiffure. Now I will be Ferdinand." + +She turned quickly, and her eye was caught by something that Mary did +not see; she only saw the smile fade suddenly from Madame de +Frontignac's cheek, and her lips grow deadly white, while her heart +beat so that Mary could discern its flutterings under her black silk +bodice. + +"Will the sea-nymphs punish the rash presumption of a mortal who +intrudes?" said Colonel Burr, stepping before them with a grace as +invincible and assured as if he had never had any past history with +either. + +Mary started with a guilty blush, like a child detected in an unseemly +frolic, and put her hand to her head to take off the unwonted +adornments. + +"Let me protest, in the name of the Graces," said Burr, who by that +time stood with easy calmness at her side; and as he spoke, he stayed +her hand with that gentle air of authority which made it the natural +impulse of most people to obey him. "It would be treason against the +picturesque," he added, "to spoil that toilette, so charmingly uniting +the wearer to the scene." + +Mary was taken by surprise, and discomposed as every one is who finds +himself masquerading in attire foreign to his usual habits and +character; and therefore, when she would persist in taking it to +pieces, Burr found sufficient to alleviate the embarrassment of Madame +de Frontignac's utter silence in a playful run of protestations and +compliments. + +"I think, Mary," said Madame de Frontignac, "that we had better be +returning to the house." + +This was said in the haughtiest and coolest tone imaginable, looking at +the place where Burr stood, as if there were nothing there but empty +air. Mary rose to go; Madame de Frontignac offered her arm. + +"Permit me to remark, ladies," said Burr, with the quiet suavity which +never forsook him, "that your very agreeable occupations have caused +time to pass more rapidly than you are aware. I think you will find +that the tide has risen so as to intercept the path by which you came +here. You will hardly be able to get around the point of rocks without +some assistance." + +Mary looked a few paces ahead, and saw, a little before them, a fresh +afternoon breeze driving the rising tide high on to the side of the +rocks, at whose foot their course had lain. The nook in which they had +been sporting formed part of a shelving ledge which inclined over their +heads, and which it was just barely possible could be climbed by a +strong and agile person, but which would be wholly impracticable to a +frail, unaided woman. + +"There is no time to be lost," said Burr, coolly, measuring the +possibilities with that keen eye that was never discomposed by any +exigency. "I am at your service, ladies; I can either carry you in my +arms around this point, or assist you up these rocks." + +He paused and waited for their answer. + +Madame de Frontignac stood pale, cold, and silent, hearing only the +wild beating of her heart. + +"I think," said Mary, "that we should try the rocks." + +"Very well," said Burr; and placing his gloved hand on a fragment of +rock somewhat above their heads, he swung himself up to it with an easy +agility; from this he stretched himself down as far as possible towards +them, and, extending his hand, directed Mary, who stood foremost, to +set her foot on a slight projection, and give him both her hands; she +did so, and he seemed to draw her up as easily as if she had been a +feather. He placed her by him on a shelf of rock, and turned again to +Madame de Frontignac; she folded her arms and turned resolutely away +towards the sea. + +Just at that moment a coming wave broke at her feet. + +"There is no time to be lost," said Burr; "there's a tremendous surf +coming in, and the next wave may carry you out." + +"_Tant mieux_!" she responded, without turning her head. + +"Oh, Virginie! Virginie!" exclaimed Mary, kneeling and stretching her +arms over the rock; but another voice called Virginie, in a tone which +went to her heart. She turned and saw those dark eyes full of tears. + +"Oh, come!" he said, with that voice which she never could resist. + +She put her cold, trembling hands into his, and he drew her up and +placed her safely beside Mary. A few moments of difficult climbing +followed, in which his arm was thrown now around one and then around +the other, and they felt themselves carried with a force as if the +slight and graceful form were strung with steel. + +Placed in safety on the top of the bank, there was a natural gush of +grateful feeling towards their deliverer. The severest resentment, the +coolest moral disapprobation, are necessarily somewhat softened, when +the object of them has just laid one under a personal obligation. + +Burr did not seem disposed to press his advantage, and treated the +incident as the most matter-of-course affair in the world. He offered +an arm to each lady, with the air of a well-bred gentleman who offers a +necessary support; and each took it, because neither wished, under the +circumstances, to refuse. + +He walked along leisurely homeward, talking in that easy, quiet, +natural way in which he excelled, addressing no very particular remark +to either one, and at the door of the cottage took his leave, saying, +as he bowed, that he hoped neither of them would feel any inconvenience +from their exertions, and that he should do himself the pleasure to +call soon and inquire after their health. + +Madame de Frontignac made no reply; but curtsied with a stately grace, +turned and went into her little, room, whither Mary, after a few +minutes, followed her. + +She found her thrown upon the bed, her face buried in the pillow, her +breast heaving as if she were sobbing; but when, at Mary's entrance, +she raised her head, her eyes were bright and dry. + +"It is just as I told you, Mary,--that man holds me. I love him yet, in +spite of myself. It is in vain to be angry. What is the use of striking +your right hand with your left? When we _love_ one more than ourselves, +we only hurt ourselves with our anger." + +"But," said Mary, "love is founded on respect and esteem; and when that +is gone"---- + +"Why, then," said Madame, "we are very sorry,--but we love yet. Do we +stop loving ourselves when we have lost our own self-respect? No! it is +so disagreeable to see, we shut our eyes and ask to have the bandage +put on,--you know _that_, poor little heart! You can think how it would +have been with you, if you had found that _he_ was not what you +thought." + +The word struck home to Mary's consciousness,--but she sat down and +took her friend in her arms with an air self-controlled, serious, +rational. + +"I see and feel it all, dear Virginie, but I must stand firm for you. +You are in the waves, and I on the shore. If you are so weak at heart, +you must not see this man any more." + +"But he will call." + +"I will see him for you." + +"What will you tell him, my heart?--tell him that I am ill, perhaps?" + +"No; I will tell him the truth,--that you do not wish to see him." + +"That is hard;--he will wonder." + +"I think not," said Mary, resolutely; "and furthermore, I shall say to +him, that, while Madame de Frontignac is at the cottage, it will not be +agreeable for us to receive calls from him." + +"Mary, _ma chere_, you astonish me!" + +"My dear friend," said Mary, "it is the only way. This man--this cruel, +wicked, deceitful man--must not be allowed to trifle with you in this +way. I will protect you." + +And she rose up with flashing eye and glowing cheek, looking as her +father looked when he protested against the slave-trade. + +"Thou art my Saint Catharine," said Virginie, rising up, excited by +Mary's enthusiasm, "and hast the sword as well as the palm; but, dear +saint, don't think so very, very badly of him;--he has a noble nature; +he has the angel in him." + +"The greater his sin," said Mary; "he sins against light and love." + +"But I think his heart is touched,--I think he is sorry. Oh, Mary, if +you had only seen how he looked at me when he put out his hands on the +rocks!--there were tears in his eyes" + +"Well there might be!" said Mary; "I do not think he is quite a fiend; +no one could look at those cheeks, dear Virginie, and not feel sad, +that saw you a few months ago." + +"Am I so changed?" she said, rising and looking at herself in the +mirror. "Sure enough,--my neck used to be quite round;--now you can see +those two little bones, like rocks at low tide. Poor Virginie! her +summer is gone, and the leaves are falling; poor little cat!"--and +Virginie stroked her own chestnut head, as if she had been pitying +another, and began humming a little Norman air, with a refrain that +sounded like the murmur of a brook over the stones. + +The more Mary was touched by these little poetic ways, which ran just +on an even line between the gay and the pathetic, the more indignant +she grew with the man that had brought all this sorrow. She felt a +saintly vindictiveness, and a determination to place herself as an +adamantine shield between him and her friend. There is no courage and +no anger like that of a gentle woman, when once fully roused; if ever +you have occasion to meet it, you will certainly remember the hour. + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +PLAIN TALK. + + +Mary revolved the affairs of her friend in her mind, during the night. +The intensity of the mental crisis through which she had herself just +passed had developed her in many inward respects, so that she looked +upon life no longer as a timid girl, but as a strong, experienced +woman. She had thought, and suffered, and held converse with eternal +realities, until thousands of mere earthly hesitations and timidities, +that often restrain a young and untried nature, had entirely lost their +hold upon her. Besides, Mary had at heart the true Puritan seed of +heroism,--never absent from the souls of true New England women. Her +essentially Hebrew education, trained in daily converse with the words +of prophets and seers, and with the modes of thought of a people +essentially grave and heroic, predisposed her to a kind of exaltation, +which, in times of great trial, might rise to the heights of the +religious--sublime, in which the impulse of self-devotion took a form +essentially commanding. The very intensity of the repression under +which her faculties had developed seemed, as it were, to produce a +surplus of hidden strength, which came out in exigencies. Her reading, +though restricted to a few volumes, had been of the kind that vitalized +and stimulated a poetic nature, and laid up in its chambers vigorous +words and trenchant phrases, for the use of an excited feeling,--so +that eloquence came to her as a native gift. She realized, in short, in +her higher hours, the last touch with which Milton finishes his +portrait of an ideal woman:-- + + "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat + Build in her loftiest, and create an awe + About her as a guard angelic placed." + +The next, morning, Colonel Burr called at the cottage. Mary was +spinning in the garret, and Madame de Frontignac was reeling yarn, when +Mrs. Scudder brought this announcement. + +"Mother," said Mary, "I wish to see Mr. Burr alone. Madame de +Frontignac will not go down." + +Mrs. Scudder looked surprised, but asked no questions. When she was +gone down, Mary stood a moment reflecting; Madame de Frontignac looked +eager and agitated. + +"Remember and notice all he says, and just how he looks, Mary, so as to +tell me; and be sure and say that I thank him for his kindness +yesterday. We must own he appeared very well there; did he not?" + +"Certainly," said Mary; "but no man could have done less." + +"Ah! but, Mary, not every man could have done it _as_ he did. Now don't +be too hard on him, Mary;--I have said dreadful things to him; I am +afraid I have been too severe. After all, these distinguished men are +so tempted! we don't know how much they are tempted; and who can wonder +that they are a little spoiled? So, my angel, you must be merciful." + +"Merciful!" said Mary, kissing the pale cheek, and feeling the cold +little hands that trembled in hers. + +"So you will go down in your little spinning-toilette, _mimi_? I fancy +you look as Joan of Arc did, when she was keeping her sheep at Domremy. +Go, and God bless thee!" and Madame de Frontignac pushed her playfully +forward. + +Mary entered the room where Burr was seated, and wished him +good-morning, in a serious and placid manner, in which there was not +the slightest trace of embarrassment or discomposure. + +"Shall I have the pleasure of seeing your fair companion this morning?" +said Burr, after some moments of indifferent conversation. + +"No, Sir; Madame de Frontignac desires me to excuse her to you." + +"Is she ill?" said Burr, with a look of concern. + +"No, Mr. Burr, she prefers not to see you." + +Burr gave a start of well-bred surprise, and Mary added, + +"Madame de Frontignac has made me familiar with the history of your +acquaintance with her; and you will therefore understand what I mean, +Mr. Burr, when I say, that, during the time of her stay with us, we +should prefer not to receive calls from you." + +"Your language, Miss Scudder, has certainly the merit of explicitness." + +"I intend it shall have, Sir," said Mary, tranquilly; "half the misery +in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth +plainly and in a spirit of love." + +"I am gratified that you add the last clause, Miss Scudder; I might not +otherwise recognize the gentle being whom I have always regarded as the +impersonation of all that is softest in woman. I have not the honor of +understanding in the least the reason of this apparently capricious +sentence, but I bow to it in submission." + +"Mr. Burr," said Mary, walking up to him, and looking him full in the +eyes, with an energy that for the moment bore down his practised air of +easy superiority, "I wish to speak to you for a moment, as one immortal +soul should to another, without any of those false glosses and deceits +which men call ceremony and good manners. You have done a very great +injury to a lovely lady, whose weakness ought to have been sacred in +your eyes. Precisely because you are what you are,--strong, keen, +penetrating, and able to control and govern all who come near +you,--because you have the power to make yourself agreeable, +interesting, fascinating, and to win esteem and love,--just for that +reason you ought to hold yourself the guardian of every woman, and +treat her as you would wish any man to treat your own daughter. I leave +it to your conscience, whether this is the manner in which you have +treated Madame de Frontignac." + +"Upon my word, Miss Scudder," began Burr, "I cannot imagine what +representations our mutual friend may have been making. I assure you, +our intercourse has been as irreproachable as the most scrupulous could +desire." + +"Irreproachable!--scrupulous!--Mr. Burr, you know that you have taken +the very life out of her. You men can have everything,--ambition, +wealth, power; a thousand ways are open to you: women have nothing but +their heart; and when that is gone, all is gone. Mr. Burr, you remember +the rich man who had flocks and herds, but nothing would do for him but +he must have the one little ewe-lamb which was all his poor neighbor +had. Thou art the man! You have stolen all the love she had to +give,--all that she had to make a happy home; and you can never give +her anything in return, without endangering her purity and her +soul,--and you knew you could not. I know you men _think_ this is a +light matter; but it is death to us. What will this woman's life be? +one long struggle to forget; and when you have forgotten her, and are +going on gay and happy,--when you have thrown her very name away as a +faded flower, she will be praying, hoping, fearing for you; though all +men deny you, yet will not she. Yes, Mr. Burr, if ever your popularity +and prosperity should leave you and those who now flatter should +despise and curse you, she will always be interceding with her own +heart and with God for you, and making a thousand excuses where she +cannot deny; and if you die, as I fear you have lived, unreconciled to +the God of your fathers, it will be in her heart to offer up her very +soul for you, and to pray that God will impute all your sins to her, +and give you heaven. Oh, I know this, because I have felt it in my own +heart!" and Mary threw herself passionately down into a chair, and +broke into an agony of uncontrolled sobbing. + +Burr turned away, and stood looking through the window; tears were +dropping silently, unchecked by the cold, hard pride which was the evil +demon of his life. + +It is due to our human nature to believe that no man could ever have +been so passionately and enduringly loved and revered by both men and +women as he was, without a beautiful and lovable nature;--no man ever +demonstrated more forcibly the truth, that it is not a man's natural +constitution, but the _use_ he makes of it, which stamps him as good or +vile. + +The diviner part of him was weeping, and the cold, proud demon was +struggling to regain his lost ascendency. Every sob of the fair, +inspired child who had been speaking to him seemed to shake his +heart,--he felt as if he could have fallen on his knees to her; and yet +that stoical habit which was the boast of his life, which was the sole +wisdom he taught to his only and beautiful daughter, was slowly +stealing back round his heart,--and he pressed his lips together, +resolved that no word should escape till he had fully mastered himself. + +In a few moments Mary rose with renewed calmness and dignity, and, +approaching him, said,-- + +"Before I wish you good-morning, Mr. Burr, I must ask pardon for the +liberty I have taken in speaking so very plainly." + +"There is no pardon needed, my dear child," said Burr, turning and +speaking very gently, and with a face expressive of a softened concern; +"if you have told me harsh truths, it was with gentle intentions;--I +only hope that I may prove, at least by the future, that I am not +altogether so bad as you imagine. As to the friend whose name has been +passed between us, no man can go beyond me in a sense of her real +nobleness; I am sensible how little I can ever deserve the sentiment +with which she honors me. I am ready, in my future course, to obey any +commands that you and she may think proper to lay upon me." + +"The only kindness you can now do her," said Mary, "is to leave her. It +is impossible that you should be merely friends;--it is impossible, +without violating the holiest bonds, that you should be more. The +injury done is irreparable; but you _can_ avoid adding another and +greater one to it." + +Burr looked thoughtful. + +"May I say one thing more?" said Mary, the color rising in her cheeks. + +Burr looked at her with that smile that always drew out the confidence +of every heart. + +"Mr. Burr," she said, "you will pardon me, but I cannot help saying +this: You have, I am told, wholly renounced the Christian faith of your +fathers, and build your whole life on quite another foundation. I +cannot help feeling that this is a great and terrible mistake. I cannot +help wishing that you would examine and reconsider." + +"My dear child, I am extremely grateful to you for your remark, and +appreciate fully the purity of the source from which it springs. +Unfortunately, our intellectual beliefs are not subject to the control +of our will. I have examined, and the examination has, I regret to say, +not had the effect you would desire." + +Mary looked at him wistfully; he smiled and bowed,--all himself again; +and stopping at the door, he said, with a proud humility,-- + +"Do me the favor to present my devoted regard to your friend; believe +me, that hereafter you shall have less reason to complain of me." + +He bowed, and was gone. + +An eye-witness of the scene has related, that, when Burr resigned his +seat as President of his country's Senate, an object of peculiar +political bitterness and obloquy, almost all who listened to him had +made up their minds that he was an utterly faithless, unprincipled man; +and yet, such was his singular and peculiar personal power, that his +short farewell-address melted the whole assembly into tears, and his +most embittered adversaries were charmed into a momentary enthusiasm of +admiration. + +It must not be wondered at, therefore, if our simple-hearted, loving +Mary strangely found all her indignation against him gone, and herself +little disposed to criticize the impassioned tenderness with which +Madame de Frontignac still regarded him. + +We have one thing more that we cannot avoid saying, of two men so +singularly in juxtaposition as Aaron Burr and Dr. Hopkins. Both had a +perfect _logic_ of life, and guided themselves with an inflexible +rigidity by it. Burr assumed individual pleasure to be the great object +of human existence; Dr. Hopkins placed it in a life altogether beyond +self. Burr rejected all sacrifice; Hopkins considered sacrifice as the +foundation of all existence. To live as far as possible without a +disagreeable sensation was an object which Burr proposed to himself as +the _summum bonum_, for which he drilled down and subjugated a nature +of singular richness. Hopkins, on the other hand, smoothed the +asperities of a temperament naturally violent and fiery by a rigid +discipline which guided it entirely above the plane of self-indulgence; +and, in the pursuance of their great end, the one watched against his +better nature as the other did against his worse. It is but fair, then, +to take their lives as the practical workings of their respective +ethical creeds. + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +NEW ENGLAND IN FRENCH EYES. + + +We owe our readers a digression at this point, while we return for a +few moments to say a little more of the fortunes of Madame de +Frontignac, whom we left waiting with impatience for the termination of +the conversation between Mary and Burr. "_Enfin, chere Sybille_," said +Madame de Frontignac, when Mary came out of the room, with her cheeks +glowing and her eye flashing with a still unsubdued light, "_te voila +encore_! What did he say, _mimi_?--did he ask for me?" + +"Yes," said Mary, "he asked for you." + +"What did you tell him?" + +"I told him that you wished me to excuse you." + +"How did he look then?--did he look surprised?" + +"A good deal so, I thought," said Mary. + +"_Allons, mimi_,--tell me all you said, and all he said." "Oh," said +Mary, "I am the worst person in the world; in fact, I cannot remember +anything that I have said; but I told him that he must leave you, and +never see you any more." + +"Oh, _mimi_, never!" + +Madame de Frontignac sat down on the side of the bed with such a look +of utter despair as went to Mary's heart. + +"You know that it is best, Virginie; do you not?" + +"Oh, yes, I know it; _mais pourtant, c'est dur comme la mort_. Ah, +well, what shall Virginie do now?" + +"You have your husband," said Mary. + +"_Je ne l'aime point_," said Madame de Frontignac. + +"Yes, but he is a good and honorable man, and you should love him." + +"Love is not in our power," said Madame de Frontignac. + +"Not every kind of love," said Mary, "but some kinds. If you have a +kind, indulgent friend who protects you and cares for you, you can be +grateful to him, you can try to make him happy, and in time you may +come to love him very much. He is a thousand times nobler man, if what +you say is true, than the one who has injured you so." + +"Oh, Mary!" said Madame de Frontignac, "there are some cases where we +find it too easy to love our enemies." + +"More than that," said Mary; "I believe, that, if you go on patiently +in the way of duty, and pray daily to God, He will at last take out of +your heart this painful love, and give you a true and healthy one. As +you say, such feelings are very sweet and noble; but they are not the +only ones we have to live by;--we can find happiness in duty, in +self-sacrifice, in calm, sincere, honest friendship. That is what you +can feel for your husband." + +"Your words cool me," said Madame de Frontignac; "thou art a sweet +snow-maiden, and my heart is hot and tired. I like to feel thee in my +arms," she said, putting her arms around Mary, and resting her head +upon her shoulder. "Talk to me so every day, and read me good cool +verses out of that beautiful Book, and perhaps by-and-by I shall grow +still and quiet like you." + +Thus Mary soothed her friend; but every few days this soothing had to +be done over, as long as Burr remained in Newport. When he was finally +gone, she grew more calm. The simple, homely ways of the cottage, the +healthful routine of daily domestic toils, into which she delighted to +enter, brought refreshment to her spirit. That fine tact and exquisite +social sympathy, which distinguish the French above other nations, +caused her at once to enter into the spirit of the life in which she +moved; so that she no longer shocked any one's religious feelings by +acts forbidden by the Puritan idea of Sunday, or failed in any of the +exterior proprieties of religious life. She also read and studied with +avidity the English Bible, which came to her with the novelty of a +wholly new book in a new language; nor was she without a certain +artistic appreciation of the austere precision and gravity of the +religious life by which she was surrounded. + +"It is sublime, but a little _glaciale_, like the Alps," she sometimes +said to Mary and Mrs. Marvyn, when speaking of it; "but then," she +added, playfully, "there are the flowers,--_les roses des Alpes_,--and +the air is very strengthening, and it is near to heaven,--_faut +avouer_." + +We have shown how she appeared to the eye of New England life; it may +not be uninteresting to give a letter to one of her friends, which +showed how the same appeared to her. It was not a friend with whom she +felt on such terms, that her intimacy with Burr would appear at all in +the correspondence. + + + * * * * * + +"You behold me, my charming Gabrielle, quite pastoral, recruiting from +the dissipations of my Philadelphia life in a quiet cottage, with most +worthy, excellent people, whom I have learned to love very much. They +are good and true, as pious as the saints themselves, although they do +not belong to the Church,--a thing which I am sorry for; but then let +us hope, that, if the world is wide, heaven is wider, and that all +worthy people will find room at last. This is Virginie's own little, +pet, private heresy; and when I tell it to the Abbe, he only smiles; +and so I think, somehow, that it is not so very bad as it might be. + +"We have had a very gay life in Philadelphia, and now I am growing +tired of the world, and think I shall retire to my cheese, like +Lafontaine's rat. + +"These people in the country here in America have a character quite +their own, very different from the life of cities, where one sees, for +the most part, only a continuation of the forms of good society which +exist in the Old World. + +"In the country, these people seem simple, grave, severe, always +industrious, and, at first, cold and reserved in their manners towards +each other, but with great warmth of heart. They are all obedient to +the word of their minister, who lives among them just like any other +man, and marries and has children. + +"Everything in their worship is plain and austere; their churches are +perfectly desolate; they have no chants, no pictures, no +carvings,--only a most disconsolate, bare-looking building, where they +meet together, and sing one or two hymns, and the minister makes one or +two prayers, all out of his own thoughts, and then gives them a long, +long discourse about things which I cannot understand enough English to +comprehend. + +"There is a very beautiful, charming young girl here, the daughter of +my hostess, who is as lovely and as saintly as St. Catharine, and has +such a genius for religion, that, if she had been in our Church, she +would certainly have been made a saint. + +"Her mother is a good, worthy matron; and the good priest lives in the +family. I think he is a man of very sublime religion, as much above +this world as a great mountain; but he has the true sense of liberty +and fraternity; for he has dared to oppose with all his might this +detestable and cruel trade in poor negroes, which makes us, who are so +proud of the example of America in asserting the rights of men, so +ashamed for her inconsistencies. + +"Well, now, there is a little romance getting up in the cottage; for +the good priest has fixed his eyes on the pretty saint, and discovered, +what he must be blind not to see, that she is very lovely,--and so, as +he can marry, he wants to make her his wife; and her mamma, who adores +him as if he were God, is quite set upon it. The sweet Marie, however, +has had a lover of her own in her little heart, a beautiful young man, +who went to sea, as heroes always do, to seek his fortune. And the +cruel sea has drowned him; and the poor little saint has wept and +prayed, till she is so thin and sweet and mournful that it makes one's +heart ache to see her smile. In our Church, Gabrielle, she would have +gone into a convent; but she makes a vocation of her daily life, and +goes round the house so sweetly, doing all the little work that is to +be done, as sacredly as the nuns pray at the altar. For you must know, +here in New England, the people, for the most part, keep no servants, +but perform all the household work themselves, with no end of spinning +and sewing besides. It is the true Arcadia, where you find cultivated +and refined people busying themselves with the simplest toils. For +these people are well-read and well-bred, and truly ladies in all +things. And so my little Marie and I, we feed the hens and chickens +together, and we search for eggs in the hay in the barn. And they have +taught me to spin at their great wheel, and at a little one too, which +makes a noise like the humming of a bee. + +"But where am I? Oh, I was telling about the romance. Well, so the good +priest has proposed for my Marie, and the dear little soul has accepted +him as the nun accepts the veil; for she only loves him filially and +religiously. And now they are going on, in their way, with preparations +for the wedding. They had what they call 'a quilting' here the other +night, to prepare the bride's quilt,--and all the friends in the +neighborhood came;--it was very amusing to see. + +"The morals of this people are so austere, that young men and girls are +allowed the greatest freedom. They associate and talk freely together, +and the young men walk home alone with the girls after evening parties. +And most generally, the young people, I am told, arrange their +marriages among themselves before the consent of the parents is asked. +This is very strange to us. I must not weary you, however, with the +details. I watch my little romance daily, and will let you hear further +as it progresses. + +"With a thousand kisses, I am, ever, your loving + +"Virginie." + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +CONSULTATIONS AND CONFIDENCES. + + +Meanwhile, the wedding-preparations were going on at the cottage with +that consistent vigor with which Yankee people always drive matters +when they know precisely what they are about. + +The wedding-day was definitely fixed for the first of August; and each +of the two weeks between had its particular significance and value +precisely marked out and arranged in Mrs. Katy Scudder's comprehensive +and systematic schemes. + +It was settled that the newly wedded pair were, for a while at least, +to reside at the cottage. It might have been imagined, therefore, that +no great external changes were in contemplation; but it is astonishing, +the amount of discussion, the amount of advising, consulting, and +running to and fro, which can be made to result out of an apparently +slight change in the relative position of two people in the same house. + +Dr. H. really opened his eyes with calm amazement. Good, modest soul! +he had never imagined himself the hero of so much preparation. From +morning to night, he heard his name constantly occurring in busy +consultations that seemed to be going on between Miss Prissy and Mrs. +Deacon Twitchel and Mrs. Scudder and Mrs. Jones, and quietly wondered +what they could have so much more than usual to say about him. For a +while it seemed to him that the whole house was about to be torn to +pieces. He was even requested to step out of his study, one day, into +which immediately entered, in his absence, two of the most vigorous +women of the parish, who proceeded to uttermost measures,--first +pitching everything into pie, so that the Doctor, who returned +disconsolately to look for a book, at once gave up himself and his +system of divinity as entirely lost, until assured by one of the +ladies, in a condescending manner, that he knew nothing about the +matter, and that, if he would return after half a day, he would find +everything right again,--a declaration in which he tried to have +unlimited faith, and which made him feel the advantage of a mind +accustomed to believing in mysteries. And it is to be remarked, that on +his return he actually found his table in most perfect order, with not +a single one of his papers missing; in fact, to his ignorant eye the +room looked exactly as it did before; and when Miss Prissy eloquently +demonstrated to him, that every inch of that paint had been scrubbed, +and the windows taken out, and washed inside and out, and rinsed +through three waters, and that the curtains had been taken down, and +washed, and put through a blue water, and starched, and ironed, and put +up again,--he only innocently wondered, in his ignorance, what there +was in a man's being married that made all these ceremonies necessary. +But the Doctor was a wise man, and in cases of difficulty kept his mind +to himself; and therefore he only informed these energetic +practitioners that he was extremely obliged to them, accepting it by +simple faith,--an example which, we recommend to all good men in +similar circumstances. + +The house throughout was subjected to similar renovation. Everything in +every chest or box was vigorously pulled out and hung out on lines in +the clothes-yard to air; for when once the spirit of enterprise has +fairly possessed a group of women, it assumes the form of a "prophetic +fury," and carries them beyond themselves. Let not any ignorant mortal +of the masculine gender, at such hours, rashly dare to question the +promptings of the genius that inspires them. Spite of all the treatises +that have lately appeared, to demonstrate that there are no particular +inherent diversities between men and women, we hold to the opinion that +one thorough season of house-cleaning is sufficient to prove the +existence of awful and mysterious difference between the sexes, and of +subtile and reserved forces in the female line, before which the lords +of creation can only veil their faces with a discreet reverence, as our +Doctor has done. + +In fact, his whole deportment on the occasion was characterized by +humility so edifying as really to touch the hearts of the whole synod +of matrons; and Miss Prissy rewarded him by declaring impressively her +opinion, that he was worthy to have a voice in the choosing of the +wedding-dress; and she actually swooped him up, just in a very critical +part of a distinction between natural and moral ability, and conveyed +him bodily, as fairy sprites knew how to convey the most ponderous of +mortals, into the best room, where three specimens of brocade lay +spread out upon a table for inspection. + +Mary stood by the side of the table, her pretty head bent reflectively +downward, her cheek just resting upon the tip of one of her fingers, as +she stood looking thoughtfully _through_ the brocades at something +deeper that seemed to lie under them; and when the Doctor was required +to give judgment on the articles, it was observed by the matrons that +his large blue eyes were resting upon Mary, with an expression that +almost glorified his face; and it was not until his elbow was +repeatedly shaken by Miss Prissy, that he gave a sudden start, and +fixed his attention, as was requested, upon the silks. It had been one +of Miss Prissy's favorite theories, that _"that dear blessed man had +taste enough, if he would only give his mind to things"_; and, in fact, +the Doctor rather verified the remark on the present occasion, for he +looked very conscientiously and soberly at the silks, and even handled +them cautiously and respectfully with his fingers, and listened with +grave attention to all that Miss Prissy told him of their price and +properties, and then laid his finger down on one whose snow-white +ground was embellished with a pattern representing lilies of the valley +on a background of green leaves. "This is the one," he said, with an +air of decision; and then be looked at Mary, and smiled, and a murmur +of universal approbation broke out. + +"_Il a de la delicatesse_," said Madame de Frontignac, who had been +watching this scene with bright, amused eyes,--while a chorus of loud +acclamations, in which Miss Prissy's voice took the lead, conveyed to +the innocent-minded Doctor the idea, that in some mysterious way he had +distinguished himself in the eyes of his feminine friends; whereat he +retired to his study slightly marvelling, but on the whole well +pleased, as men generally are when they do better than they expect; and +Miss Prissy, turning out all profaner persons from the apartment, held +a solemn consultation, to which only Mary, Mrs. Scudder, and Madame de +Frontignac were admitted. For it is to be observed that the latter had +risen daily and hourly in Miss Prissy's esteem, since her entrance into +the cottage; and she declared, that, if she only would give her a few +hints, she didn't believe but that she could make that dress look just +like a Paris one; and rather intimated that in such a case she might +almost be ready to resign all mortal ambitions. + +The afternoon of this day, just at that cool hour when the clock ticks +so quietly in a New England kitchen, and everything is so clean and put +away that there seems to be nothing to do in the house, Mary sat +quietly down in her room to hem a ruffle. Everybody had gone out of the +house on various errands. The Doctor, with implicit faith, had +surrendered himself to Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy, to be conveyed up +to Newport, and attend to various appointments in relation to his outer +man, which he was informed would be indispensable in the forthcoming +solemnities. Madame de Frontignac had also gone to spend the day with +some of her Newport friends. And Mary, quite well pleased with the +placid and orderly stillness which reigned through the house, sat +pleasantly murmuring a little tune to her sewing, when suddenly the +trip of a very brisk foot was heard in the kitchen, and Miss Cerinthy +Ann Twitchel made her appearance at the door, her healthy glowing cheek +wearing a still brighter color from the exercise of a three-mile walk +in a July day. + +"Why, Cerinthy," said Mary, "how glad I am to see you!" + +"Well," said Cerinthy, "I have been meaning to come down all this week, +but there's so much to do in haying-time,--but to-day I told mother I +_must_ come. I brought these down," she said, unfolding a dozen snowy +damask napkins, "that I spun myself, and was thinking of you almost all +the while I spun them, so I suppose they aren't quite so wicked as they +might be." + +We will observe here, that Cerinthy Ann, in virtue of having a high +stock of animal spirits and great fulness of physical vigor, had very +small proclivities towards the unseen and spiritual, but still always +indulged a secret resentment at being classed as a sinner above many +others, who, as church-members, made such professions, and were, as she +remarked, "not a bit better than she was." She had always, however, +cherished an unbounded veneration for Mary, and had made her the +confidante of most of her important secrets. It soon became very +evident that she had come with one on her mind now. + +"Don't you want to come and sit out in the lot?" she said, after +sitting awhile, twirling her bonnet-strings with the air of one who has +something to say and doesn't know exactly how to begin upon it. + +Mary cheerfully gathered up her thread, scissors, and ruffling, and the +two stepped over the window-sill, and soon found themselves seated +cozily under the boughs of a large apple-tree, whose descending +branches, meeting the tops of the high grass all around, formed a +seclusion as perfect as heart could desire. + +They sat down, pushing away a place in the grass; and Cerinthy Ann took +off her bonnet, and threw it among the clover, exhibiting to view her +black hair, always trimly arranged in shining braids, except where some +glossy curls fell over the rich high, color of her cheeks. Something +appeared to discompose her this afternoon. There were those evident +signs of a consultation impending, which, to an experienced eye, are as +unmistakable as the coming up of a shower in summer. + +Cerinthy began by passionately demolishing several heads of clover, +remarking, as she did so, that she "didn't see, for her part, how Mary +could keep so calm when things were coming so near." And as Mary +answered to this only with a quiet smile, she broke out again:-- + +"I don't see, for my part, how a young girl _could_ marry a minister, +anyhow; but then I think _you_ are just cut out for it. But what would +anybody say, if _I_ should do such a thing?" + +"I don't know," said Mary, innocently. + +"Well, I suppose everybody would hold up their hands; and yet, if I +_do_ say it myself,"--she added, coloring,--"there are not many girls +who could make a better minister's wife than I could, if I had a mind +to try." + +"That I am sure of," said Mary, warmly. + +"I guess you are the only one that ever thought so," said Cerinthy, +giving an impatient toss. "There's father and mother all the while +mourning over me; and yet I don't see but what I do pretty much all +that is done in the house, and they say I am a great comfort in a +temporal point of view. But, oh, the groanings and the sighings that +there are over me! I don't think it is pleasant to know that your best +friends are thinking such awful things about you, when you are working +your fingers off to help them. It is kind o' discouraging, but I don't +know what to do about it";--and for a few moments Cerinthy sat +demolishing buttercups, and throwing them up in the air till her shiny +black head was covered with golden flakes, while her cheeks grew redder +with something that she was going to say next. + +"Now, Mary, there is _that creature_. Well, you know, he won't take +'_No_' for an answer. What shall I do?" + +"Suppose, then, you try '_Yes_,'" said Mary, rather archly. + +"Oh, pshaw! Mary Scudder, you know better than that, now. I look like +it, don't I?" + +"Why, yes," said Mary, looking at Cerinthy, deliberately; "on the +whole, I think you do." + +"Well! one thing I must say," said Cerinthy,--"I can't see what _he_ +finds in me. I think he is a thousand times too good for me. Why, you +have no idea, Mary, how I _have_ plagued him. I believe that man +_really is a Christian_," she added, while something like a penitent +tear actually glistened in those sharp, saucy, black eyes. "Besides," +she added, "I have told him everything I could think of to discourage +him. I told him that I had a bad temper, and didn't believe the +doctrines, and couldn't promise that I ever should; and after all, that +creature keeps right on, and I don't know what to tell him." + +"Well," said Mary, mildly, "do you think you really love him?" + +"Love him?" said Cerinthy, giving a great flounce, "to be sure I don't! +Catch me loving any man! I told him last night I didn't; but it didn't +do a bit of good. I used to think that man was bashful, but I declare I +have altered my mind; he will talk and talk till I don't know what to +do. I tell you, Mary, he talks beautifully, too, sometimes." + +Here Cerinthy turned quickly away, and began reaching passionately +after clover-heads. After a few moments, she resumed:-- + +"The fact is, Mary, that man _needs_ somebody to take care of him; for +he never thinks of himself. They say he has got the consumption; but he +hasn't, any more than I have. It is just the way he neglects +himself,--preaching, talking, and visiting; nobody to take care of him, +and see to his clothes, and nurse him up when he gets a little hoarse +and run down. Well, I suppose if I _am_ unregenerate, I do know how to +keep things in order; and if I should keep _such_ a man's soul in his +body, I should be doing some good in the world; because, if ministers +don't live, of course they can't convert anybody. Just think of his +saying that I could be a comfort to _him_! I told him that it was +perfectly ridiculous. 'And besides,' says I, 'what will everybody +think?' I thought that I had really talked him out of the notion of it +last night; but there he was in again this morning, and told me he had +derived great encouragement from what I had said. Well, the poor man +really is lonesome,--his mother's dead, and he hasn't any sisters. I +asked him why he didn't go and take Miss Olladine Slocum: everybody +says she would make a first-rate minister's wife." + +"Well, and what did he say to that?" said Mary. + +"Well, something really silly,--about my looks," said Cerinthy, looking +down. + +Mary looked up, and remarked the shining black hair, the long dark +lashes lying down over the glowing cheek, where two arch dimples were +nestling, and said, quietly,-- + +"Probably he is a man of taste, Cerinthy; I advise you to leave the +matter entirely to his judgment." + +"You don't, really, Mary!" said the damsel, looking up. "Don't you +think it would injure _him_, if I should?" + +"I think not, materially," said Mary. + +"Well," said Cerinthy, rising, "the men will be coming home from the +mowing, before I get home, and want their supper. Mother has got one of +her headaches on this afternoon, so I can't stop any longer. There +isn't a soul in the house knows where anything is, when I am gone. If I +should ever take it into my head to go off, I don't know what would +become of father and mother, I was telling mother, the other day, that +I thought unregenerate folks were of some use in _this_ world, any +way." + +"Does your mother know anything about it?" said Mary. + +"Oh, as to mother, I believe she has been hoping and praying about it +these three months. She thinks that I am such a desperate case, it is +the only way I am to be brought in, as she calls it. That's what set me +against him at first; but the fact is, if girls will let a man argue +with them, he always contrives to get the best of it. I am kind of +provoked about it, too. But, mercy on us! he is so meek, there is no +use of getting provoked at him. Well, I guess I will go home and think +about it." + +As she turned to go, she looked really pretty. Her long lashes were wet +with a twinkling moisture, like meadow-grass after a shower; and there +was a softened, childlike expression stealing over the careless gayety +of her face. + +Mary put her arms round her with a gentle caressing movement, which the +other returned with a hearty embrace. They stood locked in each other's +arms,--the glowing, vigorous, strong-hearted girl, with that pale, +spiritual face resting on her breast, as when the morning, songful and +radiant, clasps the pale silver moon to her glowing bosom. + +"Look here now, Mary," said Cerinthy; "your folks are all gone. You may +as well walk with me. It's pleasant now." + +"Yes, I will," said Mary; "wait a minute, till I get my bonnet." + +In a few moments the two girls were walking together in one of those +little pasture foot-tracks which run so cozily among huckleberry and +juniper bushes, while Cerinthy eagerly pursued the subject she could +not leave thinking of. + +Their path now wound over high ground that overlooked the distant sea, +now lost itself in little copses of cedar and pitch-pine, and now there +came on the air the pleasant breath of new hay, which mowers were +harvesting in adjoining meadows. + +They walked on and on, as girls will; because, when a young lady has +once fairly launched into the enterprise of telling another all that +_he_ said, and just how _he_ looked, for the last three months, walks +are apt to be indefinitely extended. + +Mary was, besides, one of the most seductive little confidantes in the +world. She was so pure from selfishness, so heartily and innocently +interested in what another was telling her, that people in talking with +her found the subject constantly increasing in interest,--although, if +they really had been called upon afterwards to state the exact portion +in words which she added to the conversation, they would have been +surprised to find it so small. + +In fact, before Cerinthy Ann had quite finished her confessions, they +were more than a mile from the cottage, and Mary began to think of +returning, saying that her mother would wonder where she was, when she +came home. + +[To be continued.] + + + * * * * * + +LION LLEWELLYN. + + +Singing, shining, beautiful May +Lureth me, draweth me, all the day. +Once, when the season wooed me so, +Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go, +Pacing before or close beside, +Reticent, quaint, and dignified, +Roaming with me, wandering wide; +And if ever thy feet inclined, +Weary with roving, to lag behind, +When were my arms to aid thee slow? +"Muver will cahwy her darlin'! So!" + +Not to the pines, my warrior gray, +Gray and stately and scarred as they,-- +Not to the hill, or the valley glen, +Shall we wander together again. + +Nevermore, in the dead of night, +Shall I waken in cold affright,-- +Waken at sounds I know too well, +Growl defiant, and horrid yell, +Sounds that bristle the hair, and tell +Strife is raging, and blood is shed, +Blood and--fur, in the conflict dread. +Nevermore, from my bed, shall I +Unto the chamber-window fly, + +There, by the wintry moon, to spy +Thee on the well-sweep mounted high,-- +Mounting still, from the crafty foe +Creeping and crawling up below; +And, when thou canst no farther go, +See thee crouch for the fearful leap +Off the top of the old well-sweep, +Then, with a swift and dizzy sweep, +Plunge in the crusty snow knee-deep. +Nor, for a lameness gotten so, +Shall I nurse thee again,--all, no! + +Nevermore, from my willing hand +Winning the all I can command, +Shall be heard the pathetic tone, +(Solvent sufficient for heart of stone,) +Making thy simple wishes known; +Nor shall the vibrating long-drawn "Mr--r" +Of thy tranquil thunderous purr +Breathe again, to my ear attent, +Bliss o'erflowing and deep content. + +As I fondly muse on thee, +I recall the spreading tree +Of thy goodly pedigree, +Which, of shapely branch or bough, +Hath no fairer growth than thou; +And my glance caressing now +Sweeps Alas, and Och Oh-Ow, +Chryssa, Christopher, What-Not, +Zabdas, Bunch, Longinus, Dot, +Tom, Zenobia, Nonesuch, +Turvy, Topsy, Inasmuch, +Zillah, Zillah Number Two, +Fremont, Dayton, Tittattoo, +Hiawatha, And, and If, +Minnehaha, But, and Tiff, +Kitty Clover, Kitty Gray, +Flossy, Frolic, Fayaway, +Quip, and Quirk, and Dearest Mae, +Nippenicket, Dido, Puck, +Minnesinger, Friar Tuck, +Periwinkle, Winkle Less, +Quiz, Albeit, Bonnie, Bess, +Midget, Budget, Mayaret, +Jocko, Sancho, Hans, Coquette, +Daisy Du Da, Ditto, Pet, +Pancks, and Peepy, Tilly, Tarn, +Tattycoram, Zoe, Clam, +Little Dorrit, Uncle Sam, +Tomtit, Pug, Penelope, +Ike, Ulysses, Rosalie, + +Punch, and Judy, Ferny Fan, +Cowslip, Hecate, Caliban, +Filibuster, Jonathan,-- +Name them all who may, who can; +For the half has not been told +Of the branches I behold +On the honored parent-stem, +And the later growth from them. + +Lion Llewellyn, faithful friend, +Brave and gentle to the end, +Would that I once more might hail, +Like a banner on the gale, +Waving slow, thy jet-ringed tail! +And thy furry coat of mail, +Like the striped and spotted skin +Of thy savage leopard kin, +Would I might again caress +With the old-time tenderness! + +Why do I talk of what may not be? +For the pillow of him I fain would see +Was changed long since from my motherly knee +To the garden, under the willow-tree,-- +Weeping-willow and flowering moss. +Over it riseth nor pile nor cross; +We, who only have felt his loss, +Needing no sculptured stone to tell +How he battled, and how he fell, +Or where sleepeth who sleeps so well. + +What is the destiny of his race? +Is there, I wonder, no other place +Whence they come or whither they go? +Earth-existence the all they know? +Does the living intelligence +Die in them with the dying sense? +Or, from the body passing hence, +Does it find in another sphere +Being in higher form than here? + +For summers twain, the willow kept +Its watch where low the warrior slept, +But, on the third, a blight had crept +Upon the vigor of its frame; +Nor knew we how or whence it came. + +Whisper it low and fearfully, +The tale of ghostly mystery; +For toothless crones and graybeards said +That from the presence of the dead +An influence around was shed, + +Like warlock's foul, unholy spell, +Of malisons and curses fell, +Which steeped that soil with venom dank, +Of which the fated willow drank. + +Whether it were or were not so, +At least so much as this we know, +That on the willow fell decay; +And though, when all things else grew gay, +It feebly strove to look as they, +Yet was its summer crown of pride +Worn lightly, and soon cast aside, +And when Spring found it, it had died. + +A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown, +Now mark the place of his rest alone. + +I see that the soft west-wind to-day +From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away, +And wherever its fitful currents flow, +Rising or falling, swift or slow, +The tender petals like white wings go, +Floating, eddying, wavering low, +Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow; +And under their light and flickering fall, +The mound, and the flowering moss, and all, +Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest. + +Thou that often these arms have pressed, +Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,-- +Thou that takest thy colder rest, +Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground, +Close, but untenderly, folded round,-- +Ever, by thy drifted mound, +Sleep, the Mystery, be found +Most mysterious, most profound! +And through her enchanted air, +Lighter than petals fair, +Brooding Peace sink downward there; +And the blasted willow make +Haunt perpetual, for thy sake! + + + + +TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA. + + "It were wise, nay, just, + To strike with men a balance: to forgive, + If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama. + + +In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories +and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same +Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years +afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of +_citoyen Francais_, when that new order was created by the Revolution. +At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr. +Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these +occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a +bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had +been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the +New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased +with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with +regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his +destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache, +introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of +filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or +assistant surveyor." + +The "young man" was thirty-seven years of age when he landed in +Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, to begin the real business of his +life. He had been a staymaker, a sailor, an exciseman, a teacher, a +shopkeeper, and an author, to say nothing of his twofold matrimonial +experience. Such a long and various course of schooling had fitted him +to become an American citizen. + +His father was a staymaker, a Quaker, and poor. The son was sent to a +free school, where he was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, +--enough learning to be given to any man at the public expense. +With these three keys, if he is made of the right material, he +can open the world. At thirteen, he worked at his father's trade; at +sixteen, he ran away and shipped on board the privateer "Terrible," +Captain Death: the names of both craft and captain suggest the black +flag and cross-bones. Before the vessel sailed, his father interfered +and brought him ashore. Luckily for him; for, on her next cruise, the +"Terrible" was taken into St. Malo, a prize to the "Vengeance," after +one of the most desperate sea-fights on record. Her captain was killed; +out of a crew of two hundred men, only twenty-six were found alive, +most of them badly wounded. Visions of sea-life again lured Paine away +from the shop-board. He shipped in another privateer, and this time +actually served out the cruise. In 1759, we find him living at +Sandwich, a staymaker and a married man. In 1761, he was a widower and +an officer of the excise. From this position he was dismissed, for some +reason which escaped both Cobbett and Cheetham, and eleven months +afterward was reinstated on his own petition. In the interval, he found +employment in London as usher in a school, at twenty-five pounds a +year. His leisure moments he devoted to lectures on Natural Science. In +1768, he took a second wife at Lewes, the daughter of a tobacconist; +and the father dying soon after, Paine kept the shop. Here he wrote for +his brother-excisemen a petition to government for an increase of +salary. Four thousand copies were published by subscription. This piece +introduced him to Goldsmith, and a letter from the author to the famous +Doctor still exists, requesting "the honor of his company at the tavern +for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine." + +The year 1774 was an eventful one for Paine. He failed in the shop, was +separated from his wife, and dismissed from his office as exciseman. +After petitioning in vain to be reinstated, he determined to emigrate. + +His first scheme was, to establish a school for girls in Philadelphia; +but Bache procured him an engagement as assistant editor of the +"Pennsylvania Magazine," at fifty pounds a year. Paine's contributions +were much applauded, and soon attracted subscribers. His "Reflections +on the Life and Death of Lord Clive" were considered admirable, but do +not suit our present taste. A song on the Death of General Wolfe, still +occasionally reprinted, does not rise above a low level of mediocrity. +But here is a paragraph on the Mineral Riches of the Earth, which, many +years later, found favor in the eyes of the surly Cheetham, and may +still be read with some interest:-- + + + * * * * * + +"Though Nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is sullen, +rude, and niggardly at home; return the visit, and she admits you with +all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance of an antiquated +beauty retired to replenish her charms. Bred up in antediluvian +notions, she has not yet acquired the European taste of receiving +visitants in her dressing-room: she locks and bolts up her private +recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve +her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face that +was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that would view Nature in +her undress, and partake of her internal treasures, must proceed with +the resolution of a robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation +to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation +of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery +of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is +noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of +her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her +gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness; +and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the +riches of a necromancer's cell." + + + * * * * * + +An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper, +introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among +others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to +Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this +communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and +the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the +venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen +appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_," +as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his +contemporaries. [1] + +[Footnote 1: See "Climenole" in The Portfolio, 1803.] + +Paine's own account of the work is probably the true one:-- + + + * * * * * + +"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as +were in his hands towards completing a history of the present +transactions, and seemed desirous to have the first volume out the next +spring. I had then formed the outlines of "Common Sense," and finished +nearly the first part; and as I supposed the Doctor's design in getting +out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to +surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he +thought of." + + + * * * * * + +The times were more suggestive than doctors, even when Franklin was one +of them. When Paine came to America, he found the dispute with England +the all-absorbing topic. The atmosphere was heavy with the approaching +storm. The First Congress was in session in the autumn of that year. On +the 17th of September, John Adams felt certain that the other Colonies +would support Massachusetts. The Second Congress met in May, 1775. +During the winter and spring the quarrel had grown rapidly. Lexington +and Concord had become national watchwords; the army was assembled +about Boston; Washington was chosen commander-in-chief. Then came +Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was +open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had +drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag. + +From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in +their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots, +militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in +regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make +out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to +appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising +revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament +could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed +excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of +British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by +the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial +merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to +independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion +to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists +insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men +and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of +Parliament with both, if necessary. These arguments of our ancestors +led them to an excellent conclusion, and so far are entitled to our +respect; but logically we are afraid that King George had the best of +it. + +Before many months had passed, lagging theory was left so far in the +rear by the rapid course of events, that the Colonists felt it +necessary to move up a new set of principles to the van, if they wished +to present a fair front to the enemy. They had raised an army, and +taken the field. Unless they declared themselves a nation, they were +confessedly rebels. And yet almost all hesitated. There was a +deep-seated prejudice in favor of the English government, and a strong +personal liking for the people. Even when it was known that the second +petition to the King--Dickinson's "measure of imbecility"--was +disregarded, as it deserved to be, and that the Hessians were coming, +and all reasonable men admitted that there was no hope for +reconciliation, they still refused to abandon the pleasing delusion, +and talked over the old plans for redress of grievances, and a +constitutional union with the mother country. With little or no belief +in the possibility of either, they stood shivering on the banks of the +Rubicon, that mythical river of irretrievable self-committal, +hesitating to enter its turbid waters. A few of the bolder "shepherds +of the people" tried to urge them onward; but no one was bold enough to +dash in first and lead them through. Paine seized the opportunity. He +had a mind whose eye always saw a subject, when it could perceive it at +all, in its naked truth, stripped of the non-material accessories which +disturb the vision of common men. He saw that reconciliation was +impossible, mere rebellion folly; and that, to succeed in the struggle, +it was necessary to fight Great Britain as an equal,--nation against +nation. This course he recommended in "Common Sense," published in +January, 1776. + +Paine told the Colonists in this pamphlet that the connection with the +mother country was of no use to them, and was rapidly becoming an +impossibility. "It is not in the power of England to do this continent +justice. The business of it is too weighty and too intricate to be +managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant. +_To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a +petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when +obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few +years be looked upon as folly and childishness_." As to the protection +of England, what is that but the privilege of contributing to her wars? +"Our trade will always be a protection." "Neutrality is a safer convoy +than a man-of-war." "It is the true interest of America to steer clear +of European contentions, which she can never do while by her dependence +on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of European +politics." According to "Common Sense," not only was a separation +necessary and unavoidable, but the present moment was the right time to +establish it. "The time hath found us." The materials of war were +abundant; the union of the Colonies complete. It might be difficult, if +not impossible, to form the continent into a government half a century +hence. Now the task is easy. The interest of all is the same. "There is +no religious difficulty in the way." "I fully believe that it is the +will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of religious +opinions among us. _I look upon the various denominations among us as +children of the same family, differing only in what is called their +Christian names."_ All things considered, "nothing can settle our +affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration of +independence." "This proceeding may at first appear strange and +difficult. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a +superficial appearance of being right"; but in a little time it will +become familiar. "And until independence is declared, the continent +will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant +business from day to day, yet knows it must be done; hates to set about +it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its +necessity." To this he thought it necessary to add a labored argument +against kings from the Old Testament, which may possibly have had much +weight with a people some of whose descendants still triumphantly quote +the same holy book in favour of slavery. + +The King's speech, "a piece of finished villany" in the eyes of true +patriots, appeared in Philadelphia on the same day as "Common Sense". +Thus Paine was as lucky in his time of publication as in his choice of +a subject. All contemporaries admit that the pamphlet produced a +prodigious effect. Paine himself says,--"The success it met with was +beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the copyright +up to every State in the Union, and the demand ran to not less than one +hundred thousand copies." The authorship was attributed to Dr. +Franklin, to Samuel Adams, and to John Adams. + +It is hardly necessary to mention that the movement party, with General +Washington at its head, considered Paine's "doctrines sound, and his +reasoning unanswerable." Even in England, Liberals read and applauded. +The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to +France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common +Sense." + +It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence +doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the +touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew +the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid +a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it +useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared. +None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared +independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread +through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and +believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would +have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation. + +If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an +expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776, +look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much +difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later, +when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in +the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of +tension. The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine +founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote +politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius +Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression, +semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were +relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations +of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise +and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's +coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the +like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American +party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight +with the rank-and-file as his arguments. + +[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge +to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common +Sense."] + +Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst +upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by +all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon +afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr. +Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as +a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.'" Had +he been a man of fortune or American-born, he might have reached a +place in the foremost rank of the Fathers of the Country. But nativism +was powerful, and position important at that time, as Lee and Gates and +even Hamilton himself experienced. The signature, "Common Sense," Paine +preserved through life. It became what our authorlings, who ought to +know better, will persist in calling a _nom [1] de plume_--a Yankee +affectation, unknown to French idioms. + +[Footnote 1: They generally spell it "_nomme_."] + +In the autumn of 1776, Paine joined the army as volunteer aide-de-camp +to General Greene, and served through the gloomy campaign which opened +with the loss of New York in September. He remained in the field until +the army went into winter-quarters after the battles of Trenton and +Princeton. It was not as a combatant that Paine did the States good +service. He played the part of Tyraetus in prose,--an adaptation of the +old Greek lyrist to the eighteenth century and to British America,--and +cheered the soldiers, not with songs, but with essays, continuations of +"Common Sense." The first one was written on the retreat from Fort Lee, +and published under the name of "The Crisis," on the 23d of December, +when misfortune and severe weather had cast down the stoutest hearts. +It began with the well-known phrase, "'These are the times that try +men's souls.' The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this +crisis shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it +now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."--"But after all," +he continues, "matters might be worse. Howe has done very little. Fort +Washington and Fort Lee were no loss to us. The retreat was admirably +planned and conducted. General Washington is the right man for the +place, 'with a mind that can even nourish upon care.'" He closes with a +cheerful sketch of the spirit and condition of the army, attacks the +Tories, and appeals to the Colonies for union and contributions. + +This "Crisis" produced the best effect at home; in England it had the +honor of being burned by the hangman. The succeeding "Crisises" were +brought out at irregular intervals, whenever the occasion seemed to +demand Paine's attention; some of them not longer than a leader in a +daily paper; others swollen to pamphlet dimensions. They were read by +every corporal's guard in the army, and printed in every town of every +State on brown or yellow paper; for white was rarely to be obtained. In +their hours of despondency, the Colonists took consolation and courage +from the "Crisis." "Never," says a contemporary, "was a writer better +calculated for the meridian under which he wrote, or who knew how to +adapt himself more happily to every circumstance... Even Cheetham +admits, that to the army Paine's pen was an appendage almost as +necessary and as formidable as its cannon." + +The next campaign opened gloomily for the Colonies. The Tories felt +certain of victory. In the political almanac of that party, 1777 was +_"the year with three gallows in it."_ The English held New York and +ravaged the Jerseys on their way to Philadelphia. Howe issued a +proclamation "commanding all congresses and committees to desist and +cease from their treasonable doings," promising pardon to all who +should come in and take the oath of allegiance. Paine met him with a +"Crisis." "By what means," he asked, "do you expect to conquer America? +If you could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than +yours, nor in the winter, when we had none, how _are_ you to do it? If +you obtain possession of this city, [Philadelphia,] you could do +nothing with it but plunder it; it would be only an additional +dead-weight on your hands. You have both an army and a country to +contend with. You may march over the country, but you cannot hold it; +if you attempt to garrison it, your army would be like a stream of +water running to nothing. Even were our men to disperse, every man to +his home, engaging to reassemble at some future day, you would be as +much at a loss in that case as now. You would be afraid to send out +your troops in detachments; when we returned, the work would be all to +do." Paine then turns to those who, frightened by the proclamation, +betrayed their country, and paints their folly and its punishment. In +speaking of them, he calls upon the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to +take into serious consideration the case of the Quakers, whose +published protest against breaking off the "happy connection" seemed to +Paine of a treasonable nature. "They have voluntarily read themselves +out of the Continental meeting," he adds, with a humor, doubtless, +little relished by the Friends, "and cannot hope to be restored to it +again, but by payment and penitence." + +In April, Paine was elected, on motion of John Adams, Secretary to the +Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy +dollars a month. When Philadelphia surrendered, he accompanied Congress +in the flight to Lancaster. The day after the affair at Brandywine, a +short "Crisis" appeared, explaining the accidents which had caused the +defeat of the Continentals, and insisting that the good cause was safe, +and that Howe's victories were no better than defeats. Paine was right. +The Americans were gaining more ground in Northern New York than they +had lost in Pennsylvania. Burgoyne, who, + + "Unconscious of impending fates, + Could push through woods, but not through + Gates," + +had capitulated. The news reached Philadelphia on the 18th of October. + +This winter ought to have closed the war. The alliance with France, +Burgoyne's capture, two campaigns without useful results, Washington's +admirable patience and management at Valley Forge, with starvation and +mutiny in the ranks and disaffection to his person in the officers of +the Gates faction, ought to have convinced every Englishman in America +that the attempt to reduce the Colonies was now hopeless. Paine was so +indignant with the reckless obstinacy of the British government, that +he conceived the idea of carrying the war into England with pen and +paper,--weapons he began to think invincible in his hands. "If I could +get over to England," he wrote to his old chief, General Greene, +"without being known, and only remain in safety until I could get out a +proclamation, I could open the eyes of the country with respect to the +madness and stupidity of its government." Greene had no confidence in +the success of this appeal to the English people, and advised Paine not +to attempt it. + +In the mean time the French fleet had arrived, bringing M. Gerard, the +first foreign minister to the United States, and with him trouble to +Thomas Paine. It is well known that the French government employed +Beaumarchais, the author of the "Barber of Seville," as their agent to +furnish secret supplies to the American insurgents, and that +Beaumarchais imagined a firm, Rodrigue Hortalez & Co., who shipped to +the United Colonies munitions of war furnished by the King, and were to +receive return cargoes of tobacco, to keep up mercantile appearances. +Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, represented the +Americans in the business. In 1777, Congress, out of patience with +Deane for his foolish contracts with foreign officers, recalled him. He +returned, bringing with him a claim of Beaumarchais for the cargoes +already shipped to the United States. As Deane could produce no +vouchers, and Arthur Lee had cautioned Congress against his demands, +the claim was laid on the table until the vouchers should be presented. +Deane, confiding in the support of his numerous friends, appealed to +the public in a newspaper. Congress bore this indignity so +amiably,--refusing, indeed, by a small majority to take notice of +it,--that Henry Laurens, the president, who had laid Deane's appeal +before them for their action, resigned in disgust, and was succeeded by +John Jay. But Paine, whose position as Foreign Secretary enabled him to +know that the supplies had come from the French government, and not +from Beaumarchais, answered Deane in several newspaper articles, +entitled, "Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs." In these +he exposed the whole claim with his usual unmitigated directness. M. +Gerard immediately announced officially that Paine's papers were false, +and called upon Congress to declare them so and to pay the claim. Party +feeling ran high on this question,--a foreshadowing of the French and +English factions fifteen years later. Congress passed a resolution in +censure of Paine. Mr. Laurens moved that he be heard in his defence; +the motion was lost, and Paine resigned his office. A motion from the +Deane party to refuse his resignation and to discharge him was also +lost,--the Northern States voting generally in Paine's favor. His +resignation was then accepted. + +As the French government persisted in denying that the King had +furnished any supplies, Congress admitted the debt, and in October, +1779, drew bills on Dr. Franklin in favor of Beaumarchais, for two +millions and a half of francs, at three years' sight. Beaumarchais +negotiated the bills, built a fine hotel, and lived _en prince_. But +neither he nor Deane was satisfied. They still demanded another +million. + +We have no doubt that Paine was correct in his facts, however +injudicious it may have been to use them in his position. Deane's best +friends gave him up, before many years had passed. M. de Lomenie, in +his interesting sketch of Beaumarchais, has tried hard to show the +justice of his demands on the United States, but without much success. +He does not attempt to explain how Beaumarchais, notoriously penniless +in 1775, should have had in 1777 a good claim for three millions' worth +of goods furnished. The American public looked upon Paine as a victim +to state policy, and his position with his friends did not suffer at +all in consequence of his disclosures. Personally, he exulted in his +conduct to the end of his life, and took pleasure in watching and +recording Deane's disreputable career and miserable end. "As he rose +like a rocket, so he fell like the stick," a metaphor which has passed +into a proverb, was imagined by Paine to meet Deane's case. [1] The +immediate consequence of Paine's resignation was to oblige him to hire +himself out as clerk to an attorney in Philadelphia. In his office, +Paine earned his daily bread by copying law-papers until he was +appointed clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania. + +[Footnote 1: This Beaumarchais claim was kept alive until the beginning +of the present generation. In 1794, Gouverneur Morris, Minister to the +French Republic, obtained from the Minister of Finance a receipt to the +Crown for a million of francs, signed by Beaumarchais, and sent it home +to meet the claim which had again been presented. In 1806 it +reappeared, urged by the Imperial Ambassador. In 1816, the Duc de +Richelieu, minister of Louis XVIII., sustained it, and declared, on the +strength of Gerard's assertions, that the million receipt did not in +any way concern the United States. In 1824, the daughter of +Beaumarchais came to this country to solicit Congress in person, with +no better success. But at last, in 1835, when our claim of twenty-five +millions on France was settled, eight hundred thousand francs were +allowed to the heirs of Beaumarchais, and the business closed +forever,--not creditably to us. The claim was probably unfounded; but +our government admitted its validity by the fact of payment; and the +money, if due, ought to have been paid forty years before, or a +suitable compensation made for the long delay. To be Liberals in +borrowing and Conservatives in repayment is not a desirable financial +character for a nation to obtain.] + +Early in May, 1780, while the Assembly of Pennsylvania was receiving +petitions from all parts of the State, praying for exemption from +taxes, a letter was brought to the speaker from General Washington, and +read to the House by Paine as clerk. It stated simply that the army was +in the utmost distress from the want of every necessary which men could +need and yet retain life; and that the symptoms of discontent and +mutiny were so marked that the General dreaded the event of every hour. +"When the letter was read," says Paine, "I observed a despairing +silence in the House. Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At length a +member, of whose fortitude I had a high opinion, rose. 'If,' said he, +'the account in that letter is true, and we are in the situation there +represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the matter any longer. +We may as well give up first as last.' A more cheerful member +endeavored to dissipate the gloom of the House, and moved an +adjournment, which was carried," Paine, who knew that the Assembly had +neither money nor credit, felt that the voluntary aid of individuals +could alone be relied upon in this conjuncture. He accordingly wrote a +letter to a friend in Philadelphia, a man of influence, explaining the +urgency of affairs, and inclosed five hundred dollars, the amount of +the salary due him as clerk, as his contribution towards a relief fund. +The Philadelphian called a meeting at the coffee-house, read Paine's +communication, and proposed a subscription, heading the list with two +hundred pounds in good money. Mr. Robert Morris put his name down for +the same sum. Three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency, +were raised; and it was resolved to establish a bank with the fund for +the relief of the army. This plan was carried out with the best +results. After Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finances, he +developed it into the Bank of North America, which was incorporated +both by act of Congress and by the State of Pennsylvania. Paine +followed up his letter by a "Crisis Extraordinary." Admitting that the +war costs the Colonists a very large sum, he shows that it is trifling, +compared with the burdens the English have to bear. For this reason it +would be less expensive for the Americans to raise almost any amount to +drive the English out than to submit to them and come under their +system of taxation. + +Our ancestors read the "Crisis Extraordinary," and understood every +word of it, we may be sure. Paine's lucidity of statement is never more +remarkable than when he handles financial questions. But conviction did +not work its way down to the pocket. Few men gave who could avoid it, +and each State appeared more fearful of paying, by accident, a larger +sum than its neighbor, than of the success of the British arms. +Congress, finding it at last almost impossible to get money or even +provisions at home, resolved to resort again to the financial expedient +which has proved so often profitable to this country, namely, to borrow +in Europe. Colonel Laurens, son of the late President of Congress, was +appointed commissioner to negotiate an annual loan from France of a +million sterling during the continuation of the war. Paine accompanied +him at his request. They sailed in February, 1781, and were graciously +received by King Louis, who promised them six millions of livres as a +present and ten millions as a loan. In little more than ten years, the +American secretary, who stands respectfully and unnoticed in the +presence of his Majesty of France, will sit as one of his judges in a +trial for life! Is there anything more wonderful in the transmutations +of fiction than this? Meanwhile, the future member of the Convention, +as little dreaming of what was in store for him as the King, sailed for +Boston with his principal. They carried with them two millions and a +half in silver,--a great help to Washington in the movement southward, +which ended with the capitulation of Yorktown. While in Paris, Paine +was again seized with the desire of invading England, incognito, with a +pamphlet in his pocket, to open the eyes of the people. But Colonel +Laurens thought no better of this scheme than General Greene, and +brought his secretary safely home again. + +Cornwallis had surrendered, and it was evident that the war could not +last much longer. The danger past, the Colonial aversion to pay Union +expenses and to obey the orders of Congress became daily stronger. The +want of a "Crisis," as a corrective medicine for the body politic, was +so much felt, that Robert Morris, with the knowledge and approbation of +Washington, requested Paine to take pen in hand again, offering him, if +his private affairs made it necessary, a salary for his services. Paine +consented. A "Crisis" appeared which produced a most salutary effect. +This was followed a few days later by another, in which a passage +occurs which may be quoted as a specimen of Paine's rhetorical powers. +A rumor was abroad that England was treating with France for a separate +peace. Paine finds it impossible to express his contempt for the +baseness of the ministry who could attempt to sow dissension between +such faithful allies. "We sometimes experience sensations to which +language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive, +and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. Our feelings, imprisoned +by their magnitude, find no way out; and in the struggle of expression +every finger tries to be a tongue." It will be difficult to describe +better the struggle of an indignant soul with an insufficient +vocabulary. + +When peace was proclaimed, Paine, the untiring advocate of +independence, had a right to print his "Io Paean." The last "Crisis" +announces, "that the times that tried men's souls were over, and the +greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew gloriously and +happily accomplished." "America need never be ashamed to tell her +birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire." But it is to +the future he bids her look, rather than to the past. "The remembrance +of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most +laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began +with." "She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic +life,--not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in +her own land and under her own vine the sweet of her labors and the +reward of her toil. In this situation may she never forget that a fair +national reputation is of as much importance as independence,--that it +possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies +civil,--that it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, and +commands reverence where pomp and splendor fail." As indispensable to a +future of prosperity and dignity, he warmly recommends the Union. "I +ever feel myself hurt," he says, "when I hear the Union, that great +Palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of. +It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that +which every man should be most proud and tender of." Thus he +anticipated by seventy-five years our "Union-savers" of 1856, few of +whom dreamed that their pet phrases, or something very like them, +originated with Thomas Paine. + +The war left Paine no richer than it found him. He had made fame, but +no money, by his writings. None of the proceeds of large editions had +enriched his purse. He had an exalted ideal of an author's duty when +his work is on political subjects. Louis Blanc has written somewhere, +"_Le journalisme est un sacerdoce._" This seems to have been Paine's +thought, although he may not have expressed it so sonorously,--for +there are no phrase-makers like the French. But Paine went, we suspect, +much farther than Louis Blanc; for he held that the priest ought to +take no pay for his ministrations. And he acted up to this unusual +theory in literary ethics. If he took out a copyright, he gave it away +to some public use. As he himself said, late in life,--"I could never +reconcile it to my principles to make money by my polities or my +religion." "In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake, +I love to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of +this principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the +pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward." + +His friends and admirers did not permit him to have the honor of giving +not only his services, but his actual expenses, to the Republic. The +State of New York presented him with a confiscated Royalist estate, +near New Rochelle, three hundred acres of good land, with the necessary +fences and buildings upon it. Pennsylvania voted him five hundred +pounds, currency. And the Virginians were talking about making a +similar donation, when an unlucky pamphlet from Paine appeared, +demolishing the claim of Virginia to the Western country. This +publication changed the views of the chivalry, and Paine lost his +grant. He owned, besides, a small place in Bordentown,--a gift, we +believe, of the State of New Jersey. The other nine States passed him +over. New England had expended enough, both of men and means, for the +cause,--and the South had fine feelings, but no money. + +In the autumn of 1783, when Paine was residing at Bordentown, he +received a letter from Washington, who had fixed his quarters at Rocky +Hill, near Princeton, until he could resign his command to Congress. It +ran thus:-- + + + * * * * * + +"I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at +Bordentown,--whether for the sake of retirement or economy; be it for +either or both, or whatever it may, I shall be exceedingly happy to see +you here. + +"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this +country; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best +exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who +entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, +with much pleasure, subscribes himself + +"G. WASHINGTON." + + + * * * * * + +Such a letter of hearty approval and respect, from the greatest man of +the country, perhaps of the age, (we Americans, at least, all think +so,) rich, powerful, honored, is certainly a "handsome testimonial," +worth writing or fighting for. It was not an empty offer of service. +Washington spoke to several members of Congress in Paine's behalf, and +told them that it would be pleasing to himself, as well as right and +proper, to make a suitable provision for Paine. In 1785, Congress at +last granted him three thousand dollars, much of which they fairly owed +him for his loss on the depreciated currency in which his salary as +Secretary had been paid. Paine accepted the General's invitation, and +spent some time in his family, at Mrs. Berrian's, Rocky Hill. One +evening of his visit was devoted to setting a neighboring creek on +fire. This successful experiment, as performed by the Father of his +Country, assisted by Thomas Paine, General Lincoln, and Colonel Cobb, +is described in a tract on the Yellow Fever, written by Paine a few +years before his death, at the request of Thomas Jefferson. + +Until the spring of 1787, Paine spent his time in Philadelphia or in +Bordentown, writing occasionally on subjects which interested him, and +indulging his taste for scientific speculations in the company of +Franklin and Rittenhouse. He was a member of the American Philosophical +Society, as well as an A. M. of the University of Philadelphia. His +reputation, his wonderful memory, the shrewd originality of his +remarks, made him a welcome guest in the best society. He was no talker +or _conversationist_, (an excellent word we should like to see +legitimated,) but a quiet, observing man, who spoke to the point, +inoffensive in manner, and not unprepossessing in appearance. As one of +the lions of the country, he was much looked at, especially by +foreigners. We find a sketch of an interview with him in the Travels of +the Chevalier de Chastellux. De Lafayette and himself requested +permission to call "on that author so celebrated in America and in +Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.'" Colonel Laurens +introduced them. "His physiognomy," the Chevalier thinks, "did not +belie the spirit that reigns throughout his works. Our conversation was +agreeable and animated, and such as to form a connection between us; +for he has written to me since my departure, and seems desirous of +maintaining a constant correspondence." + +In common with most of the clever men of his day, Paine, as we have +said, cultivated a taste for mechanics and natural science. There was +an awakening of the mind, in physics as well as in politics, at that +period; and it must be confessed that the natural philosophers have +succeeded better than the constitution-makers. Paine's mechanical hobby +was an iron bridge. A single arch, of four hundred feet span, and +twenty feet in height from the chord-line, was to be thrown over the +Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The idea was suggested to him by a +spider's web, a section of which the bridge resembled; and the +principle he worked upon was, that the small segment of a large circle +was preferable to the great segment of a small circle. Paine made a +complete model of his bridge, in wrought iron and wood, at Bordentown; +but, finding that the insufficiency of capital and of skill in the +working of iron in America would prevent him from carrying out his +plan, he sailed for France to lay his model before the Academie des +Sciences. Franklin, who always liked him, gave him letters to the +celebrated Malesherbes, Le Roy, the Abbe Morellet, the Duke de la +Rochefoucauld, introducing him "as an ingenious, honest man, author of +'Common Sense,' a famous piece, published here with great effect on the +minds of people at the beginning of the Revolution." He had also a +satisfactory credential from Congress, in the shape of the following +resolution, adopted by that body in August, 1785:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labours of Mr. +Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late +Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of +Liberty and Civil Government, have been well received by the citizens +of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress." + + + + +TRIAL TRIP OF THE "FLYING CLOUD." + + +"Through in four days to San Francisco," repeated I. "Marvellous age!" + +I hastily computed the distance by an air-line, and placed the speed of +the craft at some thirty miles an hour. That seemed reasonable enough. +Indeed, the whole statement cohered marvellously well; all the parts +harmonized with each other and looked plausible, even reasonable, as I +have said, except the grand fact itself, which was too momentous for +belief. But why should it not be true? What new achievement of the +human mind ought to startle one in this nineteenth century, after +having witnessed the wonders of steam and electro-magnetism? I +determined to sift the matter, but immediately remembered that all the +knowledge I had of it had been imparted to me in the strictest +confidence. The ingenious inventors, as was clearly their right, had +reserved it to themselves to choose the time and way of making their +invention public, when it was to break on the world, some fine morning, +like the discovery of a second moon performing its orbit round the +earth. I sunk into a brown study. + +In the evening, Mr. Bonflon called again, as he had promised. He +brought with him a large roll of plans and drawings, for the purpose of +illustrating more clearly the principles and method of construction and +operation of his aerial ship. + +They were projected on a large scale, and the workmanship was superb. +Months of hard labor by a finished draughtsman must have been devoted +to their execution. "And what an additional outlay of time and brains," +thought I, "must have been required, to devise the scheme and construct +the machine itself, so as to elevate the ingenious ideal into an +absolute working reality!" These drawings, Mr. Bonflon informed me, +were duplicates of others which had been privately deposited in the +Patent-Office at Washington. + +The one which chiefly attracted my attention was that which represented +the monster steamer complete, with all its appendages and complement of +passengers, in its majestic flight through the air. Below it were the +drifting clouds. Its course lay quite above the storms and hurricanes +and conflicting wind-currents which vex the lower strata of the +atmosphere, where it comes in contact with the earth's uneven surface, +and is kept in motion by the contractions and expansions of alternate +cold and heat, and is broken and set whirling by the forests and gorges +and mountain-tops among which it is compelled to force its way. Above +all this, Mr. Bonflon assured me, as aeronauts report, there is ever a +smooth, quiet atmospheric sea. + +"But how is life to be sustained for any considerable time in that +rarefied medium?" inquired I, "when it is asserted that even in +ascending high mountains, the texture of the soft parts of the human +body becomes so loose and flabby from diminished atmospheric pressure +as to cause one, so to speak, to sweat blood,--which oozes perceptibly +from the mouth and nose and eyes, and even from under the +finger-nails?" + +Mr. Bonflon pointed to a long, narrow line which floated rearward at an +angle of about forty-five degrees from the point of its attachment to +his ship. + +"That," said he, "is an India-rubber tube several thousand feet long, +extending down into the respirable atmosphere, and keeping the cabins +always supplied with fresh and wholesome air." + +"But would the heavier nether air flow in that direction?" I asked. + +"With a little help from the engine," he replied, "a constant current, +whenever needed, is kept up; and the process of breathing is rendered +as easy and agreeable in the cabins of the 'Flying Cloud' as in one's +own parlors at home. On the upper deck, which is not inclosed, you see, +it is different. In the first trial-trip to California, Mr. M---- +insisted on remaining above on this deck for six consecutive hours, and +the result was an attack of hemorrhage from the lungs. On his going +below, however, it almost instantly ceased." + +I must now endeavor to give the reader some definite idea of this +extraordinary machine, as exhibited in the drawings. Its buoyant power +was, of course, on the principle of the balloon. But the gas-chamber, +or part to be inflated, instead of being globular in form, consisted of +two horizontal cones joined at the base; or more accurately still, it +resembled an immense barrel extended at both ends to a point, and +resting on its side. This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon, +that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in +which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong +flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened +and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber. +Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a +particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember, +was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth +in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain +the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and +three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a +considerable margin for freight. + +Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but +ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine, +and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to +render it intelligible by mere description. + +The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore +the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of +a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided +into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and +so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck. The attachment +between the two parts was by means of a network of ropes, extending +from every quarter, and from the whole circumference of the ship, +connecting with staples in the framework of the balloon, and finally +embracing its entire body in its folds. Two enormous paddle-wheels, +made of oiled silk stretched on delicate frames, and driven by a +steam-engine of the lightest structure possible, furnished the +propelling power; while at the stern, like a vast fin, played the helm, +of a similar material and construction to the paddle-wheels. + +All this was explained to me in much fuller detail than I can here +repeat, by Mr. Bonflon, who added, that the materials employed combined +lightness with strength to a much greater degree than had ever before +been achieved,--that the fuel used was of the fluid kind, a new +combination of concentrated combustibles invented by himself,--and that +the weight of the entire machine had been carefully calculated +beforehand, together with its buoyant power, and the results had +demonstrated the accuracy of the mathematics. + +I turned on Mr. Bonflon and looked him squarely in the face. He was a +modest man and blushed slightly, but did not shrink. There could be no +dishonesty there. His countenance bore the unmistakable stamp of +integrity, as well as intelligence; and his whole appearance and +bearing were those of a true man. + +Had he brought me the newspaper he promised, not yet eight days old, +from San Francisco? + +No. He had been detained down-town all day in the whirl of our New York +Babel, and had not yet been home. He would hand it in to-morrow. + +Mr. Bonflon had been introduced to me that morning by a friend on whose +acuteness and judgment I felt I had many good reasons to rely. Without +pretending any precise knowledge of the man, or, indeed, any knowledge +at all, beyond what had been gathered from the individual himself in a +very brief acquaintance of Mr. Bonflon's own seeking, he expressed a +warm interest in him personally, as also in the startling discovery he +professed to have made. + +In that interview, Mr. Bonflon had informed us in brief, that, after +ten years of patient and toilsome experiment, of disappointment, of +perishing and reviving hope, he had at length achieved the grand object +of his life. He had solved the problem of the navigation of the air. He +had proved by actual results, that the great ocean of atmosphere above +us could be ploughed as successfully and safely as the waters beneath, +and with much greater facility and pleasure. He stated that the first +trial-trip, after the completion of the ship, had been made in the +night from an obscure point in the State of Maryland, and extended +north and northeast, along the Atlantic coast, to New York,--whose glow +of light from a great height, like a phosphorescent mist, was plainly +distinguishable,--and thence to the neighborhood of Boston, and back to +the place of starting; and that a second, with equally favorable +results, had been made from the same point by a more inland route, +northwest to Buffalo and the Canada line; and he named several +well-known persons who were on board at one or the other of these +times, and related some little anecdotes illustrative of their states +of mind and apprehensions while drifting above the earth on the +occasion of these novel voyages. + +He said, further, that the President and heads of departments at +Washington were fully cognizant of the matter; and that a third grand +trial-trip, in the interest of government, had been secretly made, with +important dispatches to California, relating to the security of our +rights in the Pacific. Four days had been consumed in the passage out, +including a stoppage of a couple of hours on a fine plateau, near the +head waters of the Missouri, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and +the same in the return. They had landed in the night in a deep valley a +few miles out of San Francisco, and remained two days in that city; +which gave a period of ten days to the entire voyage, out and back. +Forty selected individuals, all bound to secresy, had participated in +the risks and excitements of the extraordinary occasion. Mr. Bonflon +was not of the number. An heroic daughter of his was. His partner, +Mons. De Aery, a French gentleman of great mechanical skill, had +managed the affair; and the craft, in the same hands, was now absent on +her second expedition across the American continent. + +Such was the sum of Mr. Bonflon's revelations of the morning. What a +discovery! How the announcement would astonish the world! How the +practical fact would overturn the world, upset commerce, and transform +the habits and relations of mankind! America, the pioneer in many +valuable discoveries and reforms, was still ahead,--still destined to +lead the van in the development of the powers and resources of Nature, +and the onward march of nations. + +Hurriedly recalling all these points to mind, I requested to know of +Mr. Bonflon how it had been possible, with so many confidants and the +prying propensities of the press, whose agents, like an invisible +police, are everywhere, to keep the matter from becoming public,--at +least, to cover the affair so completely that no hint of the existence +of his machine should have been given in any quarter, or of the vast +changes which its introduction as a power in the world could not fail +to effect. + +To this he replied, that the press had behaved very handsomely; that +the principal papers of the country had _attaches_ aboard on the first +trip to the Pacific; but that all parties--the government, the editors, +together with De Aery and himself--were agreed that the matter should +be kept strictly private, until its practicality and value should be +established beyond the possibility of question. + +I now remembered, that, several years ago, a good deal of noise had +been made about a flying-machine which had been constructed in some of +the suburbs of the city,--and that a day had been advertised when it +was to make an ascent, but, it failed. I mentioned the circumstance to +Mr. Bonflon. + +"Yes," he replied. "It was at Hoboken. De Aery and myself spent years +in the construction of that machine, and a large amount of money. On +the day when the trial of its powers was to have taken place, the +weather proved unfavorable, and we met with unexpected delays. The +spectators, who had congregated by thousands, became impatient; and the +mob, breaking in upon us, destroyed in an hour property which had cost +us five thousand dollars and the labor of years." + +I felt obliged to sympathize with Mr. Bonflon. He had met with the +usual fortune of public benefactors, and particularly of inventors. His +success, however, should it prove real, in the unexampled brilliancy of +its results, would more than compensate him for all his disappointments +and losses. He would rank as the greatest of discoverers,--as the +master mind of this master century. + +Leading him off from this one topic into general conversation, I held +him thus engaged for an hour. I was charmed with his comprehensive +intelligence, and with the scope and liberality of his views. In +everything relating to mechanics, his opinions were marked with +originality. This had evidently been his favorite field, where his +quick perceptions and powers of concentration and analysis had elevated +him to an eminence where he stood almost alone. I had never met his +equal. In plausible suggestions relative to the possibilities of the +future, he took me quite above my level, and left me floating in a maze +of glittering bewilderment. But I could discover no breaks, no +confusion in his mind, on the themes he presented. His premises were +apparently well considered, and his conclusions the fair and natural +sequences flowing from them. + +On the following day, Mr. Bonflon called on me again. In the interval, +my friend and myself had held extended consultations. My friend, while +externally calm as the surface of a summer sea, as was his wont, it was +plain for me to see, was internally deeply stirred and excited by the +extraordinary nature of Mr. Bonflon's revelations. Acknowledging a +mutual and increasing interest in the intelligent inventor, we +nevertheless parted in a wilderness of doubt. There was a mystery in +the matter,--a surprise for the world or a surprise for +ourselves,--which time, it would seem, with its busy thumb and finger, +must be left to unravel at its leisure. + +Mr. Bonflon had not brought the California paper with him. The two or +three copies only which had come into his possession had been handed +around among his confidential friends, and he had not been able to lay +his hand on one. He informed me that the "Flying Cloud" was expected to +return in three days, and, after remaining two days on the Atlantic +side of the continent, would then start on her third experimental trip +to the Pacific. At that time he expected to make one of the party +himself, and he invited me to accompany him. + +I accepted the invitation, and received from him particular +instructions as to the nature of my outfit. It was in the midst of the +heats of summer. He advised, however, a full supply of thick clothing, +on account of the increased chill and coldness of the atmosphere at +high altitudes; and, indeed, recommended a mail of flannel next the +skin. Everything else--the supply of the larder, with an excellent +cook, beds, and so forth--would be found amply provided by De Aery and +himself for the comfort and accommodation of their guests. The station, +or point of departure, Mr. Bonflon informed me, was a retired spot but +a few miles out of the city of Baltimore; and he promised to be at hand +at the proper time to accompany me in person, and see me safely on +board the "Flying Cloud." + +I saw nothing more of Mr. Bonflon for several days. Meanwhile I +arranged my affairs for a brief absence, and, as my family were all off +in the country, prepared a special letter for use, if needed, to be +dated and mailed at the last moment, notifying them of a probable gap +in my correspondence, on account of some pressing business which would +take me out of the city for a few days and keep me constantly employed. + +In three or four days I received a note from Mr. Bonflon, advising me +to hold myself in readiness; and at the proper time, he presented +himself before me. But he came to apologize. The "Flying Cloud" had +returned. The second trip had been as successfully and safely performed +as the first. Nothing had occurred to mar the pleasure of the voyage; +but, unfortunately, before coming on to New York, De Aery had filled +out the complement of guests for the third grand expedition. Even he +(Mr. Bonflon) should remain behind; but he should see that seats were +reserved for us both, without fail, for the next succeeding trip. Mr. +Bonflon took his leave; and I found myself more deeply involved in +doubt and perplexity than ever. I could hardly say that I was +disappointed, or that I was not. I had thrown myself on a wave, with no +look-out or means of judging where I was to be cast, and had formed no +opinions. As yet, everything looked fair with Mr. Bonflon. His face was +as honest as the morning sun, and it was next to impossible to doubt +him. He might be the prey of some strange phantasm, some monomania; but +the evidences did not show it. The account he had given of himself was +manly and coherent; his claims as a discoverer had been modestly +presented, and were not wholly unsupported by circumstances, or +unreasonable in themselves. Indeed, they must be regarded as coming +within the range of probabilities fully as much as, to human seeming, +had once the established, but ceaseless, wonders of steam locomotion +and electric telegraphing. + +Singularly enough,--and it illustrates the constantly shifting scenes +in the kaleidoscope of life,--within an hour, Mr. Bonflon returned with +a new message, and with the programme of the "Flying Cloud" changed, if +not reversed. He had seen De Aery again. One or two of the expected +passengers had telegraphed that untoward circumstances would compel +them to remain behind, and there would be room for us. But no time was +to be lost; the air-steamer would weigh anchor before daylight of the +following morning, and we must start for Baltimore by the next train. +De Aery and several others were already flying over the rail on their +way to Philadelphia. + +I did not allow myself to hesitate. With an unusual degree of +excitement, made up of the mingled emotions of wonder, doubt, and, I +frankly confess, apprehension, I dated and superscribed the letter to +my absent family; and, taking my carpet-bag in my hand, packed to +plethora several days before in readiness for the occasion, set out on +the strange and questionable adventure. + +The run to Baltimore was made without accident or delay. Mr. Bonflon +and myself conversed a good deal, and I found additional cause to +admire the discriminating character of his mind and the curious and +wonderful stores it contained. Some of the time we dozed, or sunk into +a mental confusion like that to which the body was subjected by the +motion of the cars, and called it sleep. My own most impressive +visions, however, were those of silent wakefulness, and were connected +with the morrow and the "Flying Cloud." + +We stopped in the chief city of Maryland only long enough to obtain +some slight refreshments, such as could be furnished readily in the +middle of the night, and proceeded at once to the wharf or station of +our sky-sailer. Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first +beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus +satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere +chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan, +floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem +of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make +obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and +plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of +her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a +great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief +against the sky. + +But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and +the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were +already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and +seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency +of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement +immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to +create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an +indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was +attended with some apprehensions and regrets. I gazed anxiously at the +receding objects below; but my feelings underwent a change as we +approached the "Flying Cloud" herself, were pulled into her gangway, +and I found myself standing on her solid decks. A brief further period +intervened, and our anchor was loosed; the tremendous machine became +instinct with life; she began to move; and, hurrah! we were under way. + +The thoughts and emotions of this bewildering moment it is impossible +to describe. Our craft moved off majestically, like some huge +water-fowl rising from the sea. Her course was westward and upward, +like the eagle with his face turned toward the palace of the sun. At +first the lights in the city of Baltimore became more numerous and +distinct, as intervening objects were surmounted and overlooked. Next +they began to fade, shrinking down into twinkling points like +fireflies, until they disappeared. Forests, hills, and mountains +followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a +hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding +the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our +course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a +landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in +our passage. + +What a sea! The ocean has its visible surface on which move the ships; +but we had none. The heavens were beneath us as well as above. We were +floating in the great circle of the systems and the suns. We were of +the universe; but were to be numbered with the constellations and the +stars. We could compare ourselves to a company of immortals quitting +the earth and traversing the electric seas which lead to brighter +homes. Or we were voyagers to the sun, or to the nearer Venus, or to +the far distant Centaurus. What a world of new thought was forced upon +us by the fancies and realities and charm and awe of our extraordinary +condition, combined with the profound consciousness we could not fail +to entertain of the effects which this crowning discovery of Messrs. +Bonflon and De Aery must produce on travel, on commerce, on art, and +the common destiny of mankind! + +I found the atmosphere of the cabins, as my friend Bonflon had +asserted, agreeable and healthful. I could also occupy the promenade +deck for half an hour with little inconvenience, so far as the levity +of the air was concerned; but the cold was severe; while the system, in +consequence of an undue expansion of its particles, solid and fluid, +from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, was rendered doubly +susceptible to its influence. The advice given by Mr. Bonflon to case +myself in flannels, with an armament at hand of outer winter clothing, +proved well-timed; and yet a period of lassitude, verging on faintness, +invariably followed every considerable exposure to the open air. + +But the pleasure of gazing on those fields of space without +obstruction, without the intervention of so much as a plate of crystal +glass, repaid me for every risk and every ill. Though it might be said +there was no scenery there, where nothing was visible but the stars, +yet far beyond the power of mountain and valley, forest and lake, +waterfall and ocean, did that scene, which was no scene, or next to +none, bind me in the spell of its fascination. The motion of our craft, +as we careered noiselessly through the shoreless and objectless void, +without sense of effort or friction, was a charm of itself,--bringing +to a flower, crystallizing into refulgent stars, the dim, obscure, +however glorious, poetry of life. Here were the wildest imaginations of +the dreamer melted in a crucible, and reproduced in living forms of +usefulness and beauty. In my own years of widely diversified +experience, what had I met with to compare with this? Nothing. The +force of steam was marvellous,--talking over a wire mysterious; but here +I was in a great ship riding among the planets and the stars. I had +likened Niagara to a vast mill-dam, because I could find no peer to set +beside it; so now, in my weakness, the sublime pageant of the "Flying +Cloud" could search out nothing higher in my recollection with which to +compare it than a wild, ride of my youth in a canoe, for a half mile or +so, down the rapids of a river. + +But morning was at hand. The rich golden glow of night, to which the +dwellers on the earth's surface are accustomed, as we passed to higher +altitudes, had given place to a thin inky blue. This was obscured by no +fleck or mist, and yet the stars shone through it faint and dim, +despoiling the firmament of its glory. The same loss of power was +manifest on the ushering in of day. The auroral flame, which ordinarily +greets us in the east with such a ruddy laugh, was now nothing better +than a wan and dismal smile; and even the sun, as he struggled up from +what seemed a bed of leaden mist, brought with him only a pallid, +lifeless twilight. It was not that his rays were impeded by cloud or +haze; he had lost his power to shine. He hung there in the heavens like +a great white shield, and looked down on us as rayless and powerless +and devoid of life as a dead man's eye. + +Having at length wearied myself with gazing, and feeling chill and weak +from the coldness and tenuity of the atmosphere, I subsided into the +comfort and companionship of the cabins below. Among the passengers I +recognized _attaches_ of the press, besides several gentlemen of +Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with whom I was somewhat +acquainted. More circumspect, or less slaves to the imagination than +myself, they had contented themselves with in-door observations. But +their enthusiasm was none the less inflamed. In astonishment they +looked at each other; in restless bewilderment they glanced out of the +windows on the desert, trackless plane traversed by the "Flying Cloud," +and spoke with a species of awe of the shock which the announcement of +what they were then witnessing would give to sober men's minds; and +suggested, in broken sentences, some of the consequences which would be +likely to flow from the grand invention. + +What with excitement and lack of sleep, we all found ourselves a little +nervous. Coffee and Havanas failed to allay the feeling; and, in the +absence of the morning papers, we resorted to whist, chess, and our +pocket supplies of the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper," and so forth, and +to the very select library provided by Messrs. Bonflon and De Aery, the +proprietors, for the use of the passengers,--and at last to our beds. +It could not be denied that we were nervous. With all the smoothness +and beauty of our running, there was a sensation, an uncertain +quivering motion, not at first noticed and not at all definable, about +our craft, that constantly, suggested the idea that we were standing on +nothing, or, at best, nothing better than dissolving quicksands, which +were liable at any moment wholly to slide away and leave us; and it +required some strength of mind to resist the vagary, and prevent it +from effecting a troublesome lodgment in the imagination. + +Thus passed the day, which fortunately, in my case, was succeeded by a +night of repose. The restlessness of mind and body once subdued, Nature +asserted her empire, and I slept profoundly until morning. Another day +and night followed, with little variation from the first; and by this +time, the strangeness and mystery of my situation had quite worn away, +and the feeling of security was established. I trod the upper deck with +all the pride, and more than the composure, of a modern monarch on his +throne. + +But the sameness of the scenery of the vast aerial ocean, in which we +were sailing alone, without consort, without ever descrying a sail, or +even keeping a lookout, without so much as ever discovering a floating +plank to remind us of a wreck, or a seaweed to tell us of the land, was +already beginning to pall on the senses, when there appeared in the +distance before us, and multiplying to the right and the left, a +succession of white, sparkling pyramids and cones, resting on the +clouds and flashing in the nether light, like crystal monuments set to +mark the boundaries of space. These were crests of the Rocky Mountains, +covered with perpetual snow. + +I gazed on them with rapture. Right in our eye, nearly due west, stood +out Long's Peak, James's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, at first small in +size, but momently swelling in dimensions; while, far to the north, +were just discernible the more lofty summits of Mount Hooker and Mount +Brown. Lying between Mount James and the Spanish Peaks, inclining to +their eastern slope, lay the green plateau, not yet visible, where we +were to land. Its position was carefully pointed out to Mr. Bonflon and +myself by Mr. De Aery, but we strained our eyes and used our glasses in +vain. No strength of sight could penetrate the clouds and haze which +covered the body of the mountains, and hid the earth, with the +exception of those lofty silver pinnacles, from our view. + +Though these high peaks, like distant masts at sea, were first seen +early in the day, the meridian of noon overtook us before we came up +with them. At length, in increasing numbers and a thousand diversified +shapes, they lay spread out before us, and soon thereafter were +directly under our feet. Our magical machine, coming to a halt, +fluttered like a great bird above them, and gave us an opportunity, +such as probably had never been enjoyed by voyagers before, to spy out +their beauty, their mystery, and their strength. + +On nearing the mountains, we had left behind us the twilight of the +void, and come again into the full flood of day. This enabled the sight +to rest upon the scene with pleasure, to examine its diversified +splendors, and penetrate its chasms and gorges, otherwise inaccessible +to man. But to describe them is impossible. Broad fields of sparkling +snow, pyramids of ice, wide fissures shining like steel +mirrors,--produced by some unimaginable convulsion, possibly a thousand +or ten thousand years ago, and large enough to ingulf a city,--with +black humps or spires of granite here and there projecting through the +white; while afar down the rocky sides of interminable swells and +precipices came up a sound of water and a blush of green, betokening +the direction in which we were to look for the generative body of +Mother Earth; all these, and much more which I cannot stop to name, +were grouped in the rough, but magnificent landscape before us. + +No cabin could confine me at such a time as this. I stood out on the +upper deck in the extreme bow of the boat; and from an unobstructed +point of view, nearly over the figure-head, in the very abandonment of +daring, feasted my senses on the wondrous glories of this +mountain-scene of enchantment. + +De Aery was at the helm. But I have scarcely introduced this +extraordinary gentleman to the reader. He was a tall, black-haired, +mercurial Frenchman, with an eye like a falcon, who, with only an +occasional Gallicism purposely indulged in, spoke American like a +native. I had every confidence in his prudence and skill in the +management of his craft; and still, as I perceived that we were +gradually settling down in the direction of the loftiest of those +snow-peaks, until scarcely fifty feet intervened between us and its +round, polished brow, to all appearance as solid as feldspar, I raised +my voice and accosted him. + +"Halloo! Captain!" said I, "are you intending to land us on this +Atlas-top?" + +"_Effectivement_," replied he. "_Mon Dieu!_ B----, come here." + +I went to him. + +"This," said he, "is the very Old Man of the Mountain. I intend to +plant the stars and stripes in the centre of his bald head." + +"Capital!" replied I. "But can you achieve it safely?" + +"Yes. I can manage my bird with as much ease as a pigeon poises himself +on his wings, or an Indian steers his canoe. See! we are approaching +the crown of the pinnacle." + +I watched the experiment with an interest not unmingled with fear. He +held in one hand a handsome American flag, of moderate size, and +occasionally, with a slight motion of his arm, and a glance of pride, +spread out its silken folds on the motionless air. Gradually the +"Flying Cloud," under his skilful hands, closed upon the bleak, +glittering summit, which, rounding off like the bald head of some +venerable giant, was, at its apex, scarcely ten feet in diameter. + +"No eagle, even, has ever set his foot here," said De Aery. "There is +not a track, or feather, or mark of any living thing to be seen. The +'Flying Cloud' will be the first to explore many mysteries and to +explode others. Not even do the winds reach this height. Boreas and the +bird of Jove,--I will vanquish them both. I will step out upon that icy +peak." + +"No, no, Captain," I expostulated. "You might lose your foothold and +perish." + +"Not at all," rejoined he, with a laugh. "I am as sure-footed as a +goat. But if you think it risky, Monsieur, I forbear. But the snow +looks solid as adamant. I fear I shall not be able to erect this flag, +unless I have a firm spot for my feet." + +By this time our craft had reached a proper position,--her stern +alongside and almost in contact with the jutting peak,--to answer the +ambitious purpose of the Frenchman. Raising the flag of the Republic in +his hand, he requested us all to do it proper honor,--to salute it with +a "three times three,"--as he should succeed in securing it in its +place. Cautiously extending the staff, he brought it in contact with +the snow, and gave it several light blows, for the purpose of +ascertaining its solidity. It seemed of almost icy texture, and emitted +a half-sharp and half-muffled sound in reply. Then, elevating the +standard aloft in both hands, he brought it down with force, as the +farmer urges a stake into the ground; not doubting, as would seem, that +a succession of such blows would be needed in order to achieve his +purpose. + +A single stroke of the shaft, however, proved more than enough. To the +surprise and dismay of us all, the firm ringing surface turned out but +a shell, and all beneath, a loose bed of sparkling snow-crystals, like +white sand. The flag sunk down and disappeared, and De Aery, losing his +balance, plunged over and went with it. + +We gazed after him in speechless horror. Before any one of us had +sufficiently recovered himself to speak, we were startled by a dull +sound, like a rushing wind, or distant, rumbling thunder; and an +immense mass of snow, many hundred feet in depth, and covering a third +of the cone, parted from its place, and, like a great, foaming wave, +broken and shapeless, rushed down the mountain's side. For the moment, +all eyes were fixed upon it. At first, it swept on without cohering, +like a cataract of sand; but, on coming in contact with the moister +snow below, it formed into a thousand balls and masses, some rolling +and some sliding, but each gathering bulk and velocity as it went. + +By the aid of our glasses we were able to sweep the rough slopes and +precipitous descents below, to the distance of many miles; and, +forgetting De Aery, we watched the development of the phenomenon with +terror. The larger slides gradually absorbed the smaller ones, as +common fish are swallowed by sharks; but those which remained, fattened +and expanded by what they fed on, assumed enormous dimensions. Choosing +different paths, they pursued their course in smoking tracks of +devastation. Rocks, precipices, forests, furnished no obstruction. +Roaring, crashing onward, as though Mars or the Sun had opened its +batteries upon us, those sliding, whirling worlds of snow swept through +valleys large enough to have furnished sites for cities, without a +check, and bore down or over-leaped all obstacles, as easily as a man +would walk over an ant-hill, or some hollow where a toad had burrowed. +Finally they were lost to sight, passing behind intervening spurs or +ridges of the mountain, or becoming hidden in the cloud-mists which lay +heavily about its base; but the sound continued to roll back upon us +for some time, like the roar of distant artillery. I could no longer +wonder at the terror with which the cry of an avalanche is said to fill +the dwellers among the Alps. + +As this absorbing pageant of the mountains disappeared, our thoughts +reverted to De Aery. Had he been carried away by the snow-slip? or was +his mangled corse below us among the black crags laid bare by that +catastrophe? Turning my gaze beneath, I discovered, far down, many +hundred feet, a moving object, scarcely bigger than a fly, and, on +bringing my glass to bear upon it, perceived that it was the Frenchman. +He was standing on a bare rib of rock, with his flag still in his hand, +and apparently unharmed. Waving the ensign to attract our attention, at +the same time he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs. But his +voice scarcely reached us, and probably would not alone have attracted +our notice. We replied with encouraging cheers; and the "three times +three," which we had intended for the American eagle, was given on the +spot to De Aery. + +But how to rescue him from his perilous condition was indeed a serious +question. The "Flying Cloud," it was obvious, with her great size and +spreading pinions, could not venture among those ticklish quicksands, +whose insecure foundations had just been so strikingly illustrated +before us. Indeed, the slightest jar might precipitate another fall of +snow, and bury the object of our solicitude five hundred feet deep in +its bosom. The sagacity of Mr. Bonflon relieved us from our dilemma. He +hoisted out the small car or tender, and, letting it down with great +care and precision, safely accomplished the object. In the space of +half an hour, De Aery, without a scratch, and, like a gallant Gaul, +rather proud of his adventure than frightened at it, was again restored +to our arms. + +Drawing off from our dangerous proximity to the "Old Man of the +Mountain," which had so nearly proved fatal to at least one of our +number, but astonished beyond measure at the novelty of our experiences +and the grandeur of the scenes we had witnessed, we retraced our course +for a short distance, and, gradually lessening the interval between us +and the earth, soon had the satisfaction of hearing the cry of "Land, +ho!" from the look-out man. The valley was in sight where we were to +take in water and enjoy a little picnic on the green grass, ere the +form and smell of Mother Earth, with her homely but blessed realities, +should be quite forgotten. + +We effected our landing in complete safety. The spot was a little, +luxurious nook among the lesser hills, with few trees, but full of wild +flowers, wild fruits, and wild grasses. Everything about it was wild, +but cheering and charming, especially to air-wanderers like us. The +foot of the white hunter, or even of the roving Indian, had perhaps +never visited it, nor foraging-parties of the buffalo or deer, for we +saw no signs of them; but birds of varied plumage and song, and troops +of squirrels, with footprints here and there of the grizzly bear, and a +drove of wild turkeys, with red heads aloft, rushing over an eminence +at our left as we approached, and an occasional whir of a rattlesnake +at our feet, sufficiently indicated the kind of denizens by which the +plateau was inhabited. + +Here, on the rich sward and delicate mosses, under the shadow of some +willows, we spread out our repast by the side of a clear +mountain-spring; and, to say nothing of old Otard and Schiedam +Schnapps, opened some bottles of Sparkling Catawba, and old Jersey +Champagne, of a remote vintage, which I have now quite forgotten. With +the flow of these beverages flowed our speech, in jovial words and +songs and raillery enough, if not in wit. De Aery, as having by a +hair's breadth just escaped with his life, and in virtue of his +extraordinary feat in leaping five hundred feet or more through a bank +of snow, now that the danger was over, was made the butt of much +pleasantry, which he bore with his usual equanimity and grace. + +When these arrowy flights at the expense of the light-hearted Frenchman +had exhausted themselves, I took occasion to inquire of him what his +sensations were during his brief burial. He replied as follows:-- + +"I thought nothing at all about it. I remember feeling chagrined +because I was making a failure, and clung tight to my flag, fearing to +lose that too. _Mon Dieu!_ It might be expected that one would feel +cold, buried up in ice; but such was not the case. I was hot. The snow +burned my face, as it came in contact with it. As to the ride, it was +pleasant enough, but rather rapid and perplexing to the breath. It was +like sinking into a pit of quicksand, where everything gives way below +one, as though the bottom of the world had fallen out. There was the +struggle of a moment to keep the fine snow out of my mouth and +nostrils, as I drew in my breath, and the next instant my feet came in +contact with the solid rock, where you discovered me. The magnificent +avalanche you describe I know nothing about. I neither heard nor saw +anything of it, only as I afterward examined the marks it had left +behind it. This leads me to suppose that I was a good deal confused at +the time, though I was not aware of it. Indeed, I have an impression of +seeming to turn somersets in my descent, and this may account for it. +But, for the honor of France, I saved my adopted country's flag." + +High-minded Gaul! We all praised and honored him, and comforted him for +his disappointment. It was a noble attempt he had made, to nail the +American banner to the head of Mount James, impelled by the loftiest of +motives,--and, like many others of its kind, had for the present +failed. At some other time he might prove more successful; or some +other might achieve the object in his place, and so appropriate his +laurels; but no one would be likely to excel him in his flying leap. In +this he had distanced even the famous traveller at Rhodes. + +Having given a couple of hours to this species of recreation, we +weighed anchor, and again got under way. Slowly and smoothly, without a +ripple or a jar, we ascended through the blue ether to our former +altitude, and floated off over those majestic mountain-tops, toward the +west. Loath to part from scenes of such impressive beauty,--scenes, +alone paralleled in our recollection by fabulous tales of Oriental +enchantment,--we gazed behind us at those flashing crests of alabaster, +until they grew small in the distance, and finally were wholly lost to +our sight. With them disappeared the last vestige of the solid earth, +and we were again afloat in space. + +The following night and day were passed like their predecessors. +Another night came, and we were over the eastern bound of the State of +California. A few hours more, without accident, would terminate our +remarkable voyage, and set us down in the city of San Francisco. All of +us were brimming high with hope. Though we did not anticipate reaching +the station before one or two o'clock in the morning, and probably +should not disembark before dawn, we were loath to retire to rest. It +was near midnight before all of us were in our berths. + +But when at length there, I found it impossible to sleep. The +excitement attendant on the beginning of the trip seemed to have +returned on me with a double force. I listened for some sound to +relieve the awful stillness which, like the wing of Death, seemed to +have settled over the "Flying Cloud"; but there was no soughing of the +wind, as at sea, and no noise to be heard, save the monotonous movement +of the engine and the paddle-wheels; and this, so evenly did they play, +was rather a motion than a sound. + +This period of restlessness was succeeded by one of strange +bewilderment, which might have been sleep, or might not Rapidly +changing scenes and fantastic figures, some of them beautiful and some +horrible, flitted before me like a dissolving panorama. A band, as +though of steel wire, seemed to encircle my brain, and to compress it +closer and closer; and the spine, for its whole length, felt as though +subjected to a like crushing pressure. + +How long this state of hallucination continued I have no means of +knowing. From it, by a great effort, I suddenly aroused myself, and +returned to my proper senses. Where I was, and all the extraordinary +events of the last few days, were clear in my recollection. But I was +weighed down with weakness, and found, on attempting to speak, that I +had no voice. + +Suspecting that I had been stricken by some terrible disease, I +attempted to rise; and, loath to disturb any of my fellow-travellers, +undertook to crawl out upon the upper deck. This, after a good deal of +effort, I accomplished. Lying, therefore,--I could not stand,--I prayed +for a breath of air to relieve my hot and oppressed brow; but in vain. +The atmosphere seemed gone. Chill and dark, the heavens spread out +above me without a twinkle or a smile. The full-moon was there, and +there was no cloud or haze to obscure her light; but she did not shine. +Her white, rayless face was a mockery to the night. The same was true +of the stars. The dazzling canopy was faded out, and Cygnus and the +Great Bear were subdued to pallid points, like patches of white-gray +paper stuck upon a wall. + +Floating by the side of the "Flying Cloud," and nearly of her size, I +discovered a dark, irregular object, and dragged myself to the edge of +the deck to investigate it more closely. The two came together, but +without damage or friction. They touched and parted, like substances +nearly at rest in still water. I put out my hand on the strange +visitor, and received a pretty severe shock, as though I had been +subjected to the action of an electric battery. At the same time, a +light, bluish flame ran over its surface, showing me more accurately +its form and dimensions. To the touch, it was solid and cold, like iron +or granite. I pressed upon it, and it yielded like a floating dish. I +tried to break off a fragment, but was unable to separate so much as a +scale. + +A moment's reflection convinced me of the nature of this apparent +island in the air. It was an immense aerolite; and with this conviction +came the solution of my own painful state. We had unconsciously passed +beyond the controlling power of the earth's gravitation, into that +region of the upper atmosphere, where, science informs us, these +meteoric stones float in equilibrium, until some accidental impulse +throws them from their balance, when they are precipitated to the +surface of the earth. I must be dying for lack of air. And the man at +the helm, where was he? He must have fallen asleep, and left our vessel +to her own buoyant fancies. And my companions! Bonflon! De Aery! All +ere this might have perished, and the "Flying Cloud," aside from +myself, be bearing into these upper altitudes nothing but a load of +death. + +Terror-struck, I dragged myself, with all the speed I could accomplish, +to the stern. There sat the helmsman at his post, but asleep or +insensible. I shook him, but he gave no signs of life. I shouted with +what little strength I had, but in vain. + +"Wake up! wake up!" I cried, "or we are lost!" + +At length he opened his eyes, but did not move. + +"Wake up!" I screamed again. "Breakers ahead, and worse. You have let +the craft run wild. We are above our level. We are all dying for lack +of air." + +"Oh, let me sleep!" he murmured. "I must sleep a little while longer. +It can't--can't be morning yet." + +By this time, fright, or the necessity of the occasion, was renewing my +strength. + +"Dick!" I shouted in his ear, "Dick, you scoundrel! you will murder us +all. Do your duty, or I will shoot you!" + +With this I discharged a barrel of my revolver above his head, which, +like my voice in my efforts at hallooing, sounded only as a faint echo +of itself, but, nevertheless, proved sufficient to give his dormant +faculties a shock. He started up, and, though still but half-conscious, +took the helm and gave it the direction I bade him. + +From him I hastened to the engineer, whom I found in a like state of +insensibility. I succeeded in arousing him; but it was necessary that +he should be made to comprehend the difficulties of our +situation,--that our craft, water-logged as it were, would float +forever where she was, for all anybody could say to the contrary, until +forced down by the power of the engine alone to lower and life-giving +atmospheric planes. To get him to understand this was not so easy. But +I succeeded in part, and, in my anxiety for my friends, rushed below to +look after their condition. + +As I anticipated, I found every one of them in a state of incipient +asphyxia. But the "Flying Cloud" was already descending into denser +air. Oxygen and pressure were performing their mystic work; and within +half an hour I had the pleasure of seeing them all restored to +consciousness and rapidly returning strength. But the renewed lights +exposed a sight almost too frightful to mention. Every man of us was +crimson from escaped blood, which seemed to have oozed forth, like a +pale-red dew, from every pore of our bodies. + +Messrs. Bonflon and De Aery, when they came to realize the danger from +which we had so narrowly escaped, were nearly dumb with horror. The +lively Frenchman exhibited a sensibility which the extremity of his +single peril, a day or two before, had failed to call up. He wept +aloud. Mr. Bonflon was circumspect and thoughtful. He did not lose his +Yankee balance; but both of them, each in his own way, overwhelmed me +with expressions of obligation. + +But the dangers of this dreadful night--a night which can never pass +from my recollection--were not yet over. We were all gathered in the +main cabin, congratulating each other, next after our escape, on our +rapidly returning strength,--happy in the thought that our trip out, +though sprinkled with danger, was so near a prosperous completion, and +almost momently expecting to hear the stroke of the bell which should +announce to us that the red light to designate our place of landing was +in sight, when, instead of the silver ring of this messenger of peace, +we were startled and horrified by an alarm of fire. + +Bonflon and De Aery rushed to the engine-room. A cloud of smoke poured +out from the door by which they disappeared. They were gone only for a +moment; for no man could remain in the hell of flames and vapors into +which they ventured and live. They came out dragging with them the +half-suffocated, scorched, and blazing engineer. How the accident +occurred, it was impossible to divine and useless to inquire. Closing +the door tightly after them to confine the flames, where confinement, +except for the briefest period, among matter so combustible, and +partitions scarcely more formidable than those of a paper bandbox, was +clearly impossible, they threw the burning engineer into our arms, and +themselves took the management of the craft. + +De Aery, in this crisis, rose from the man to the hero, almost to a +demigod. His orders rung through the startled air clear and round like +the voice of a golden bell. Bonflon seconded him with coolness and +decision. With us a moment sufficed to extinguish the burning garments +of the engineer; but by that time the flames had burst from the +engine-room, and that part of the beautiful boat was a ragged, +crackling ruin. + +Fleeing to the upper deck, and taking refuge in the bow, we became +sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful +rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level, +on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in +our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful +was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the +dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of rest! +But if it were possible to escape the flames, it was clear enough that +we must be dashed in pieces against the solid earth. + +De Aery was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to +great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to +control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played +about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke +through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething +hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had +perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the +furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet. + +"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he +shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the +flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon +and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our +number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say +which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface +of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and +the hazard they most dreaded. + +The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely +attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the +whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass +of surging fire. The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight, +to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San +Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid +illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than +astronomer has ever put on record. + +But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable +from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from +bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing +upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the +time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground, +served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser +lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most +fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we +struck in water instead of on the land. + +Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between +us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half +suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that +awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves +submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again +by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air. The flood of +fire in which we had descended was instantly extinguished; and we awoke +to a sense of our possible safety in darkness rendered doubly profound +by the contrast. + +Daylight was near at hand. By a careful adjustment of our weights we +kept the balloon from rolling, and sustained ourselves above the water +among the netting. As morning came, we discovered we had landed in a +small lake, hardly large enough to be dignified with the name, but +obviously of considerable depth. The shore was not distant: and as the +day was sultry, with a little grateful labor at swimming and towing, on +the part of a few of us, we soon reached it. There we examined into +each other's condition. Scarce one of us but was able to show damage by +fire, or from too rough contact with the fragments of the "Flying +Cloud," which preceded us in our plunge into the lake. But no bones +were broken, and no one badly flayed. The case of the engineer was the +worst; but even he was able to keep upon his feet, and pronounced in no +danger. + +No hut or field or sign of inhabitants was to be seen. With mixed +feelings, in which, for the present at least, the sense of personal +safety triumphed over all regrets, even with Messrs. Bonflon and De +Aery, at the shipwreck of so many brilliant hopes, we scuttled that +part of our craft still afloat, and sunk it in the lake; and with weary +footsteps, but unobstructed with baggage, as near as we could determine +by the aid of a compass, took the direction toward San Francisco. A +couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Senor Jose Dianza, who +received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of +robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us +on to the city of the land of gold. + +It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return. +They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous +transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus +route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our +absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and +some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their +recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing +gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly +reappeared upon the stage of action. + +We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should +remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought +a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which +covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too +good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so +near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be +suppressed. Hence, conquering my repugnance, I have decided, on my own +responsibility, to give these interesting and valuable particulars to +the world. + + + * * * * * + +DOG-TALK. + + +Exactly,--Dog-Talk. And I sit down to write some of it out, in the +middle of this pleasant month of May, lest, peradventure, if I postpone +my task for a few weeks longer, I may fall in with my memories some +time in the raging days of the dog-star, when the overwhelming sense of +dog, in which, for the true working out of these memories, I must first +dip my mind, may debar me from enjoying to the fullest extent the +bounteous tap of Croton water which tinkles with such rivulet chiming +from the silver (German) faucet into the marble (wash-hand) basin with +which one side of my apartment is adorned. Hydrophobia is one thing, +and hydrophobiaephobia is another. + +Although but the mid-time of May, as I have said, the thermometer is +reported at something not far short of eighty degrees, and that in as +much shade as can possibly be had in the street in which I write, which +is a brick street of New York, with one catalpa-tree in it,--a poor, +vegetable fakir, standing on his one leg at a distance of about three +blocks from "our corner," and sprawling out all round with his +shrivelled hands, as if to catch the passing robe of some rambling +breath of fresh air. With a trustful hope that this statement may be +accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently +inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my +memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface. + +I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not +prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of +man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more +voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow, +Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of +others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from +the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of +him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as +tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious +things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be +necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man. + +Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark, +so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more +indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally +referred to above. Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for +instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror, +and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not +one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man, +excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a +beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is. +Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the +"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us +"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would +make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything +very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing +things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is +wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles +beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs +uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands. + +Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot +concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called +reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I +think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals +stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and +master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his +nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his +ribs. Fine as the line may appear which separates instinct from the +divine gift of reason, we must see that progress, an essential +consequence of the latter, is denied to the former. It is quite +possible that the dogs which accompanied the first mariner in the first +argosy were educated to fetch and carry, or were even so far +accomplished as to sit up and beg; and it is but little more their +descendants can do at the present day. But what of Man, who weathered +safely the storm of storms in that same Ark? Compare that venerated +bark, as imagined by us from traditionary description, with the least +eligible of the ferry-boats which scud across our crowded rivers, and +we have answer enough for the present, so far as progress is concerned. + +Well, if Dog has never invented so much even as a patent rat-trap,--a +thing, you see, that might have saved him some labor,--if he persists +in disregarding the majesty of Fashion, and continues to move about in +society with the same kind of coat on his back as that worn by his +first ancestor, hatless, disaffected of shoes, and totally obtuse to +the amenity of an umbrella,--if, in fact, his only approach to +humanity, as distinguished by apparel, is his occasional adoption of a +collar precisely similar in general effect to those in which Fashion, +empress of Broadway and of a great many other ways, condemns her +wretched votaries to partial strangulation,--well, say I again, in +spite of all this, Dog is prime company. Intimately associated as I +have been from earliest boyhood with many excellent fellows of the +family, from social communion with which I am at present debarred only +by the direful necessity of dwelling in lodgings,--a necessity which, +if distasteful to Man, to Dog, oh, how fatal!--bound, I may say, as I +was for years, not by straps and chains only, but by ties of confident +friendship also, to canine comrades possessing the purest elements of +worth and humor, it is to me a task not altogether devoid of interest +to fall back on such memories as may enable me to chronicle a few +reminiscences of the nobilities and eccentricities of the race. + +Before I discourse of individual dogs of the present century, however, +with whom I have had the pleasure of being personally acquainted, let +me reproduce the following short tale of a dog from an old French +volume,--a tome fittingly adorned with ears of that noble animal +innumerable. + +Persimel St. Remi was a gentleman of fortune, whose income was derived +principally from large rented farms, the dues arising from which he +sometimes collected himself, in preference to intrusting that important +duty to a steward or agent. On his excursions for that purpose, he was +generally accompanied by a favorite little spaniel, of a kind too small +to be of any service to him as an escort, but inestimable for his +qualities as a companion. One day M. St. Remi had ridden a long way to +collect certain sums of money due him in arrears of rent, but which he +had little expectation of being able to obtain without further trouble. +To his agreeable surprise, however, his tenants paid him the whole +arrears,--an event so unexpected that he could not conceal his +exultation as he clinked the heavy bag of money on the pommel of his +saddle, when cordially taking leave of his farmers. Merle--that was the +little dog's name--was equally delighted; for his moods were always +regulated by those of his master,--such is the mysterious sympathy +between Dog and us; and ever as his master laughed cheerily to the +chink of the gold, on his homeward ride, Merle barked and bounded +alongside of him, clearly understanding that gold is a thing to be +laughed _with_ and not _at_, and that it is no laughing matter to be +without it. This is what the old French writer asserts respecting the +inward sentiments of that small dog. How he arrived at a knowledge of +them, I know not, nor is it any business of mine. Well, Persimel St. +Remi galloped on and on, until they reached the way-side well about +halfway home,--the old stone trough, with the water sparkling into it +from the grotesque spout carved out of the rock. Here he pulled bridle +to water his horse, refreshed him further by slackening the girths of +the saddle, and, unstrapping the bag of gold which was attached to the +holsters, he placed it by his side on the rock, while he splashed his +hands and face in the cool water. By-and-by he drew up the girths, +mounted his horse dreamily, for he was a man of contemplative moods, +and rode away from the way-side well, forgetful of his treasure, which +lay temptingly on the flat rock, ready to the hand of the first comer. +Not so his faithful dog, who, having in vain tried to lift the bag, +which was too heavy for him, ran swiftly after the rider, whose +attention he strove to arouse by barking violently, and careering round +and round the horse when he slackened his pace. Failing thus to attract +notice, he went so far in his zeal as to bite the horse pretty severely +in the fetlock, which caused him to swerve on one side, and wake up his +master to a vague sense of something wrong, the first idea that +occurred to him being that his dog had gone mad. Cases of hydrophobia +had lately occurred in the neighborhood, and St. Remi was convinced of +the seizure by it of his poor dog when they reached the brook which +flowed across the road. Instead of luxuriating and drinking in this, as +he usually did, the spaniel circled away to where it narrowed, and +leaped across it in his run. Then St. Remi, drawing a pistol from his +holsters, fired at and shot his faithful companion, averting his eyes +as he touched the fatal trigger, and galloping rapidly away from the +death-cry that smote upon his ear; and, as he dashed the spurs into his +reeking horse, he invoked maledictions on the money which was the cause +of this unfortunate journey. The money! but where was it? Suddenly he +pulled up his harassed steed, and the unhappy truth flashed upon him: +he had left his treasure by the way-side well, and had shot his +faithful dog for trying to remind him of it. Riding back to the well +with mad speed, he found by traces of blood upon the path that the poor +spaniel had dragged himself thither again to guard his master's gold to +the last. There he found him, stretched out beside the bag of money, +with just strength enough left to raise his head towards his master, +with a look of forgiveness, ere he died. + +The chronicler does not state what M. St. Remi did with all that +money,--though we may be safe in supposing that he very exactly knew; +but we would fain hope that he expended a moiety of it in founding a +retreat for decayed dogs, as a monument to the poor little spaniel so +faithful to him in life and in death. + +Sporting dogs,--the setter, the pointer, the fox-hound, and all the +several varieties of hound, have had their historians, from Dame +Juliana Berners to Peter Beckford, and that more recent Peter whose +patronymic was Hawker; while, on our side of the Atlantic, the late +"Frank Forester" has reduced kennel-practice to a system from which the +Nimrod of the ramrod may not profitably depart. Apart from history, +however, and from didactic argument, the individual trails of dogs +remarkable in their day have but too rarely been recorded. Certainly +the shepherd's colley has been admirably individualized by the Ettrick +Shepherd; but many a terrier--"a fellow of infinite fancy"--has passed +through the world's worry without ever seeing his name in +print,--unless, indeed, he happened to have fallen among thieves, and +found himself lamp-posted accordingly,--has passed the grizzle-muzzle +period of doghood unbiographied, and gone down to his last burrow +unsung. + +Among the regrets with which we are saddled for our omissions, not the +least of mine is now galling me for having neglected to reduce to +writing, on the spot, curious facts which fell under my immediate +notice in the course of many years' companionship with a somewhat +miscellaneous assortment of canine friends,-- + + "The little dogs and all, + Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart." + +Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring together in this paper such +stray reminiscences of doggery in general as may occur to me while I +write, illustrating the subject, as I proceed, with occasional passages +from the careers, of humble, but eccentric individuals of the race. + +Extinction has been the fate of some varieties of the dog, which have +been either superseded by the progress of machinery, or have gone to +decay in consequence of the annihilation of the animals for the chase +of which they were maintained. When there were wolves in the mosses and +caverns of Ireland, for example, there were wolf-dogs to hunt them. The +last wolf of that country--and _he_ was a wonder, from the then rarity +of the animal--was killed about one hundred and fifty years ago; and +although the breed of hound then known as the Irish wolf-dog--one of +the largest, noblest, and most courageous of the canine race--was kept +up to some extent for nearly a century later, we doubt much whether a +single pure specimen of the variety is now in existence; unless, +indeed, it may so happen that some _ultimus Romanorum_ of the tribe +still licks his patrician chops in the kennels of the Marquis of Sligo, +in the possession of which family the last litter was many years ago +supposed to be. + +Reverting to times when I was a boy, I remember me of a generation of +bandy-legged, foxy little curs, long of body, short of limb, tight of +skin, and "scant of breath," which were regarded as the legitimate +descendants of a superseded class,--the Turnspit of good old times. The +daily round of duty of that useful _aide-de-cuisine_ transpired in the +revolution of a wheel, along the monotonous journey of which he +cantered, as a squirrel does in his rolling cage, keeping in motion, by +his professional exertions, the wheels and spinners of the spit upon +which the joint was kept turning before the fire. The tight skin of +this ugly dog was evidently a provision of Nature to secure him from +entanglement with the machinery amid which his business was conducted. +Had a Scotch terrier, for instance, whiskered and plumed, descended +from his own more aristocratic circle to disport himself in that where +turnspit was the principal mover,--the kitchen-wheel,--he might have +found himself cogged, and caught up, and spitted, and associated +promiscuously with leg of mutton as roasted hare; in which capacity he +might eventually have been eaten with currant-jelly and considerable +relish, receiving more honor, perhaps, "in that connection," than had +ever in his lifetime been lavished on him as a member of society. + +But Turnspit's profession is a thing of the past, his very existence a +myth. The roasting-jack, with a wind-up weight by which the spit was +turned, cut him out first of all; other inventions further diminished +his importance. But the tea-kettle--which he somewhat resembled in +figure, by-the-by--scalded him clean off the face of creation; for the +bright steam-engine, attached nowadays to the kitchens of our principal +hotels, has given a new turn to affairs, ruling the roast after a +fashion that sets back old Turnspit into the remotest corner under the +backstairs of the Dark Ages. I have alluded to his alleged descendants, +as pointed out to my observation in boyhood; but they were an effete +and degenerate race, purposeless, and wallowing much with the pigs, +whom their grandsires would have recognized only to roast. + +In one instance only, and that on this side of the Atlantic, do I +remember having been introduced to any dog whose profession was at all +analogous to that of the turnspit of other days. Falling into +conversation with an old Dutch-Yankee farmer, in a remote and very +rural district, I made some remarks about his dog, which was a very +large, heavy one, of that no-particular-kind happily classified by the +comprehensive natural philosophers of the barn-floor as "yellow dog." +Farmer assured me that this fine fellow--whose name I am ashamed to say +I have forgotten--did all the churning of the farm-dairy by imparting +his motive power to a wheel. This piece of ingenuity, Farmer informed +me, was originally and exclusively an inspiration from the intellect +which animated his, Farmer's, proper clod; nor was he greatly +exhilarated when I narrated to him the tradition of the turnspit, whose +memory, I regret to record, he spurned as that of a "mean cuss," +destitute of that poetry which dwelleth in the pastoral associations of +the dairy. + +Although not strictly in connection with the subject of this article, I +will here relate a story told to me, on the same occasion, by that old +farmer, because it struck me as being rather a good one, and is not +particularly long. + +Seeing that I took notice of a smock-frocked rustic employed in +foddering the cattle,--a rustic whose legs and accent were to me +exclusively reminiscent of the pleasant roads and lanes of cheery +Somersetshire,--Farmer informed me that he was a newish importation, +having made his appearance about there early in the previous winter. +While snow, of such quality and in such quantity as they have it in +that region, was yet a novelty to the bumpkin, he was dispatched on +horseback, one day, to the neighboring village, strict instructions +being given him to ride carefully in the middle of the track, as, +treading in the deep snow, the horse might "ball,"--an expression +applied to taking up snow in the hollow of the hoof, which causes the +animal to stumble. An unusually long time elapsed before the messenger +made his appearance from his mission, and then he was seen making his +way painfully through the snow, leading the horse after him by the +bridle. + +"What's wrong now?" inquired Farmer, as he glanced at the animal's +knees; "been down, I guess; did Old Horse ball?" + +"Noa," replied Bumpkin, "a didn't joost bawl, but a groonted +consoomedly every toime a coom down. Oi thowt a wur a-gwoan to bawl the +last toime we coom down together, and zo oi joost stayed down and +walked 'im whoam." + +When doggy men beyond ocean talk about a terrier, they usually +pronounce it _tarrier_, and not _terrier_, as we mostly call him on +this bank of the Atlantic. There is no authority for the former +pronunciation, that I know of, beyond usage, which, however, is much +taken as a standard in England. Thus, an English merchant will talk to +you about his _clarks_, an American about his _clurks_. The French word +_terrier_--derived, of course, from _terre_--signifies not only the +dog, but a burrow in the earth; a kind of retreat in which such dogs +are supposed to pass a portion of their existence, occupied in the +subterrene branches of the chase. It means, also, a land-roll or +register. In Lower Canada, which is essentially France, I recollect the +label, _"Papier Terrier,"_ upon the door of a public-land-office. A +friend of mine, clandestinely and under cover of darkness, removed the +label, substituting for it a scurrilous one setting forth "Pasteboard +Poodle," an announcement which did not appear to convey any particular +idea whatever to the unsettled mind of the haggard provincial _chef du +bureau_, as it flashed upon him next morning in the light of the glad +young autumn day. But, reverting to pronunciation, _tare_-ier would, of +course, more correctly reverberate the sound of the French original +than either of the other usages, while it would possess the advantage +of conveying a suggestion of that proclivity for tearing, so +characteristic of the animal designated by the term. On this important +question the learned philologists wrangle. For my part, I stick to +_tarrier_, which comes "oncommon handy," as the horse-dealer hinted, +when reproved by the Cambridge student for reducing a noble animal +nearly to the level of a donkey by calling him "an 'oss." + +And of all the terrier tribe, there is no quainter little fellow than +he of the Island of Skye,--known to his friends and admirers as the +"Skye dog." This little animal, which, in length of spine, shortness of +legs, wildness of hair, and litheness of movement, resembles one of +those long, hirsute caterpillars oft-times to be observed by the happy +rambler in the country, as it promenades across his path, possesses +many distinctive traits, which separate him, in a manner, from Dog in +general, assimilating him somewhat, indeed, to the _ferce_, which find +in rapine and carnage the subsistence which Nature evidently has not +intended that they should realize in communion with man. The peculiar +odor of the fox is his, though in a mitigated degree. He loves to make +a lair under the bushes by tearing up the turf with his teeth and paws, +and to lie in it. He is of a shy and reserved disposition, and usually +more lively at night than by day. These are attributes of beasts of +prey. Unlike all other members of the terrier family, he cares nothing +about rats. He will sit down and bark in a tone of contempt at one +turned out before him in a close passage or room, declining, in fact, +to recognize rats as game, unless entered at them while very young. I +speak only of the pure, unmixed Isle-of-Skye dog, or "tassel terrier," +as he is sometimes called by rabbit-hunters,--a breed difficult to +obtain in perfection, and one which is particularly scarce in this +country. The proper game or quarry of this animal is the otter, which +he does not hesitate to follow into his very burrow in the river-banks; +nor is he afraid to attack one nearly double his size. + +Having, time after time, possessed several of these dogs, verified as +being derived from the best stock on the island, from which their +parents--who understood no language but Gaelic--were brought direct, I +have noted some of their odd, whimsical ways, a few of which I will +illustrate, taking for my exponent one very remarkable little fellow +who was a genuine type of his kind. + +This animal was one of the smallest of his family, and of a color +uncommon among them; for they are mostly either of a yellowish dun, or +of that slaty mouse-color known among dog-fanciers as "blue,"--a tint, +by the way, particularly appropriate for a dog of Skye. Sometimes they +are black; but Sambo, better known to his familiars as Sam, was of a +sooty brindle, with a very dark muzzle, and eyes burning out like black +stars from the cloud of shaggy hair that mantled upon his brow. Next to +the shortness of his legs, the length of his body was one of the most +remarkable physical freaks I remember to have observed; neither of +these attributes, however, having a chance of notice in comparison with +the quantity and denseness of his long, soft hair,--for the coat of a +true Skye dog is fleecy, rather than wiry. It was the joint result of +the shortness of his legs and the length of his beard that the fatter +appendage continually swept the ground,--an inconvenience which I once +undertook to remedy by trimming it off short with scissors. No Turk +could have more indignantly resented the process than did that small +quadruped,--his Celtic feelings being so severely wounded by it, in +fact, that he abstained from sustenance for three days, putting himself +into moral sackcloth and ashes for that period by retiring into his +penitential cell under a chest of drawers. + +When quite a pup, hardly half-grown, he played a trick unaccountable to +me at this day as it was then. Sam had the run of the house, and he +availed himself of it. On going into the breakfast-room, one morning +early, I observed a singular phenomenon in connection with a large, +cold round of beef, which was the _piece de resistance_ on the table. +It was curious to behold a round of cold beef with a tail, which it +wagged, and feathered, and beckoned with, as if to say, "Come, eat me." +The tail was the tail of Sam, whose body was concealed far down in the +interior of the tower of beef, into which he had cut his way with great +perseverance and success. But the puzzle was, how he got there; for +there was no chair within reach of the table, and he was much too small +to have jumped up on it; while the theory of the servant, who +propounded that he must have climbed up by the table-cloth, tooth over +claw, was wild, and simply entitled to the contempt of any person aware +of the difference between dog and cat. There is but one acceptable +theory on the subject,--that he was down in the caverns of the beef, +_tail and all_, before it was brought up-stairs, and so escaped notice. + +Early in life, he contracted--from evil association, perhaps--a vulgar +trick of running after carriages and barking at the horses' heels, a +trick of which I in vain tried to break him. Once, when he was about a +year old, I took him up beside me into a high _caleche_, in which we +were going some distance. The moment the horse started, Sam jumped out +to have a bark at his heels, when, to my horror, the wheel of the +vehicle, in which there were three of us, went right over the middle of +his body, cutting him, apparently, in two; but he was up in a second, +and barking at heels and wheels for half a mile before we could pull up +and get him in again. This accident appeared to decide him in the +choice of a profession, for he devoted himself energetically, from that +hour, to the pursuit and baying-at of all manner of wheeled things +propelled by horse-power. + +A rat he would never touch, although I introduced him to one before he +was a year old; he manifested neither fear of the vermin, nor surprise +at it, but simply took no interest in it. He had much pleasure in +worrying cats; but that was owing, I fancy, to a sad discomfiture he +once met with from one. Walking through a suburb one day, with Sammy +trotting before me in dreamy mood, to which he was much given, a small, +but remarkably severe cat made a sudden and very fierce dash at him +from a cottage-door, taking him so completely aback, that he tumbled, +head over tail, into a deep, dirty pool of green, stagnant water, such +as is usually to be seen in the pleasure-grounds environing a +suburbo-Hibernian shanty. His appearance, on emerging from that +cesspool, was the reverse of majestic; but the incident gave him such +an idea on the subject of cats, that he always persecuted them +remorselessly from that day; nor did he ever again walk through a +suburb in any other frame of mind than a particularly wide-awake one, +and with his tail up. + +These dogs are curiously sensitive about their dignity, and sometimes +do not recover their elasticity of spirits for several days after +having undergone a process of correction. I recollect a singular +instance of this sensitiveness displayed by Sambo, in which he also +manifested a kind of inferential power wonderfully akin to reason. + +One morning, a tumult of dogs in the street drew him to the window, out +of which he looked by jumping on a chair, just as a troop of "curs of +low degree" tore past after a rather genteel-looking dog with a kettle +tied to his tail. They whirled rapidly by in a turmoil of dust, and +clink, and cur-dog yelp, but not so rapidly as to prevent Sam from +perceiving the terrible degradation to which a gentleman-dog had been +subjected. The sight had a visible effect on his spirits, for he +immediately became quite depressed as to tail and mind, a condition +which influenced him for a day or two, after which he again appeared +comparatively cheerful, and took his place in society with his +accustomed cautious conviviality. About a month after this, he was seen +coming very slowly along a lane which led up to the back of the +house,--a course hardly ever taken by him, as he was a parlor-dog, and +considered himself entitled to the freedom of the hall-door. Creeping +on in the shadow of the wall, he arrived with a very crest-fallen +aspect at the kitchen-door, where the cause of his ignominious approach +was made manifest to those who were watching him. _He had a kettle tied +to his tail_. Now this animal must surely have argued in his own mind, +that running away with a tin kettle is a sure way of attracting +undesirable notice; also, that proceeding through a public thoroughfare +with such an appendage is injudicious, and likely to result in +trouble. The circumstance of the runaway dog and the tumult after him +had left its impression upon him; and, travelling on his experience, he +rightly judged that an unpleasant affair of the kind might best be +hushed up by quietly making one's way home through back-lanes and the +kitchen-door. + +Skye terriers, when young, are apt to have a bad trick of gnawing and +tearing up articles of wearing apparel, particularly slippers, gaiters, +and such other things as are handy to toss up and catch. The fellow I +am writing about, when very young, destroyed sundry items of my +property in that way. He occupied a buffalo-robe in my room, and I +heard him very busy one night about something, but did not pay much +attention to it, as he was often lively at night. In the morning, +however, on looking for a pair of leather gaiters, I recognized the +remains of them, after much investigation, in a mass of pulp, to which +they had been reduced by the little beast as completely as they could +have been by the most experienced boa-constrictor. This habit I soon +broke him of, by chastising him with the remnants of the worried +article, when there were any left of substance sufficient to weave into +a scourge; nor did he ever recur to it when grown up, except once, +evidencing upon that occasion a remarkable instance of hereditary +instinct. + +Some fur caps, and other articles of winter wear, had been shaken out +of their summer quarters for the purpose of beating the moths out of +them and ventilating them generally, with a view to which they were +placed upon the sill of an open window. By some means Sam obtained +access to the room, where he was discovered in the act of mauling a +valuable otter-skin cap, which he had selected out of the whole +collection for his particular amusement. This dog had never seen an +otter; but his ancestors were noted for their game qualities in the +pursuit of that animal, and their speciality must have descended to +him. + +Eventually Sambo lost all his self-respect. He became discontented and +addicted to low company, dissipating with vile curs whose owners +enjoyed anything but unblemished reputations,--a fact first notified to +me by a clergyman of my acquaintance who knew him well. The worst of +this was, that he wore a collar with my name engraved on it in full; +and it was a long time before I had an opportunity of redeeming that +misused badge. About the very last time I ever saw him, I think, he +came home with one of his eyes gouged out, a split ear, and other marks +but too suggestive of the tavern brawl. I then deprived him of his +collar; soon after which he returned to his unsettled course of life, +and I never saw him again. + +The peculiar, otter-like form of these animals, and the buoyancy given +to them by their long, floating hair, endow them with great facility +for swimming; while the small compass into which they will pack in a +canoe or skiff makes them very useful companions to the sportsman whose +propensities are for paddling about "in the melancholy marshes." I made +an excellent retriever of one of mine by carrying in my pocket a +stuffed snipe, which I would make her hunt up and fetch out of the +weeds into which I had thrown it. She would go back half a mile and +fetch this, when I had hidden it ever so cunningly in a thicket by the +way-side. I also taught her to dive, by making her, while young, fetch +up a little bag of shot from the bottom of a bathtub in my room. By +throwing this into deeper water, gradually, she would soon go down to a +great depth for it. A charge of shot, tied up in a piece of white +kid-glove, with a "neck" left to hold on by, is a good object for the +purpose, as it is readily seen in deep water, and teaches the animal, +besides, to nip gingerly,--a valuable qualification in a retriever. I +remember one of these dogs fetching up from a considerable depth the +watch of a friend of mine, which had slipped out of his pocket into a +clear, still bay, over which he was loitering in his canoe. + +From times unrecorded until about twenty years ago, the Skye terrier +awaited confidently his summons to the sphere of rank and fashion. +About that time, the day, which, as the proverb figuratively informs +us, it falls to the lot of each individual of the canine race to enjoy, +began to shine out brightly for the dog of Skye, the first rays of it +that reached him being reflected from no less a luminary than the Crown +of Great Britain; for it was among the Scottish fancies of England's +Queen to adopt as a prime favorite this hitherto obscure quadruped. +Reckoned until that time--if anybody took the trouble of computing him +at all--as one of the ugliest of his race, he at once found himself +invested with all the attributes of a canine Adonis,--a very Admirable +Crichton of dogs,--perfect in intellect, face, figure, and the Hyperion +luxuriance of his copious mane and tail. In our youth, we knew--and +hated--a small, unmitigated snob of a dog called the Pug, a kind of +work-basket bull-dog, diminutive in size, dyspeptic in temper, +disagreeable to contemplate, and distressing to be obliged to admire. +One of the missions in society of Skye Terrier--who, when going before +a high wind, bears no unapt resemblance to a mop or a wisp of tow--was +to mop up Pug, and polish him off the hearth-rug of Fashion; a mission +which he appears to have at least partially accomplished. For now the +black muzzle of Pug is but seldom to be seen protruded from +carriage-window, biding his time for a snap at the first kid-gloved +finger that wags within range of his overlapping tusks in waving +salutation to his dowager mistress,--for, of the dowagers, above all, +he was one of the chronic calamities. Oftener, now, are the well-combed +whiskers and moustaches of Skye Dog to be recognized, dropping over the +drawing-room window-sill, or framed, like a portrait by Landseer, in +the panelled sash of the barouche, out of which he gazes pensively with +the impressive speculation of the true _flaneur_;--yea, for as men of +fashion are, so are their dogs; and so also of the fighting butcher, +who ever has his counterpart in the fighting bull-dog that glowers from +his gory stall. + +This exalted value of Skye Dog, in a commercial point of view, has, of +course, given rise to the manufacture of a spurious article; whence it +comes, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the animal palmed +off on the unsophisticated as genuine has nothing of the real stuff in +his constitution, but is simply a shallow imitation, compounded +according to prescription,--one part common cur-terrier to two parts +insignificant French poodle. And so I take leave of the Skye terrier +with a _caveat emptor_ to the purchaser who does not want to be sold +while he buys. + +The sense of humor must surely exist in individual dogs; otherwise it +would puzzle me to account for the singular practical jokes played off +by a water-spaniel once possessed by me. This individual, whose name +was Muff, was a rather small-sized one, of the pure Kentish blood; +liver-colored, with a white ring on his neck, and white paws; +close-curled, wicked-eyed, deep-chested, and remarkably powerful for +his size. Professionally a retriever,--and one of great promise, +although never fully tested with the gun,--his leisure hours, which +included every one in the twenty-four, were passed in the invention and +perpetration of curiously regulated mischiefs, with all of which he +took pains to combine an element of the ludicrous. His great spree was +to run amuck into a flock of small children coming out of school. If +there was a dirty crossing hard by, over which they had to pass, he +would wait until they had got half-way, and then, going through them +like a rocket, would chuck them down into the mud, right and left, as +he sped, keeping straight on in his career until far beyond range of +pedagogue's rod. His trick of making a sudden rush at the heels of +unsuspecting persons--and he invariably selected the right sort for his +purpose--might often have got me into ugly scrapes, but for the tact +with which he invariably ignored his master on such occasions. If +pursued, he never came near me for protection, but fled wildly on, +assuming the character of a dog "on the loose," belonging to nobody in +particular, and quite able to take care of himself. He had a decided +objection to street industrials in general, including Italian +organ-grinders and image-sellers. Once I saw him crouching stealthily +after one of the latter, who was passing through an open square with a +tray of casts upon his head; and before I could get up a whistle or +call him off by name, he had darted like a javelin at the legs of the +refugee, startling him so much out of the perpendicular that the +superstructure of plastic art came to the ground with a crash, +top-dressing the sterile soil of the Campus Martius with a coat of +manufactured plaster of Paris. Marius, blubbering over the shattered +chimney-stacks of Carthage, could not have displayed a more touching +classical spectacle than did that modern Roman lamenting to and fro +among the fragments of his collapsed martyrs and ruined saints; nor +were his pangs fully assuaged even by the application of the universal +panacea to an amount more than double the value of his lost wares. + +A great difficulty in training this dog was to bring him "to heel,"--a +still greater one to keep him there when he came. If thrashed into his +proper place in his master's wake, he always resented the indignity by +biting him pretty severely in the legs with a savage whimper. This he +invariably did on first leaving the house with me, sometimes nipping me +so severely, after we had gone a short distance, that I have hesitated +whether to go back for a pistol to shoot him, or forward for a +pennyworth of biscuit to buy him off. When told to "hie away," the +extravagance of his joy knew no bounds. He would have been as +invaluable to a tailor as was to the Parisian _decrotteur_ the poodle +instructed by him to sully with his paws the shoes of the passengers; +for, in the exuberance of his gladness, he but too often rent +insufferably the vestments of the hapless pedestrians in his line of +fire. Sometimes he would turn his assaults upon me, and, springing +suddenly at my "wide-awake," take it from my head, trailing it wildly +away through the mud, and dropping it in some place where it would be +difficult to get at it without wading. Then I would have to conciliate +him to fetch it,--a favor not to be obtained without much stratagem and +diplomacy. + +One of this dog's abnormal qualities was the bull-dog one of holding on +to his antagonist in a fight. But few dogs of his size were able to +cope with him; and I once saw him, when in grips with a fierce +bull-terrier by a riverside, precipitate the result by dragging his +adversary into the water, and dipping his head under. He would jump off +the highest bridge to fetch out of the water anything thrown in for +him, never failing to bring it to his master's feet,--except once, when +he steadily declined to recover from the raging element a cane with +which I had, some time previously, administered to him a sound +thrashing for some delinquency. On the first occasion of his being +accidentally left behind at a ferry across a very wide and rapid river, +he swam out some distance after the boat; but, finding the enterprise a +rather hopeless one, soon put back again and waited for the next boat, +on board of which he took his place with a tranquil and business-like +air. This he regularly did on subsequent occasions, without risking the +swim; and when on board, he always seated himself on the upper deck and +as far forward as possible, so as to catch early glimpses of his +friends in waiting. + +Among the gifts of this clever animal, I must not forget to reckon a +perception of the truthful in Art. I had a walking-stick, upon the +crooked handle of which was carved, with tolerable skill, a pointer's +head. This piece of sculpture was a source of frequent anxiety to +Muff,--his embarrassment apparently arising from the circumstance of +his not having the gift of speech wherewith to deliver himself of an +opinion on the subject. He would sometimes get up from the sunny spot +on the carpet where he lay, walk over to the corner in which the stick +was deposited, contemplate the handle attentively, with his head on one +side, for several minutes, and then, shaking his head doubtfully, +return to his lair with a sigh. Philanthropist as well as critic, he +once saved the life of a dissipated old sergeant of dragoons, to whom +he had taken a fancy, by rushing into a house which the man had just +quitted in a state of intoxication, and so rousing the inmates by his +gestures, that they at once followed him into the road, alongside of +which the beery old _sabreur_ was found prostrate in a pool of water, +setting his face pertinaciously against that hostile element, even to +what was very near being his last gasp. + +Large dogs often appear to take a humorous view of the futile attempts +of small ones to accomplish some feat beyond their strength or stature. +A friend of mine once possessed a very large animal of a cross between +the Mount St. Bernard dog and the English mastiff, and as remarkable +for his good-nature as for his great strength and courage. Rambling out +one day, accompanied by this trusty friend, they came upon a group of +rustics engaged in the ignoble diversion of baiting a badger, an animal +much in request among English dog-fanciers as a test for the pluck of +their terriers. "Drawing a badger" is the proper sporting-phrase,--the +animal being chained to a barrel, from the recesses of which he +contends savagely with the fierce little dogs pitted against each other +to drag him out within a given time. Nero looked on at the sport with a +majestic air of contempt, as dog after dog was withdrawn from the +conflict. At length, disgusted with the failures, he watched his +opportunity until the badger made a dive from his den at a retreating +foe, when, snapping him up by the collar, he thundered away down the +road with the barrel flying after, nor ever stopped until he reached +home, nearly a mile away, where he safely deposited badger and barrel +in the immediate vicinity of his private residence in the stable-yard. + +One of the worst vices by which a dog can be beset is a propensity for +killing sheep. It is not a common vice, but, where it exists, it +appears to be inveterate and beyond all hope of reform. Shutting up the +delinquent with a dangerous ram has often been recommended as a certain +mode of disgusting him with mutton, should he survive the discipline +inflicted on him by the avenger of the blood of his race. I can recall +but one instance within my experience in which this corrective was +tested. It was in the case of a sulky dog of a breed between the red +Irish setter and something larger, but less patrician, upon whom the +thirst for blood fell at uncertain intervals, impelling him then to +devastate the very sheepfolds of which in his capacity as watch-dog he +might have been considered as _ex officio_ the guardian. This vile +malefactor had been ordered for execution, and the noose was already +coiled for his caitiff neck, when a neighbor of his master's--a great +raiser of sheep--begged for him a reprieve, kindly volunteering the use +of a truculent, but valuable ram belonging to him, for the purpose of +illustrating the homaeopathic theory above alluded to. At nightfall the +ram was brought and turned into a paddock, where he was left fettered +to the dog with a couple of yards of chain. At the dawn of morning the +ram's master approached confidently the arena of discipline, secure of +a result triumphant for his theory. But theory was a delusion in this +instance; for the red dog Tanner sat there alone and surfeited with +mutton,--though there was a good deal of the ram still left. + +It is wonderful what an amount of crime can be committed, even +by a small dog, when, like the _Chourineur_ of Eugene Sue, he is +under the glamour of blood. Of this there came to my knowledge a +well-authenticated instance, one for the truth of which I can vouch. A +settler in a remote bush-district had been to the nearest village, +which was many miles from his clearing. It was in March, and the +surface of the snow--which was quite two feet deep--was frozen to a +hard crust, as he travelled homewards in his cutter, accompanied by a +currish dog, not nearly so large as an average pointer. About +nightfall, and when some two miles from home, a herd of nine deer +crossed his track, struggling away into the woods with uncertain +plunges, as the treacherous crust gave way beneath them at every bound. +While they were yet in sight, the dog gave chase, and they all +disappeared into the dark forest together; nor did the dog return to +the call of his master, who, after whistling to him for a short time, +proceeded on his way and drove home without him. Early next morning the +cur made his appearance, glutted and gory, and looking the very picture +of dissipation. Struck by his appearance, they took the back track on +his trail, which led them to a hollow in the bush, where the snow was +much trampled and draggled with blood, and in and around which every +one of the nine deer lay dead, pulled down and throttled by one +miserable cur, who had the mastery over them, because he could run on +the surface of the snow, through which they sunk. The dog's master--at +whose shanty I once stayed when on a fishing-excursion--was much +mortified at the occurrence, as the deer-hunting season was past, and +he was one of Nature's sportsmen, a game-keeper by instinct. + +I have but one more anecdote of a dog, for the present; and that is one +for the truth of which I distinctly decline to vouch. It was imparted +to me by a calker, who owned a woolly French poodle, which remarkable +animal, he informed me, used to swim out regularly once a week,--on +Saturday evenings, I think he said,--with a large wisp of tow in his +mouth, upon the ascension of his fleas into which place of refuge, he +would "let it slide" down the current and swim back tranquilly to the +shore, there to slumber away another week in comparative comfort.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The calker's dog had probably never read Olaus Magnus, +though that worthy Archbishop wrote something very like dog-Latin; but, +as dwellers on the margin of the "Atlantic," we have too great a +respect for a prelate who believed in the kraaken and the sea-serpent, +not to refer our valued Cynophilist to the Thirty-Ninth Chapter of the +Eighteenth Book _De Gentibus Septentrionalibus_, where he will find the +same story told of the fox.--_Eds. Atlantic._] + +Having thus calked my Dog-Talk--bark, in fact--with this very tough bit +of yarn, I now trustfully commit it to the mercies of the "Atlantic." + + + + +THE RECKONING. + + +Your thought may recur with mine + To a certain place in the city, +Where you sometimes have chanced to dine; + If not, why, the more's the pity! + +Did you notice the delicate way + Whereby, with the trencher and cup, +Comes a hint of the matter of pay, + In a counter laid _blank side up_? + +Now,--not to pervert the intent + Of a courtesy gentle and rare, +Or observance so civilly meant + With disparaging things to compare,-- + +By the token your messenger brings, + Did such services never suggest +A likeness to manifold things + Of the world, and the flesh, and--the rest? + +Command whatsoever you will, + To pamper your folly or pride; +You shall find, that unfailingly, still, + The _counter_ is laid beside, + +Silently,--seemingly fair,-- + Till an angel the disk shall turn, +And the soul's great debt, the inscription there, + On her vision shall burst and burn! + + + * * * * * + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + +MATANZAS. + + +A hot and dusty journey of some six hours brought us to Matanzas at +high noon. Our companions were Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and +game-chickens, that travel extensively in these parts, sometimes in +little baskets, with openings for the head and tail, sometimes in the +hands of their owners, secured only by a string fastened to one foot +and passed over the body. They seem to be objects of tender solicitude +to those who carry them; they are nursed and fondled like children, and +at intervals are visited all round by a negro, who fills his mouth with +water, and squirts it into their eyes and under their feathers. They +are curiously plucked on the back and about the tail, where only the +long tail-feathers are allowed to grow. Their tameness in the hands of +their masters is quite remarkable; they suffer themselves to be turned +and held in any direction. But when set down, at any stage of the +journey, they stamp their little feet, stretch their necks, crow, and +look about them for the other cock with most belligerent eyes. As we +have said that the negro of the North is an ideal negro, so we must say +that the game-cock of Cuba is an ideal chicken, a fowl that is too good +to be killed,--clever enough to fight for people who are too indolent +and perhaps too cowardly to fight for themselves,--in short, the +gladiator of the tropics. + +Well, as we have said, we and they arrived at our journey's end in the +extreme heat of the day; and having shown our paper and demanded our +trunks, we beat an instantaneous retreat before the victorious monarch +of the skies, and lo! the Ensor House, dirty, bare, and comfortless, +was to us as a fortress and a rock of defence. + +Here I would gladly pause, and, giving vent to my feelings, say how +lovely I found Matanzas. But ever since Byron's time, the author is +always hearing the public say, "Don't be poetical," etc., etc.; and in +these days both writer and reader seem to have discovered that life is +too short for long descriptions,--so that, when the pen of a G. P. R. +James, waiting for the inspirations of its master, has amused itself +with sketching a greater or less extent of natural scenery, the rule of +the novel-reader is invariably, "Skip landscape, etc., to event on +thirty-second page." Nevertheless, I will say that Matanzas is +lovely,--with the fair harbor on one hand and the fair hills on the +other, sitting like a mother between two beautiful daughters, who looks +from one to the other and wonders which she loves best. The air from +the water is cool and refreshing, the sky is clear and open, and the +country around seems to beckon one to the green bosom of its shades. +"Ob, what a relief after Havana!" one says, drawing a full breath, and +remembering with a shudder the sickening puffs from its stirring +streets, which make you think that Polonius lies unburied in every +house, and that you nose him as you pass the door and window-gratings. +With this exclamation and remembrance, you lower yourself into one of +Mr. Ensor's rocking-chairs,--twelve of which, with a rickety table and +a piano, four crimson tidies and six white ones, form the furniture of +the Ensor drawing-room,--you lean your head on your hand, close your +eyes, and wish for a comfortable room, with a bed in it. A tolerable +room you shall have; but for a bed, only a cot-bedstead with a sacking +bottom,--further, nothing. Now, if you are some folks that I know, you +will be able to establish very comfortable repose on this slender +foundation, Nature having so amply furnished you that you are your own +feather-bed, bolster, sofa-cushion, and easy-chair, a moving mass of +upholstery, wanting only a frame to be set down in and supported. But +if you should be one of Boston's normal skeletons, pinched in every +member with dyspepsia, and with the mark of the beast neuralgia on your +forehead, then your skin will have a weary time of it, holding your +bones, and you will be fain to entreat with tears the merciful +mediation of a mattress. + +Now I know very well that those of my readers who intend visiting Cuba +will be much more interested in statistics of hotels than in any +speculations, poetical or philosophical, with which I might be glad to +recompense their patience. Let me tell them, therefore, that the Ensor +House is neither better nor worse than other American hotels in Cuba. +The rooms are not very bad, the attendance not intolerable, the table +almost commendable. The tripe, salt-fish, and plantains were, +methought, much as at other places. There were stews of meat, onions, +sweet pippins, and _ochra_, which deserve notice. The early coffee was +punctual; the tea, for a wonder, black and hot. True, it was served on +a bare pine table, with the accompaniment only of a bit of dry +bread,--no butter, cake, nor _dulces_. But Mr. Ensor has heard, no +doubt, that sweet things are unwholesome, and is determined, at +whatever cost to his own feelings, to keep them out of the way of his +guests, who are, for the time, his children. Then there is an excellent +English servant called John, whom, though the fair Ensor did berate +him, we must enumerate among the comforts of the establishment. There +is a dark corner about _volantes_, which they are disposed to order for +you at a very unreasonable profit; but as there are plenty of livery +stables at hand, and street _volantes_ passing all the time, it will be +your own fault, if you pay six dollars where you ought to pay three. + +The first thing to be done at Matanzas is to drive out and see the +Cumbre, a hill in the neighborhood, and from it the valley of the +Yumori. The road is an improvement on those already described,--the +ruts being much deeper and the rocks much larger; the jolting is +altogether more complete and effective. Still, you remember the +doctrine that the _volante_ cannot upset, and this blind faith to which +you cling carries you through triumphantly. The Cumbre is lofty, the +view extensive, and the valley lovely, of a soft, light green, like the +early leaves and grass of spring, dotted everywhere with the palms and +their dark clusters. It opens far, far down at your feet, and on your +left you see the harbor quiet and bright in the afternoon sun, with a +cheering display of masts and pennons. You would look and linger long, +but that the light will wane, and you are on your way to Jenks his +sugar-plantation, the only one within convenient distance of the town. +Here the people are obviously accustomed to receive visitors, and are +decently, not superfluously, civil. The _major-domo_ hands you over to +a negro who speaks English, and who salutes you at once with, +"Good-bye, Sir!" The boiling here is conducted in one huge, open vat. A +cup and saucer are brought for you to taste the juice, which is dipped +out of the boiling vat for your service. It is very like balm-tea, +unduly sweetened; and after a hot sip or so you return the cup with +thanks. A loud noise, as of cracking of whips and of hurrahs, guides +you to the sugar-mill, where the crushing of the cane goes on in the +jolliest fashion. The building is octagonal and open. Its chief feature +is a very large horizontal wheel, which turns the smaller ones that +grind the cane. Upon this are mounted six horses, driven by as many +slaves, male and female, whose exertions send the wheel round with +sufficient rapidity. This is really a novel and picturesque sight. Each +negro is armed with a short whip, and their attitudes, as they stand, +well-balanced on the revolving wheel, are rather striking. They were +liberal of blows and of objurgations to the horses; but all their cries +and whipping produced scarcely a tenth of the labor so silently +performed by the invisible, noiseless slave that works the +steam-engine. From this we wandered about the avenues, planted with +palms, cocoas, and manifold fruit-trees,--visited the sugar-fields, +where many slaves were cutting the canes and piling them on enormous +ox-carts, and came at last to a great, open field, where many head of +cattle were quietly standing. Our negro guide had not been very lavish +or intelligible in his answers to our numerous questions. We asked him +about these cattle. "Dey cows," he replied. We asked if they gave milk, +and if butter was made on the plantation. He seemed quite puzzled and +confused, and finally exclaimed,--"Dat cows no got none wife." Coming +nearer, we found that the cows were draught oxen, employed in dragging +the canes and other produce of the plantation. Jenks his garden we +found in good order, and beautiful with many plants in full blossom; +but Jenks his house seemed dreary and desolate, with no books, a +wretched print or so, dilapidated furniture, and beds that looked like +the very essence of nightmare. Nothing suggested domestic life or +social enjoyment, or anything--; but as Jenks is perfectly unknown to +us, either by appearance or reputation, we give only a guess in the +dark, and would suggest, in case it may displease him, that he should +refurnish and repaint a little, and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over +his solitary villa, remembering that Americans have imaginations, and +that visitors will be very apt to construct an unknown host from his +surroundings. + +The second thing to be done in Matanzas, if you arrive on Saturday, is +to attend military mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning. This +commences at eight o'clock; but the hour previous may be advantageously +employed in watching the arrival and arrangement of the female +aristocracy of Matanzas. These enter in groups of twos and threes, +carrying their prayer-books, and followed by slaves of either sex, who +bear the prayer-carpet of their mistresses. The ladies are wonderfully +got up, considering the early hour; and their toilettes suggest that +they may not have undressed since the ball of the night before. All +that hoops, powder, and puffery can do for them has been done; they +walk in silk attire, and their hair is what is technically termed +dressed. Some of them bring their children, bedizened like dolls, and +mimicking mamma's gestures and genuflexion in a manner more provoking +to sadness than to satire. If the dressing is elaborate, the crossing +is also. It does not consist of one simple cross, "_in nomine Patris_," +etc.; they seem to make three or four crosses from forehead to chin, +and conclude by kissing the thumb-nail, in honor of what we could not +imagine. Entering the middle aisle, which is divided from the rest by a +row of seats on either side, they choose their position, and motion to +the dark attendant to spread the carpet. Some of them evince +considerable strategic skill in the selection of their ground. All +being now in readiness, they drop on their knees, spread their +flounces, cross themselves, open their books, and look about them. +Their attendants retire a little, spread a handkerchief on the ground, +and modestly kneel behind them, obviously expecting to be saved with +the family. These are neatly, sometimes handsomely dressed. In this +status things remain until the music of the regiment is heard. With a +martial sound of trumpets it enters the church, and fills the aisles, +the officers taking place within the chancel, and a guard-of-honor of +eight soldiers ranging on either side of the officiating priest. And +now our devotions begin in good earnest; for, simultaneously with the +regiment, the _jeunesse doree_ of Matanzas has made its appearance, and +has spread itself along the two long lines of demarcation which +separate the fair penitents from the rest of the congregation. The +ladies now spread their flounces again, and their eyes find other +occupation than the dreary Latin of their missals. There is, so to +speak, a lively and refreshing time between the youths of both sexes, +while the band plays its utmost, and _Evangel_, _Kyrie_, and _Credo_ +are recited to the music of Trovatore and Traviata. That child of four +years old, dressed in white and gold flounces, and white satin boots +with heels, handles her veil and uses her eyes like mamma, eager for +notice, and delighted with the gay music and uniforms. The moment comes +to elevate the Host, thump goes the drum, the guard presents arms, and +the soldiers, instead of kneeling, bend forward, in a most +uncomfortable manner. Another thump, and all that is over; the swords +are returned to their sheaths, and soon, the loud music coming to an +end, the regiment marches out of church, very much as it marched in, +its devotional experiences being known to Heaven alone. Ladies and +lovers look their last, the flounces rise in pyramids, the +prayer-carpets are rolled up, and, with a silken sweep and rush, Youth, +Beauty, and Fashion forsake the church, where Piety has hardly been, +and go home to breakfast. To that comfortable meal you also betake +yourself, musing on the small heads and villanous low foreheads of the +Spanish soldiery, and wondering how long it would take a handful of +resolute Yankees to knock them all into--But you are not a filibuster, +you know. + + +THE PASEO--THE PLAZA--DINING OUT. + + +"As this Sunday is Carnival, you cannot do better than drive about the +city, and then go to the Plaza to see the masks. My partner's wife, +with whom you have now so comfortably breakfasted, will call for you in +her _volante_, between five and six o'clock. She will show you the +Paseo, and we will go and see the masks afterwards." + +So spoke a banker, who, though not _our_ banker, is our friend, and +whose kind attentions we shall ever recall, when we remember Cuba. So +he spoke, and so it befell. The pretty American lady, Cubanized into +paleness, but not into sallowness, called at the appointed hour, and, +in her company, we visited the principal streets, and the favorite +drive of the Matanzasts. The Paseo is shorter than that of Havana, but +much prettier. We found it gay with _volantes_, whose fair occupants +kept up an incessant bowing and smiling to their friends in carriages +and on horseback. The Cubans are generally good riders, and their +saddle-horses have the easiest and pleasantest gait imaginable. The +heat of the climate does not allow the severe exercise of trot and +gallop, and so these creatures go along as smoothly and easily as the +waves of the sea, and are much better broken to obedience. The ladies +of Matanzas seem to possess a great deal of beauty, but they abuse the +privilege of powder, and whiten themselves with _cascarilla_ to a +degree that is positively ghastly. This _cascarilla_ is formed by the +trituration of eggshells; and the oval faces whitened with it resemble +a larger egg, with features drawn on it in black and red. In spite of +this, they are handsome; but one feels a natural desire to rush in +amongst them with a feather duster, and lay about one a little, before +giving an available opinion of their good looks. + +If the Paseo was gay, the streets of the city were gay also; the +windows filled with faces and figures in full dress, with little groups +of children at the feet of the grown people, like the two world-famous +cherubs at the feet of the Madonna di San Sisto. There were crowds of +promenaders too, everywhere, interspersed with parties of maskers, who +went about screaming at the public with high, shrill voices. Leaving +the _volante_, we descend to the Plaza, where is now the height and +centre of movement. We find it flanked on all sides with little movable +kitchens, where good things are cooked, and with tables, where they are +sold and eaten. Fried cakes, fish, and meats seem the predominant bill +of fare, with wine, coffee, and fruits. The masks are circulating with +great animation; men in women's clothes, white people disguised as +negroes, and negroes disguised as whites, prodigious noses, impossible +chins and foreheads; the stream of popular fancy ran chiefly in these +channels. We met processions consisting of a man carrying a rat in a +cage, and shouting out, "Catch this rat!" followed by a perfect +stampede of wild creatures, all yelling, "Catch that rat!" at the top +of their voices. The twanging of the guitar is heard everywhere, +accompanied by the high nasal voices of the natives, in various strains +of monotony. In some spots the music is more lively, accompanied by the +shaking of a gourd filled with dry seeds, which is called _ghiera_, and +whose "chick-a-chick, chick-chick" takes the place of the more poetical +castanets;--here you find one or more couples exhibiting their skill in +Cuban dances, with a great deal of applause and chattering from the +crowd around. Beside those of the populace, many aristocratic groups +parade the Plaza, in full dress, crowned with flowers and jewels;--a +more motley scene can hardly be imagined. Looking up, one sees in +curious contrast the tall palms with which the Plaza is planted, and +the quiet, wondering stars set in the deep tropical heavens. + +But in our evening's programme, tea has been omitted; now, what +availeth a Bostonian without his tea? By eight o'clock, we are pensive, +"most like a tired child at a show,"--by half-past eight, stupid,--by +nine, furious. Two hours of folly, taken on an empty stomach, alarm us +for our constitution. A visit to the _cafe_ is suggested and adopted. +It proves to be crowded with people in fancy attire, who have laid +aside their masks to indulge in beer, orgeat, and sherbet. While our +Cuban friends regale themselves with soursop and _zapote_ ice sweetened +with brown sugar, we call for a cup of delicious Spanish chocolate, +which is served with a buttered toasted roll, worthy of all imitation. +Oh, how much comfort is in a little cup of chocolate! what an +underpinning does it afford our spiritual house, a material basis for +our mental operations! In its support, we go it a little longer on the +Plaza, see more masks, hear more guitars and "catch-this-rat!" and +finally return, in a hired _volante_, to the Ensor House, where rest +and the bedless cots await us. + +But we have friends in Matanzas, real born Cubans, who will not suffer +us to remain forever in the Ensor House. They send their _volante_ for +us, one day, and we visit them. Their house, of the inevitable Cuban +pattern, is richly furnished; the marbles of the floor are pure and +smooth, the rug ample and velvety; the wainscoting of the walls, so to +speak, is in handsome tiling,--not in mean, washy painting; the cane +chairs and sofas are fresh and elegant, and there is a fine Erard +piano. The master of the house is confined to his room by illness, but +will be happy to see us. His son and daughters speak English with +fluency. They inform us, that the epidemic colds which prevail in Cuban +winters are always called by the name of some recent untoward +occurrence, and that their father, who suffers from severe influenza, +has got the President's Message. We find Don Jose in a bedroom darkened +by the necessary closing of the shutters, there being no other way of +excluding the air. The bedsteads are of gilded iron, with luxurious +bedding and spotless mosquito-nettings. His head is tied up with a silk +handkerchief. He rises from his rocking-chair, receives us with great +urbanity, and expresses his appreciation of the American nation and +their country, which he himself has visited. After a short interview we +leave him, but not until he has placed his house and all it contains +_"a la disposicion de Usted."_ We are then shown the pretty bedroom of +the young ladies, whose toilettes are furnished in silver, the bath +lined with tiling, the study, and the dining-room, where luncheon +awaits us. We take leave, with a kind invitation to return and dine the +next day, which, upon mature deliberation, we accept. + +The _volante_ comes for us next day, with Roque, brightest of all +living _caleseros_, fixed in his boots and saddle. After a pleasant +drive we attain the house, and are received by its hospitable inmates +as before. The interval before dinner, a tolerably long one, is filled +up by pleasant chitchat, chiefly in English. The lady of the house does +not, however, profess our vernacular, and to her understanding we lay +siege in French, Italian, and laughter-provoking Spanish. Before dining +we pay a second visit to the host, who is still busy digesting the +President's Message. Obviously, the longer he has it under +consideration, the worse he finds it. He has nausea from its bragging, +his head aches with its loudness, and its emptiness fills him with +wind. We are at our wits' end to prescribe for him, and take our leave +with grave commiseration, telling him that we, too, have had it, but +that the symptoms it produces in the North are a reddening in the cheek +and a spasmodic contraction of the right arm. Now comes great dinner +on. A slave announces it, and with as little ceremony as may be we take +our places. And here we must confess that our friend the banker had +rendered us an important service. For he had said,--"Look not upon the +soup when it is hot, neither let any victuals entice thee to more than +a slight and temporary participation; for the dishes at a Cuban dinner +be many, and the guest must taste of all that is presented; wherefore, +if he indulge in one dish to his special delectation, he shall surely +die before the end." And it came to pass that we remembered this, and +walked through the dinner as on egg-shells, gratifying curiosity, on +the one hand, and avoiding satiety, on the other, with the fear of +fulness, as it were, before our eyes. For, oh, my friends! what pang is +comparable to too much dinner, save the distress of being refused by a +young woman, or the comfortless sensation, in times of economy, of +having paid away a five-dollar gold piece in place of a silver quarter +of a dollar? + +But you, Reader, would like more circumstantiality in the account of +this dinner, which united many perfections. It was handsome, but not +splendid,--orderly, but, not stately,--succulent, but not unctuous. It +kept the word of promise to the smell and did not break it to the +taste. It was a dinner such as we shall wish only to our best friends, +not to those acquaintances who ask how we do when they meet us, and +wish we were dead before we part. As for particulars, we should be glad +to impart much useful information and many choice receipts; but the +transitory nature of such an entertainment does not allow one to +improve it as one could wish. One feature we remember, which is that +the whole dinner was placed on the table at once, and so you had the +advantage of seeing your work cut out before you. None of that hope +deferred, when, after being worried through a dozen stews and +_entrees_, you are rewarded at last with an infinitesimal fragment of +the _roti_. Nor, on the other hand, the unwelcome surprise of three +supplementary courses and a dessert, when you have already dined to +repletion, and feel yourself at peace with all the world. Here, all was +fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup, +of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and +onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled +chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with +saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and +vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think, +from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a +splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored +sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have +eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then +came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New +England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge +tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made +into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course +of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own +plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a +thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance +that we should have no more. + +A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the +masks, it being still Carnival. So the _volante_ was summoned, with its +smiling, silent Roque, and the pretty daughter of the house took seat +beside us. The streets around the Plaza proved quite impassable from +the crowd, whose wild movements and wilder voices went nigh to scaring +the well-trained horses. The little lady was accustomed, apparently, to +direct every movement of her charioteer, and her orders were uttered in +a voice high and sweet as a bird-call. "_Dobla al derecho, Roque! +Roque, dobla al derecho_!" Why did not Roque go mad, and +exclaim,--"Yes, Senorita, and to heaven itself, if you bid me so +prettily!" But Roque only doubled as he was bid, and took us hither and +thither, and back to the nest of his lady-bird, where we left her and +the others with grateful regrets, and finally back to the Ensor House, +which on this occasion seemed to us the end of all things. + + +GAME-CHICKENS--DON RODRIGUEZ--DAY ON THE PLANTATION--DE-PARTURE. + + +As there are prejudices in Cuba, and elsewhere, touching the +appropriate sphere of woman, Halia was not taken to the cockpit, as she +had demanded and expected,--not to see the chickens fight, but to see +the Spaniards see it. + +Forgive her, ye Woman's-Righters, if on this occasion she was weak and +obedient! You would have gone, no doubt,--those of you who have not +husbands; but such as have must know how much easier it is to deal with +the article man in his theoretical than in his real presence. You may +succeed in showing by every convincement, that you are his natural +master and superior, and that there is every reason on earth why you +should command and direct him. "No! ---- ," says the wretch, shaking +his fist, or shrugging his shoulders; and whatever your intimate +convictions may be, the end is, that you do not. + +Propitiated by that ready obedience which is safest, dear sisters, in +these contingencies, the proprietor of Halia takes her, one morning, to +see the establishment of a man of fortune in the neighborhood, where +one hundred and forty game-chickens are kept for training and fighting. +These chickens occupy two good-sized rooms, whose walls are entirely +covered with compartments, some two feet square, in each of which +resides a cock, with his little perch and drinking-vessel. They are +kept on allowance of water and of food, lest they should get beyond +fighting-weight. Their voices are uplifted all day long, and on all +moonlight nights. An old woman receives us, and conducts us to the +training-pit, pointing out on the way the heroes of various battles, +and telling us that this cock and the other have won _mucho dinero_, +"much money." Each has also its appointed value;--this cock is worth +forty dollars, this four ounces, this one six ounces,--oh, he is a +splendid fellow! No periodal and sporadic hen-fever prevails here, but +the gallo-mania is the chronic madness of the tropics. + +The training-pit is a circular space inclosed with boards, perhaps some +twelve feet in diameter. Here we find the proprietor, Don Manuel +Rodriguez, with a negro assistant, up to the ears in business. Don +Manuel is young, handsome, and vivacious, and with an air of good +family that astonishes us. He receives us with courtesy, finds nothing +unusual in the visit of a lady, but is too much engrossed with his +occupation to accord us more than a passing notice. This is exactly as +we could wish,--it allows us to study the Don, so to speak, _au +naturel_. He is engaged at first in weighing two cocks, with a view to +their subsequent fighting. Having ascertained their precise weight, +which he registers in his pocket-memorandum, he proceeds to bind strips +of linen around their formidable spurs, that in their training they may +not injure each other with them. This being accomplished,--he all the +while delivering himself with great volubility to his black +second,--the two cocks are taken into the arena; one is let loose +there; the negro holds the other, and knocks the free fowl about the +head with it. Sufficient provocation having been given, they are +allowed to go at each other in their own fashion, and their attacks and +breathing-spells are not very unlike a bout of fencing. They flap, fly +at each other, fly over, peck, seize by the neck, let go, rest a +moment, and begin again, getting more and more excited with each round. +The negro separates them, when about to draw blood. And as for Don +Manuel, he goes mad over them, like an Italian _maestro_ over his +favorite pupil. "_Hombre, hombre!_" he cries to the negro, "what a +cock! By Heaven, what a couple! _Ave Maria santisima!_ did one ever see +such spirit? _Santisima Trinidad!_ is there such fighting in all +Matanzas?" Having got pretty well through with the calendar of the +saints, he takes out his watch;--the fight has lasted long enough. One +of the champions retires to take a little repose; another is brought in +his place; the negro takes him, and boxes him about the ears of the +remaining fowl,--brushing him above his head, and underneath, and on +his back, to accustom him to every method of attack. Don Manuel informs +us that the cock made use of in this way is the father of the other, +and exclaims, with an air of mock compassion, _Pobre padre!_ "Poor +father!" The exercise being concluded, he takes a small feather, and +cleans out therewith the throat of either chicken, which proves to be +full of the sand of the arena, and which he calls _porqueria_, "dirt." + +We leave Don Manuel about to employ himself with other cocks, and, as +before, too much absorbed to give our departure much notice. Strange to +say, Hulia is so well satisfied with this rehearsal, that she expresses +no further desire to witness the performance itself. We learn +subsequently that Don Manuel is a man of excellent family and great +wealth, who has lavished several fortunes on his favorite pursuit, and +is hurrying along on the road to ruin as fast as chickens' wings can +carry him. We were very sorry, but couldn't possibly interfere. +Meantime, he appeared excessively jolly. + +Our kind friends of the dinner were determined to pay us, in their +persons, all the debts of hospitality the island might be supposed to +contract towards strangers and Americans. Arrangements were accordingly +made for us to pass our last day in Matanzas at a coffee-plantation of +theirs, some four miles distant from town. They would send their +travelling _volante_ for us, they said, which was not so handsome as +the city _volante_, but stronger, as it had need to be, for the roads. +At eleven o'clock, on a very warm morning, this vehicle made its +appearance at the door of the Ensor House, with Roque in the +saddle,--Roque with that mysterious _calesero_ face of his, knowing +everything, but volunteering nothing until the word of command. Don +Antonito, he tells us, has gone before us on horseback;--we mount the +_volante_, and follow. Roque drives briskly at first, a slight breeze +refreshes us, and we think the road better than is usual. But wait a +bit, and we come to what seems an unworked quarry of coral rock, with +no perceptible way over it, and Roque still goes on, slowly indeed, but +without stop or remark. The strong horses climb the rough and slippery +rocks, dragging the strong _volante_ after them. The _calesero_ picks +his way carefully; the carriage tips, jolts, and tumbles; the centre of +gravity appears to be nowhere. The breeze dies away; the vertical sun +seems to pin us through the head; we get drowsy, and dream of an uneasy +sea of stones, whose harsh waves induce headache, if not seasickness. +We wish for a photograph of the road;--first, to illustrate the +inclusive meaning of the word; second, to serve as a remembrance, to +reconcile us to all future highways. + +Why these people are content to work out their road-tax by such sore +travail of mind and body appeareth to us mysterious. The breaking of +stone in state-prison is not harder work than riding over a Cuban road; +yet this extreme of industry is endured by the Cubans from year to +year, and from one human life to another, without complaint or effort. +An hour or more of these and similar reflections brings us to a bit of +smooth road, and then to the gate of the plantation, where a fine +avenue of palms conducts us to the house. Here resides the relative and +partner of our Matanzas friends, a man of intelligent and humane +aspect, who comes to greet us, with his pleasant wife, and a pretty +niece, their constant guest. This lady has made use of her retirement +for the accomplishment of her mind. She has some knowledge of French +and Italian, and, though unwilling to speak English, is able to +translate from that language with entire fluency. The plantation-house +is very pretty, situated just at the end of the palm-avenue, with all +the flowers in sight,--for these are planted between the palms;--it has +a deep piazza in front, and the first door opens into one large room, +with sleeping-apartments on either side. Opposite this door is another, +opening upon the court behind the house, and between the two our chairs +are placed, courting the draught.--_N.B._ In Cuba, no one shuns a +draught; you ride, drive, sit, and sleep in one, and, unless you are a +Cuban, never take cold. The floor of this principal room is merely of +clay, rubbed with a red powder, which, mixed with water, hardens into a +firm, polished surface. The house has but one story; the timbers of the +roof, unwhitened, forming the only ceiling. The furniture consists of +cane easy-chairs, a dining-table, and a pretty hammock, swung across +one end of the room. Here we sit and talk long. Our host has many good +books in French and Spanish,--and in English, Walter Scott's Novels, +which his wife fully appreciates. + +A walk is proposed, and we go first to visit _los negros +chiquitos,--Anglice_, "the small niggers," in their nursery. We find +their cage airy enough; it is a house with a large piazza completely +inclosed in coarse lattice-work, so that the _pequenuelos_ cannot +tumble out, nor the nurses desert their charge. Our lady friend +produces a key, unlocking a small gate which admits us. We found, as +usual, the girls of eight and upwards tending the babies, and one +elderly woman superintending them. On our arrival, African drums, +formed of logs hollowed out, and covered with skin at the end, were +produced. Two little girls proceeded to belabor these primitive +instruments, and made a sort of rhythmic strumming, which kept time to +a monotonous chant. Two other girls executed a dance to this, which, +for its slowness, might be considered an African minuet. The dancing +children were bright-looking, and not ungraceful. Work stops at noon +for a recess; and the mothers run from the field to visit the +imprisoned babies, whom they carry to their own homes and keep till the +afternoon-hour for work comes round, which it does at two P.M. We went +next to the negro-houses, which are built, as we have described others, +contiguous, in one hollow square. On this plantation the food of the +negroes is cooked for them, and in the middle of the inclosed square +stood the cooking-apparatus, with several large caldrons. Still, we +found little fires in most of the houses, and the inmates employed in +concocting some tidbit or other. A hole in the roof serves for a +chimney, where there is one, but they as often have the fire just +before their door. The slaves on this plantation looked in excellent +condition, and had, on the whole, cheerful countenances. The good +proportion of their increase showed that they were well treated, as on +estates where they are overworked they increase scarcely or not at all. +We found some of the men enjoying a nap between a board and a blanket. +Most of the women seemed busy about their household operations. The +time from twelve to two is given to the negroes, besides an hour or two +after work in the evening, before they are locked up for the night. +This time they improve mostly in planting and watering their little +gardens, which are their only source of revenue. The negroes on this +estate had formed a society amongst themselves for the accumulation of +money; and our friend, the manager of the plantation, told us that they +had on his books two thousand dollars to their credit. One man alone +had amassed six hundred dollars, a very considerable sum, under the +circumstances. We visited also the house of the mayoral, or overseer, +whose good face seemed in keeping with the general humane arrangements +of the place,--as humane, at least, as the system permits. The negroes +all over the island have Sunday for themselves; and on Sunday +afternoons they hold their famous balls, which sometimes last until +four o'clock on Monday morning. Much of the illness among the negroes +is owing to their imprudence on these and like occasions. Pneumonia is +the prevalent disease with them, as with the slaves in our own South; +it is often acute and fatal. Everything in Cuba has such a tendency to +go on horseback, that we could not forbear asking if dead men did, and +were told that it was so,--the dead negroes being temporarily inclosed +in a box, and conveyed to the cemetery on the back of a horse. Our +friend, seeing our astonishment, laughed, and told us that the poor +whites were very glad to borrow the burial-horse and box, to furnish +their own funerals. + +Dinner was served at four o'clock, quite informally, in the one +sitting-room of the house. A black girl brushed off the flies with a +paper fly-brush, and another waited on table. The dinner was excellent; +but I have already given so many bills of fare in these letters, that I +will content myself with mentioning the novelty of a Cuban +country-dish, a sort of stew, composed of ham, beef, mutton, potatoes, +sweet potatoes, _yuca_, and yams. This is called _Ayacco_, and is a +characteristic dish, like eel-soup in Hamburg, or salt codfish in +Boston;--as is usual in such cases, it is more relished by the +inhabitants than by their visitors. On the present occasion, however, +it was only one among many good things, which were made better by +pleasant talk, and were succeeded by delicious fruits and coffee. After +dinner we visited the vegetable garden, and the well, where we found +Candido, the rich negro who had saved six hundred dollars, drawing +water with the help of a blind mule. Now the philanthrope of our party +was also a phrenologist, and had conceived a curiosity to inspect the +head of the very superior negro who had made all this money; so, at his +request, Candido was summoned from the well, and ordered to take off +his hat. This being removed disclosed the covering of a cotton +handkerchief, of which he was also obliged to divest himself. Candido +was much too well bred to show any signs of contumacy; but the +expression of his countenance varied, under the observation of the +phrenologist, from wonder to annoyance, and from that to the extreme of +sullen, silent wrath. The reason was obvious,--he supposed himself +brought up with a view to bargain and sale; and when informed that he +had a good head, he looked much inclined to give somebody else a bad +one. He was presently allowed to go back to his work; and our +sympathies went with him, as it would probably take some days to efface +from his mind the painful impression that he was to be sold, the last +calamity that can happen to a negro who is in kind hands. We now +wandered through the long avenues of palm and fruit trees with which +the estate was planted, and saw the stout black wenches at their +out-door occupations, which at this time consisted chiefly in raking +and cleansing the ground about the roots of the trees and flowers. +Their faces brightened as their employers passed, and the smaller +children kissed hands. Returned to the house, we paused awhile to enjoy +the evening red, for the sun was already below the horizon. Then came +the _volante_, and with heartfelt thanks and regrets we suffered it to +take us away. + +And who had been the real hero of this day? Who but Roque, fresh from +town, with his experience of Carnival, and his own accounts of the +masked ball, the Paseo, and the Senorita's beaux? All that durst +followed him to the gate, and kissed hands after him. _"Adios, Roque! +Roque, adios!"_ resounded on all sides; and Roque, the mysterious one, +actually smiled in conscious superiority, as he nodded farewell, and +galloped off, dragging us after him. + +As we drove back to Matanzas in the moonlight, a sound of horses' feet +made us aware that Don Antonito, the young friend who had planned and +accompanied our day's excursion, was to be our guard of honor on the +lonely road. A body-servant accompanied him, likewise mounted. Don +Antonito rode a milk-white Cuban pony, whose gait was soft, swift, and +stealthy as that of a phantom horse. His master might have carried a +brimming glass in either hand, without spilling a drop, or might have +played chess, or written love-letters on his back, so smoothly did he +tread the rough, stony road. All its pits and crags and jags, the pony +made them all a straight line for his rider, whose unstirred figure and +even speech made this quite discernible. For when a friend talks to you +on the trot, much gulping doth impede his conversation,--and there is +even a good deal of wallop in a young lady's gallop. But our friend's +musical Spanish ran on like a brook with no stones in it, that merely +talks to the moonlight for company. And such moonlight as it was that +rained down upon us, except where the palm-trees spread their inverted +parasols, and wouldn't let it! And such a glorification of all trees +and shrubs, including the palm, which we are almost afraid to call +again by name, lest it should grow "stuck up," and imagine there were +no other trees but itself! And such a combination of tropical silence, +warmth, and odor! Even in the night, we did not forget that the +aloe-hedges had red in them, which made all the ways beautiful by day. +Oh! it was what good Bostonians call "a lovely time"; and it was with a +sigh of fulness that we set down the goblet of enjoyment, drained to +the last drop, and getting, somehow, always sweeter towards the bottom. + +For it was set down at the Ensor House, which we are to leave to-night, +half-regretful at not having seen the scorpion by which we always +expected to be bitten; for we had heard such accounts of it, patrolling +the galleries with its venomous tail above its head, that we had +thought a sight might be worth a bite. It was not to be, however. The +luggage is brought; John is gratified with a _peso_; and we take leave +with entire goodwill. + +I mention our departure, only because it was Cuban and characteristic. +Returning by boat to Havana, we were obliged to be on board by ten +o'clock that evening, the boat starting at eleven. Of course, the +steamer was nowhere but a mile out in the stream; and a little +cockle-shell of a row-boat was our only means of attaining her. How +different, ye good New Yorkers and Bostonians, from your afternoon walk +on board the "Bay State," with valise and umbrella in hand, and all the +flesh-pots of Egypt in--well, in remembrance! After that degree of +squabbling among the boatmen which serves to relieve the feelings of +that habitually disappointed class of men, we chose our craft, and were +rowed to the steamer, whose sides were steep and high out of water. The +arrangements on board were peculiar. The body of the main deck was +occupied by the _gentlemen's_ cabin, which was large and luxurious. A +tiny after-cabin was fitted up for the ladies. In the region of the +machinery were six horrible staterooms, bare and dirty, the berths +being furnished simply with cane-bottoms, a pillow, and one unclean +sheet. Those who were decoyed into these staterooms endured them with +disgust while the boat was at anchor; but when the paddle-wheels began +to revolve, and dismal din of clang and bang and whirr came down about +their ears, and threatened to unroof the fortress of the brain, why, +then they fled madly, precipitately, leaving their clothes mostly +behind them. But I am anticipating. The passengers arrived and kept +arriving; and we watched, leaning over the side, for Don Antonito, who +was to accompany our voyage. Each boat had its little light; and to see +them dancing and toppling on the water was like a fairy scene. At last +came our friend; and after a little talk and watching of the stars, we +betook ourselves to rest. + +Many of the Dons were by this time undressed, and smoking in their +berths. As there was no access to the ladies' cabin, save through the +larger one, she who went thither awaited a favorable moment and ran, +looking neither to the right hand nor the left. The small space was +tolerably filled by Cuban ladies in full dress.--_Mem_. They always +travel in their best clothes.--The first navigation among them was a +real balloon-voyage, with collisions; but they soon collapsed and went +to bed. All is quiet now; and she of whom we write has thrown herself +upon the first vacant bed, spreading first a clean napkin on the +extremely serviceable pillow. Sleep comes; but what is this that +murders sleep? A diminutive male official going to each berth, and +arousing its fair occupant with "Dona Teresita," or whatever the name +may be, "favor me with the amount of your passage-money." No comment is +necessary; here, no tickets,--here, no stewardess to mediate between +the unseen captain and the unprotected female! The sanctuary of the sex +invaded at midnight, without apology and without rebuke! Think of that, +_those_ passengers who have not paid their fare, and, when invited to +call at the captain's office and settle, do so, and be thankful! The +male passengers underwent a similar visitation. It is the Cuban idea of +a compendious and economic arrangement. + +And here ends our account of Matanzas, our journey thither, stay, and +return. Peace rest upon the fair city! May the earthquake and hurricane +spare it! May the hateful Spanish government sit lightly on its strong +shoulders! May the filibusters attack it with kisses, and conquer it +with loving-kindness! So might it be with the whole island-vale! + + * * * * * + + +THE FIRST AND THE LAST. + + +It was the last December of the eighteenth century. All night a fierce +northeast snow-storm had been hissing and drifting through the frozen +air, pelting angrily at the shuttered and curtained windows of the +rich, and shrieking with scornful laughter as it forced its way through +the ill-fitting casements and loose doors of the poor, clutching at +them with icy fingers as they cowered over their poor fires, and +spreading over the garret-beds in which they sought to hide from him a +premature shroud of cold white snow. + +But with morning the storm ceased, and a little before noon the sun, +peering from behind his clouds, seemed to wink with astonishment at +seeing how much had been done in his absence. + +Not only the sun, but Mr. Phineas Coffin, guardian of the "town's +poor," in the town of Newport, was astir, and, standing at the door of +the "poor-'us," bent a contemplative eye upon the progress made by two +stout youths who were clearing the snow from the sidewalks and paths +upon his premises. + +Mr. Coffin perceived that a trial of skill and speed was going on +between one of his own pioneers and a lad similarly engaged on behalf +of the next estate. About half-way between the rapidly approaching +competitors stood a rough-hewn block of stone, marking the boundaries +of the two estates. + +To first reach this, the winning-post, was evidently the emulous desire +of each. As they approached near and nearer, the snow flew from their +shovels with a force and velocity which would certainly have reminded +Mr. Coffin of a steam snow-plough, had he ever seen or heard, of such a +thing, which he most assuredly never had. + +Each boy performed prodigies of skill and valor. The "poor-'us" lad +evidently gained, and his patron did not conceal a wide smile of +satisfaction; the rival looked up, saw it, was stung with generous +rage, threw himself with fury upon his shovel, and in three enormous +plunges laid bare his own side of the post, before "poor-'us" had come +within a foot of it. + +Then, clapping his numb fingers upon his thighs, the successful +champion uttered a melodious crow, which so disgusted the spectator +that he was about to retire within doors, when his eyes fell upon a +thinly clad, timid-looking woman who was advancing along the newly +opened path, casting deprecating glances at the two boys, who from +peaceful rivalry were now proceeding to open warfare, carried on with +the ammunition so plentifully spread before them. + +Nor was the alarm of the poor woman groundless; for, as she advanced +into the battle-field, she found herself saluted upon the breast with +an immense snow-ball, which, being of loose construction, adhered to +the red broadcloth cloak of the pedestrian, forming a conspicuous and +remarkable ornament to that garment. + +"Come, stop that, you young limbs, or I'll----," shouted the chivalric +Phineas, hastily gathering, as he spoke, material for a formidable +missile, which, being completed before the sentence, was used by him as +a ready means of rounding his period, being at once more forcible and +easier to come at than the words which most men would have used. + +Besides, Nathaniel, the poorhouse lad, turning round at sound of his +master's voice, presented so fair a mark, with his gaping mouth, that, +half involuntarily, the snow-ball left Mr. Coffin's hand, and the next +instant formed the contents of Nathaniel's open mouth, leaving, +however, a liberal surplusage to ornament his cheeks, chin, and nose. +The recipient of this bulletin choked, spluttered, and pawed at his +face after the manner of a cat who has tried to eat a wasp. + +His rival did not seek to conceal the expression of his triumph and +derision, the consequence of which was, that, as soon as "poor-'us" +could see, he fell upon his antagonist, and both immediately +disappeared from view in the bosom of an enormous drift. + +"Come right along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken +woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering +and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet +extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried +heroes,--"come right along, and don't be scaart of them young uns. +They're dreffal rude, I know; but then boys will be boys." + +The woman returned no answer to this time-honored defence of youthful +enormities, but, hurrying on, reached the door, saying,-- + +"How's your health this morning, Mr. Coffin?" + +"Waal, Ma'am, I'm pooty middlln' well, thank ye," replied Phineas, +slowly, and with an evident effort at recollection; then suddenly +added, with more vivacity,-- + +"Why, it's Widder Janes,--a'n't it? Declare to goodness I didn't know +ye, with yer hood over yer face. Walk in, Miss Janes, and see my +woman,--won't ye?" + +"Waal, I dunno as I can stop," replied the widow, beginning, +nevertheless, to shake the snow from her scanty skirts, and to stamp +her numb feet, which were protected from the biting cold by a pair of +old yarn socks, drawn over the shoes. + +"I was wantin' to see ye, a minit," continued she; "but Miss Coffin +allers keeps cleaned up so slick, I don't hardly darst to come in." + +"Oh, waal," replied Phineas, with a chuckle of satisfaction at the +compliment to his wife. "Ye look nice enough for anybody's folks. Come +right in, this way." + +"I dunno how 'tis," continued the visitor, as she followed her host +through the long entry, "that Miss Coffin can allers be so forehanded +with her work, an' do sich a master sight on't, too. She don't never +seem to be in the suds, Monday nor no time." + +Mr. Coffin had reached the door of the "keeping-room" as the widow +concluded her last remark; but pausing, with his thumb upon the latch, +he turned, and, looking over his shoulder, whispered, with an emphatic +nod,-- + +"Fact is, Miss Janes, there a'n't sich a great many women jest like +Miss Coffin." + +"There a'n't no two ways about that," murmured Miss Janes, assentingly, +as the door was thrown open. + +"Walk right in. Here, Marthy, the widder Janes has called to see you +this morning." + +A quiet, middle-aged woman turned round from the table, where she was +fitting patches to a pair of pauper trousers. Her face was sweet, her +voice low, and, though she was of middle age, every one agreed that +"Miss Coffin was a real pooty woman, an' a harnsome woman too." + +"How does thee do, Keziah Janes? I am glad to see thee. Take a seat by +the fire, and warm thee after thy cold walk." + +"I can't stop a minit; but it's as cheap settin' as stannin', I do +suppose," replied the widow, with a nervous little laugh, as she seated +herself in the proffered chair upon the clean red hearth, and commenced +her business by saying,-- + +"I was wantin' to speak with you, Mr. Coffin, about poor Mr. +Widdrinton." + +"Widdrinton,--who's he?" inquired Phineas. + +"Waal," commenced the widow, settling herself in her chair, and +assuming the air of one who has a story to narrate. "You know I have my +thirds in the house my poor husband left. It wa'n't sold, as it had +ought to ben,--for Samooel (that's _his_ brother) never's ben easy that +I should have the rooms I have; but they're what was set off for me, +an' so he can't help himself; on'y he's allers a-thornin.' when he gits +a chance. + +"But that a'n't nyther here nor there. What I was a-comin' to was this. +Ruther better 'n a year ago, a man come to me and wanted to know ef I +used all my rooms. I told him I hadn't no use for the garrit, 'cept to +dry my yarbs in (for I think yarbs are drefful good in case o' +sickness, Miss Coffin,--don't you?) An' then he said he wanted a place +to sleep in, an' his breakfast an' supper, an' wanted to know if I +would take him so. + +"Waal, I thought about it a spell, an' I concluded I was too old to +mind the speech o' people, and I hadn't no other objection, so I said +he might come,--an' he did, that very day. + +"Waal, at fust he had some kind o' work to do writin', an' he seemed to +git along very comf'table,--at least, fur's I know,--for I was out +tailorin' all day mostly, same as I be now; but last fall the writin' +seemed to gin out all to oncet, an' he begun to kerry off his furnitoor +an' books to sell, an' finally he paid up all he was owin' of me, an' +told me he didn't want no more meals, but would find himself. + +"Waal, I told him, that, seein' things wuz as they wuz with him, I +shouldn't take no rent for the garrit, an' I could dry my yarbs there +jest as well as ef he warn't there; an' he looked kind o' red, and held +his head up a minit, an' then he thanked me, an' said, 'God bless you!' +an' said he'd pay me, ef he got any more work. + +"Waal, he didn't git no more; an' after the furnitoor an' the books, +his cloze begun to go. + +"Then I begun to be afeard he didn't have nothin' to eat, an' oncet in +a while I'd kerry him up a mess o' vittles; but it allers seemed +drefful hard for him to take 'em, an' fin'ly he told me not to do so no +more, an' said suthin' to himself about devourin' widders. So I didn't +darst to go up agin, he looked so kind o' furce an' sharp, till, last +night, I reck'n'd the snow would sift in through the old ruff, an' I +went up to offer him a comf'table for his bed. I knocked; but he didn't +make no answer, so I pushed the door open an' went in. It was a good +while sence I'd seen the inside o' the room,--for when he heerd me +comin' up, he'd open the door a crack an' peek out while he spoke to +me; so when I got inside the room and looked about, I was all took +aback an' gawped round like a fool, an' no wunder nyther; for of all +the good furnitoor and things he'd brought, there wa'n't the fust thing +to be seen, save and 'xcept a kind o' frame covered with cloth stannin' +ag'inst the wall, an' an old straw-bed on the floor, with him on it, +an' a mis'able old comf'table kivered over him." + +"And this bitter weather, too! Oh, Keziah, what did thee do?" asked +Mrs. Coffin, in a tearful voice. + +"Why, I went up to the bedside, (ef you may call it so,) an' said, sez +I, 'Why, Lor' sakes, Mr. Widdrinton,'----an' then I hild up, for I +ketchcd a sight of his face, an' I thought he wuz gone for sartin. He +wuz as cold an' as white as that 'ere snow, an' it warn't till I'd felt +of his heart an' foun' that it beat a little that I thought of sich a +thing as his comin' to. But as soon as I found he'd got a breath o' +life in him, I didn't waste much time till I'd got him wropped up in a +hot blanket with a jug o' water to his feet, an' some hot tea inside on +him. Then he come to a little, an' said he hadn't eat nor drank for two +days an' nights." + +"Oh, Keziah!" sobbed Mrs. Coffin; while her husband, plunging his hands +deep into his breeches-pockets, and elevating his eyebrows till they +were lost in his shaggy hair, exclaimed,-- + +"Good Je-hosaphat!" which was the nearest approach to an oath in which +he ever indulged. + +"An' so," pursued the widow, after enjoying for a moment the +consternation of her audience,--"an' so I thought I had better come an' +see ef he couldn't be took in here; not that I wouldn't do for him, an' +be glad to, fur as I could, but he a'n't in a state to be left alone, +an' you know my trade takes me away consid'able from home,--an' which, +if I don't foller it, why, when I git a little older, I shall have to +come here myself, an' be a burden on your hands an' the town's." + +"We would take good care of thee, if thee did come, Keziah," said Mrs. +Coffin, in whom the habitual equanimity of the "Friend" had conquered +the emotion of the woman. "Though I do not deny that it is pleasanter +and better for thee to support thyself, as thee always has done." + +"I don't doubt you would be good to me, Miss Coffin, an' thank ye, +Ma'am, kindly for a-sayin' of it; but you know innerpendance is sweet +to all on us." + +"Surely, surely, Keziah; and now, Phineas, I suppose thee will see at +once about this poor man, won't thee?" + +"Yes, Marthy, yes. I'll go right off and see one of the selectmen; and +I reckon, by the time you git a bed ready for him, we shall be along." + +Phineas accordingly bustled out of the room; and Mrs. Janes, after +lingering a few moments, took her leave and returned to her charge, +inwardly congratulating herself on having so new and interesting a +piece of intelligence with which to lighten her next day's "tailoring." + +Mrs. Coffin, left alone, stood for a moment considering, and then, +opening a door, called gently,-- + +"Faith!" + +"Yes, mother," replied a voice whose soft tones seemed the echo of her +own. A moment after, a slender, dark-eyed girl, about twenty years of +age, entered the room, and said cheerfully,-- + +"What is it, mother?" + +"I have somewhat to tell thee, Faith." + +And the Quakeress repeated, in calm, unemphatic language, the story +narrated by Mrs. Janes. + +"The poor man will soon be here, Faith," continued she, "and I wanted +to ask what thee thinks should be done with him. Thee knows there is no +room that can have a fire in it, except the one where Polly and Susan +sleep, and they are both too sick to be moved into the cold"-- + +"He shall have my room, mother," said Faith, quietly. + +"Thy room, child?" + +"Yes, mother; and I will sleep here on the couch. I should like it very +much indeed; for you know I never have been able to be quite the +orderly and regular girl you have tried to make me." + +"Thee is a good girl," said the mother, quietly. + +"Not half so good a girl as I ought to be, with so good a mother," +replied Faith, throwing her arms about her mother's neck and kissing +her fondly. + +The elder woman returned the caress with an involuntary warmth, which, +pure and natural though it might be, was yet at variance with the +strict rule of her sect, which had taught her to avoid everything like +compliment or caress, as savoring of the manners of the "world's +people." + +She therefore, after one kiss, gently repelled the girl, saying,-- + +"Nay, Faith, but it sufficeth. Go, then, if thee will, and make ready +thy chamber for this sick man, while I prepare him some broth." + +An hour later, a pung or box-sleigh drew up at the poor-house door, +from which was lifted a long, gaunt figure, carefully enveloped in +blankets and cloaks. As he was taken from the sleigh, he feebly +murmured a few words, to which Phineas Coffin replied kindly,-- + +"Don't be scart,--it's all safe, and Nathaniel will fetch it right in +after us." + +"What! this 'ere?" queried the youth called Nathaniel, while he lifted +from the sleigh, somewhat contemptuously, a long flat something, +carefully enveloped in a cotton case. + +"Yes. Fetch it along this way," replied Phineas; and Nathaniel followed +the chair, in which the sick man was carried, into the pretty little +maiden chamber which Faith had so quietly relinquished to one who she +thought needed it more than herself. + +Mother and daughter stood ready to receive their new charge, and see +him comfortable in the warm, soft bed which they had prepared for him. + +"Thee will soon get rested now, friend, and go to sleep,--won't thee?" +said Mrs. Coffin, in her gentle voice, as she turned down the sheet a +little more evenly. + +"Where is it?" panted the exhausted sufferer, trying to look beyond his +kind nurse into the room. + +"What does thee mean, friend?" + +"It is this thing, mother," said Faith, bringing it forward, and +leaning it against the wall at the foot of the bed. "He brought it with +him," continued she, in a low voice; "and father says, he didn't seem +to care half so much about his own comfort as to have _that_ safe." + +"It is my--property,--all I have--left. I won't be--parted from it. +You--sha'n't take it--away," gasped the sick man, in an excited tone. + +"Thee shall not be parted from it, friend," said Mrs. Coffin, +soothingly. "Surely we would not deprive thee of what is thine own, and +what thee seems to value so much. Now if thee will try to go to sleep, +I will stay with thee the while, and when thee wakes give thee some +broth to strengthen thee." + +"Let--let _her_ stay.--Go away,--the rest of you," whispered the feeble +voice, while the weary eyes rested upon Faith's grave, sweet face. + +"Thee means my daughter? Faith, does thee wish to stay? or had thee +rather I should?" + +"I will stay, mother, if he wishes it." + +"Very well, daughter. When thee is weary, come down, and I, or one of +the women, will take thy place." + +Mrs. Coffin left the room, and Faith, her sewing in her hand, was about +seating herself by the fire, when the voice of the stranger summoned +her to the bedside. + +Turning, she found his hollow and gleaming eyes fixed sternly upon her, +while a long, lean finger was pointed alternately at her and the frame +leaning against the wall. + +"Girl!" + +"Can I do something for you?" asked Faith, kindly. + +"Don't you look at it--or let any one--else, while I'm--asleep." + +"I certainly will not." + +"Promise!" + +"I do promise." + +"Swear!" + +"Nay, friend, that would be wrong," replied the girl, unconsciously +adopting the phraseology of the Quakers, while expressing a sentiment +learned from them; for though Faith had been brought up outwardly in +the creed of her father, she had, without being aware of it, adopted +many of the tenets to which her mother held. + +"I will promise you very solemnly, however," continued she, "that I +will neither look at yonder thing nor allow any one else to do so; and +you will be wrong to doubt my word." + +"I don't.--What is your name?" + +"Faith." + +"A good omen. Mine is--Ichabod." + +"Ichabod Widdrinton?" + +"Ichabod. Call me so,--all of you." + +"Very well, if it is your name, we will. Now you must go to sleep." + +"Sit there,--where I can see you." + +Faith complied with this request, although uncertain whether it was not +prompted by a distrust of her promise. The stranger soon slept, and his +young nurse then made a more attentive survey of his features than she +had yet done. He seemed not over forty years of age, and would, in +health, have been considered a handsome man,--although the fine silky +hair, thin beard, sensitive nostril, and delicate mouth could never +have expressed much of strength or resolution. + +The traces of disease and starvation were painfully apparent; but it +seemed to the thoughtful Faith that behind these she could perceive in +the sorrowful, downward curve of the lips, in the lines of the hollow, +throbbing temples, in the gloomy light of the dark eyes, symptoms of a +long corroding care, which, though secretly, had done its work of +devastation more surely and more ruthlessly than the more apparent +foes. + +"How he must have suffered!" murmured she. It seemed as if the tone of +gentle pity had penetrated the light slumber, and reached the heart of +the sick man,--for, opening his eyes, he smiled upon the girl, a wan, +sad smile, which was at once an assent and a benison. + +From that moment, until the welcome end of that sad life, Ichabod would +patiently endure no tendance but Faith's; and she, with the calm and +silent self-abnegation of her order, (for Florence Nightingale is but a +type, and there are those all about us who lack but her opportunities,) +devoted herself to him. + +Her mother sometimes remonstrated, and begged her to yield her place in +the sick-chamber to her or to one of the pauper women; but Faith, whose +grave sweetness concealed more determination than a stranger would have +guessed, would simply say,-- + +"Dear mother, what is a little fatigue to one as well as I am, compared +with the pleasure of making this poor stranger's death-bed happy and +quiet?--which it certainly would not be, if he was crossed in his fancy +for seeing me about him." And the conscientious mind of the mother was +forced to yield assent to this simple logic. + +A few weeks thus passed, and then the sick man became a dying man. The +pauper inmates of the house were all willing and anxious to watch +beside him through the long nights, but Ichabod received all their +attentions very ungraciously; nor was it till Faith told him, in her +kind, decided way, that she could not stay with him at night, that he +consented to allow the others to do so. + +At last there came the evening when the physician said to Mrs. Coffin, +as he entered the room where she sat with her husband,-- + +"He won't last till morning,--'tis impossible." + +"Then thee had better watch beside him, Phineas. It is not fitting that +Faith should do so." + +"Certain. I'll go right up, and send her down," replied Phineas, +readily. + +But when the arrangements for the night were made known to Ichabod, he +caught hold of Faith's dress, as she stood at his bedside bidding him +good-night, and gasped out,-- + +"No, no!--you!--I must have--you!--I shall die--die to-night!--And--and +I want to tell--to tell you something.--Stay,--stay, Faith!--it's the +last--last time, and I--I shall never trouble any one--any more." + +"Let me stay, mother; father, do!" pleaded Faith, looking from one to +the other. "I should be very unhappy, always, if I was obliged to deny +him this last request. I shall not be afraid, mother; and Betty can +sleep in the chair by the fire, if you wish it, so as to be at hand, if +"---- + +"Well, child, if thee feels a call to do so, and it will make thee +unhappy to be denied, I will hold my peace. But thee must certainly +have Betty here, and promise to send her to call me, if Ichabod should +be worse,--won't thee?" + +Faith gave the required promise, and in a short time the chamber was +prepared for night. The old woman (whose skill in the last awful rites +which man pays to man caused her always to be selected for such +occasions) slept soundly beside the glowing fire, the dying man dozed +uneasily, and Faith, shading the light from his eyes, opened the +large-print Bible, which her mother, careful both for the well-being of +her daughter's immortal soul and temporal eyesight, had recommended for +her night's perusal. + +The hours passed slowly on, unmarked by change, until Faith had counted +three solemn strokes from the old clock in the entry, when the sick man +suddenly awoke. + +As Faith came to his bedside, to offer him the draught for which he +always asked on awakening, she was struck with a change in his face. +The eyes were at once calmer and brighter, the look of uneasy pain had +disappeared, and the thin lips wore almost a smile. + +"Dear Faith," said he, in a gentle voice, which yet was stronger and +more unbroken than any she had heard from him before, "how good you +have been to me! I am dying; but do not call any one yet. I want to +talk to you a little, first. Put another pillow under my head, and +raise me,--so. Now light your other candle, stir the fire to a brighter +blaze, and then uncover--it." + +Faith, pale and quiet, did as she was bid, stirred the fire, till its +ruddy glow brightened every nook of the little white-washed chamber, +and made the old crone beside it wince and mutter in her sleep. Having +shielded her from its fierce light, she then, with trembling fingers, +opened a little penknife which lay upon the table, and cut the twine +with which the cover was sewed at the back. The last stitch severed, +the cloth fell with a solemn rustle at her feet, and disclosed--a +picture. + +Faith examined it with much attention and some curiosity. It was the +full-length figure of a man, dressed in rich robes of office, his +powdered hair put back from his forehead, his left hand resting on the +pommel of his sword, and his right clasping a roll of parchment. The +expression of his face was grave, majestic, and noble; and yet between +those handsome features and the attenuated face of the dying pauper +Faith soon perceived one of those resemblances, strong, yet +indefinable, which are so apparent to some persons, so undiscoverable +by others. + +"A noble gentleman, Faith,--was he not?" said Ichabod, at length. "And +they say his picture does not do him justice. He was an English +gentleman of property and station,--the heir of a good fortune and +honorable name; but he left all to come here and help found this new +country,--this glorious land of freedom and conscience,--where every +man has perfect liberty--to starve in his own fashion. + +"He came and was a great man among them. He built the finest house in +the village of Boston, and then came hither, where they made him +governor and named a bay after him. + +"He went home for a visit to England, and there he had this picture +painted by the court-painter of those days, and brought it back with +him as a present to his wife. + +"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a +very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as +they say in storybooks. + +"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small +portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried. + +"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family +found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the +traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches +of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an +end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the +family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They +met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short +conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name, +alive. + +"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by +uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it +more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the +glory has departed.' + +"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered +their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their +first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and +which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and +despair. + +"The husband soon died. Man breaks, woman bends, beneath the crushing +weight of such a life. My mother lived, a dark and silent woman, till +five years ago. Then she died, too, and I inherited my ancestor's +portrait and the curse of the Withringtons. + +"I tried to work, to earn my bread, as men all about me were doing. But +no,--the fate was upon me, the curse pursued me. Everything failed +which I attempted. I sunk lower and lower, until the name and the +picture, which had been my pride, became a shame and a reproach to me. +I abandoned the one and concealed the other, resolved to reveal neither +until the moment arrived when death should wipe out the squalor of +life, conquer fate, and expiate the curse. + +"Quick, Faith, quick! The hour has come. Take the knife you just +held,--cut the canvas from its frame,--cut it in fragments,--lay it on +the blazing fire. We will perish together,--the First and--the Last." + +"Nay, Ichabod, give it to me," said Faith, shrinking from the proposed +holocaust "I will always keep it, and value it." + +"Would you see me fall dead at your feet, while attempting to do for +myself what you refuse to do for me?" asked the dying man, with +feverish ardor, and half rising, as if to leave his bed. + +"No, no,--I will do it, since it must be so," exclaimed Faith, eagerly. +"Lie down again and watch me." + +Ichabod sunk back upon his pillows, and gazed with eyes of fitful light +upon the girl, while she, opening the keen knife, cut slowly and +laboriously round the margin of the stout canvas, which shrieked +beneath the blade, as if the spirit of the effigy which it bore were +resisting the fearful doom which threatened it. + +At last the canvas was entirely released, and Faith silently held it up +before the eyes of the dying man, upon whose face had come a dull, +leaden blankness, and whose eyes were painful to watch as they +struggled to pierce the film which was gathering over them. + +"Burn," he hoarsely murmured. + +With a sigh, Faith cut the picture into strips, and laid them gently, +reverently, upon the coals heaped in the large fireplace. + +The greedy flames leaped up to grasp their prey, and Faith turned sick +and faint as she watched them fasten upon that noble face, which seemed +to contract and shrivel in its anguish as they seized upon it. + +She gazed a moment, painfully fascinated, then turned toward the +bed,--but as her eyes fell upon Ichabod's face, she started back, and, +rousing the old woman from her slumber, sent to summon her mother. + +Mrs. Coffin came immediately,--but when she entered the little chamber, +the last fragment of the canvas was shrivelling in the flames, the last +sigh of the dying man was parting from his white lips. + +They had perished together,--the First--and the Last. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +You will know, perhaps, in the course of half an hour's reading, what +has been haunting my hours of sleep and waking for months. I cannot +tell, of course, whether you are a nervous person or not. If, however, +you are such a person,--if it is late at night,--if all the rest of the +household have gone off to bed,--if the wind is shaking your windows as +if a human hand were rattling the sashes,--if your candle or lamp is +low and will soon burn out,--let me advise you to read the "Critical +Notices" or some other paper contained in this number, if you have not +already devoured them all, and leave this to be read by daylight, with +cheerful voices round, and people near by who would hear you, if you +slid from your chair and came down in a lump on the floor. + +I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did, I am willing to +confess, when I entered the dim chamber. Did I not tell you that I was +sensitive and imaginative, and that I had lain awake with thinking what +were the strange movements and sounds which I heard late at night in my +little neighbor's apartment? It had come to that pass that I was truly +unable to separate what I had really heard from what I had dreamed in +these nightmares to which I have been subject, as before mentioned. So, +when I walked into the room, and Bridget, turning back, closed the door +and left me alone with its tenant, I do believe you could have grated a +nutmeg on my skin, such a "goose-flesh" shiver ran over it. It was not +fear, but what I call nervousness,--unreasoning, but irresistible; as +when, for instance, one looking at the sun going down says, "I will +count fifty before it disappears"; and as he goes on and it becomes +doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets strangely flurried, +and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and hell as the +issues depending on the completion or non-completion of the fifty he is +counting. Extreme curiosity will excite some people as much as fear, or +what resembles fear, acts on some other less impressible natures. + +I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little +conjurer's room. Or, again, there may be nothing in this poor invalid's +chamber but some old furniture, such as they say came over in the +Mayflower. All this is just what I mean to find out while I am looking +at the Little Gentleman, who has suddenly become my patient. The +simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most +mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace objects in +disguise. + +I wonder whether the boys that live in Roxbury and Dorchester are ever +moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the rocks +and fragments of "puddingstone" abounding in those localities. I have +my suspicions that those boys "heave a stone" or "fire a brick-bat," +composed of the conglomerate just mentioned, without any more tearful +or philosophical contemplations than boys of less favored regions +expend on the same performance. Yet a lump of puddingstone is a thing +to look at, to think about, to study over, to dream upon, to go crazy +with, to beat one's brains out against. Look at that pebble in it. From +what cliff was it broken? On what beach rolled by the waves of what +ocean? How and _when_ imbedded in soft ooze, which itself became stone, +and by-and-by was lifted into bald summits and steep cliffs, such as +you may see on Meetinghouse-Hill any day,--yes, and mark the scratches +on their faces left when, the boulder-carrying glaciers planed the +surface of the continent with such rough tools that the storms have not +worn the marks out of it with all the polishing of ever so many +thousand years? + +Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in spring-time, take from it +any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time. Some +little worm-shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are fastened +to the stick: eggs of a small snail-like shell-fish. One of these +specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an opaque mass +in its centre. And while you are looking, the opaque mass begins to +stir, and by-and-by slowly to turn upon its axis like a forming +planet,--life beginning in the microcosm, as in the great worlds of the +firmament, with the revolution that turns the surface in ceaseless +round to the source of life and light. + +A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their +mysteries, this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified slag, +or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces. Mysteries are common +enough, at any rate, whatever the boys in Roxbury and Dorchester think +of "brickbats" and the spawn of creatures that live in roadside +puddles. + +But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly plain, +when we can get at them so as to turn them over. How many ghosts that +"thick men's blood with cold" prove to be shirts hung out to dry! How +many mermaids have been made out of seals! How many times have +horse-mackerels been taken for the sea-serpent! + +----Let me take the whole matter coolly, while I see what is the matter +with the patient. That is what I say to myself, as I draw a chair to +the bedside.--The bed is an old-fashioned, dark mahogany four-poster. +It was never that which made the noise of something moving. It is too +heavy to be pushed about the room.--The Little Gentleman was sitting, +bolstered up by pillows, with his hands clasped and their united palms +resting on the back of the head,--one of the three or four positions +specially affected by persons whose breathing is difficult from disease +of the heart or other causes. + +Sit down, Sir,--he said,--sit down! I have come to the hill Difficulty, +Sir, and am fighting my way up. His speech was laborious and +interrupted. + +Don't talk,--I said,--except to answer my questions.--And I proceeded +to "prospect" for the marks of some local mischief, which you know is +at the bottom of all these attacks, though we do not always find it. I +suppose I go to work pretty much like other professional folks of my +temperament. Thus:-- + +Wrist, if you please.--I was on his right side, but he presented his +left wrist, crossing it over the other.--I begin to count, holding +watch in left hand. One, two, three, four,----What a handsome +hand!--wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle.--One, two, three, +four, five, six, seven,----Can't see much, it is so dark, except one +white object.--One, two, three, four,----Hang it! eighty or ninety in +the minute, I guess.--Tongue, if you please.--Tongue is put out. Forget +to look at it, or, rather, to take any particular notice of it;--but +what _is_ that white object, with the long arm stretching up as if +pointing to the sky, just as Vesalius and Spigelius and those old +fellows used to put their skeletons? I don't think anything of such +objects, you know; but what should _he_ have it in his chamber for?--As +I had found his pulse irregular and intermittent, I took out a +stethoscope, which is a pocket-spyglass for looking into men's chests +with your ears, and laid it over the place where the heart beats. I +missed the usual beat of the organ.--How is this?--I said,--where is +your heart gone to?--He took the stethoscope and shifted it across to +the right side; there was a displacement of the organ.--I am +ill-packed,--he said;--there was no room for my heart in its place as +it is with other men.--God help him! + +It is hard to draw the line between scientific curiosity and the desire +for the patient's sake to learn all the details of his condition. I +must look at this patient's chest, and thump it and listen to it. For +this is a case of _ectopia cordis_, my boy,--displacement of the heart; +and it isn't every day you get a chance to overhaul such an interesting +malformation. And so I managed to do my duty and satisfy my curiosity +at the same time. The torso was slight and deformed; the right arm +attenuated,--the left full, round, and of perfect symmetry. It had run +away with the life of the other limbs,--a common trick enough of +Nature's, as I told you before. If you see a man with legs withered +from childhood, keep out of the way of his arms, if you have a quarrel +with him. He has the strength of four limbs in two; and if he strikes +you, it is an arm-blow _plus_ a kick administered from the shoulder +instead of the haunch, where it should have started from. + +Still examining him as a patient, I kept my eyes about me to search all +parts of the chamber, and went on with the double process, as +before.--Heart hits as hard as a fist,--_bellows-sound over mitral +valves_ (professional terms you need not attend to).--What the deuce is +that long case for? Got his witch grandmother mummied in it? And three +big mahogany presses,--hey?--A diabolical suspicion came over me which +I had had once before,--that he might be one of our modern +_alchemists_,--you understand,--make gold, you know, or _what looks +like it_, sometimes with the head of a king or queen or of Liberty to +embellish one side of the piece.--Don't I remember hearing him shut a +door and lock it once? What do you think was kept under that lock? +Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses. +One can tell a man's business, if it is a handicraft, very often by +just taking a look at his open hand.--Ah! Four calluses at the end of +the fingers of the right hand. None on those of the left. Ah, ha! What +do those mean? + +All this seems longer in the telling, of course, than it was in fact. +While I was making these observations of the objects around me, I was +also forming my opinion as to the kind of case with which I had to +deal. + +There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's life: brain, +blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out, +followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all +three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the +fluid ceases to supply the other centres of flame, and all is soon +stagnation, cold, and darkness. The "tripod of life" a French +physiologist called these three organs. It is all clear enough which +leg of the tripod is going to break down here. I could tell you exactly +what the difficulty is;--which would be as intelligible and amusing as +a watchmaker's description of a diseased timekeeper to a ploughman. It +is enough to say, that I found just what I expected to, and that I +think this attack is only the prelude of more serious consequences, +--which expression means you very well know what. + +And now the secrets of this life hanging on a thread must surely come +out. If I have made a mystery where there was none, my suspicions will +be shamed, as they have often been before. If there is anything +strange, my visits will clear it up. + +I sat an hour or two by the side of the Little Gentleman's bed, after +giving him some henbane to quiet his brain, and some foxglove, which an +imaginative French professor has called the "Opium of the Heart." Under +their influence he gradually fell into an uneasy, half-waking slumber, +the body fighting hard for every breath, and the mind wandering off in +strange fancies and old recollections, which escaped from his lips in +broken sentences. + +----The last of 'em,--he said,--the last of 'em all,--thank God! And +the grave he lies in will look just as well as if he had been straight. +Dig it deep, old Martin, dig it deep,--and let it be as long as other +folks' graves. And mind you get the sods flat, old man,--flat as ever a +straight-backed young fellow was laid under. And then, with a good tall +slab at the head, and a footstone six foot away from it, it'll look +just as if there was a man underneath. + +A man! Who said he was a man? No more men of that pattern to bear _his_ +name!--Used to be a good-looking set enough.--Where's all the manhood +and womanhood gone to since his great-grand-father was the strongest +man that sailed out of the town of Boston, and poor Leah there the +handsomest woman in Essex, if she was a witch? + +----Give me some light,--he said,--more light,--I want to see the +picture. + +He had started either from a dream or a wandering reverie. I was not +unwilling to have more light in the apartment, and presently had +lighted an astral lamp that stood on a table.--He pointed to a portrait +hanging against the wall.--Look at her,--he said,--look, at her! +Wasn't that a pretty neck to slip a hangman's noose over? + +The portrait was of a young woman, something more than twenty years +old, perhaps. There were few pictures of any merit painted in New +England before the time of Smibert, and I am at a loss to know what +artist--could have taken this half-length, which was evidently from +life. It was somewhat stiff and flat, but the grace of the figure and +the sweetness of the expression reminded me of the angels of the early +Florentine painters. She must have been of some consideration, for she +was dressed in paduasoy and lace with hanging sleeves, and the old +carved frame showed how the picture had been prized by its former +owners. A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was +that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George +Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the +artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I +suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of +young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good +evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I +should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she +had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some +devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers, +with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his +pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight +suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to +leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly +maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses? + +She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I +are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted +me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the +board-fences. They said the doctors would want my skeleton when I was +dead.--You are my friend, if you are a doctor,--a'n't you? + +I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak. I want to lie +still,--he said,--after I am put to bed upon the hill yonder. Can't you +have a great stone laid over me, as they did over the first settlers in +the old burying-ground at Dorchester, so as to keep the wolves from +digging them up? I never slept easy over the sod;--I should like to lie +quiet under it. And besides,--he said, in a kind of scared whisper,--I +don't want to have my bones stared at, as my body has been. I don't +doubt I was a _remarkable case_; but, for God's sake, oh, for God's +sake, don't let 'em make a show of the cage I have been shut up in and +looked through the bars of for so many years! + +I have heard it said that the art of healing makes men hardhearted and +indifferent to human suffering. I am willing to own that there is often +a professional hardness in surgeons, just as there is in +theologians,--only much less in degree than in these last. It does not +commonly improve the sympathies of a man to be in the habit of +thrusting knives into his fellow-creatures and burning them with +red-hot irons, any more than it improves them to hold the +blinding-white cautery of Gehenna by its cool handle and score and +crisp young souls with it until they are scorched into the belief of +--Transubstantiation or the Immaculate Conception. And, to say the +plain truth, I think there are a good many coarse people in both +callings. A delicate nature will not commonly choose a pursuit which +implies the habitual infliction of suffering, so readily as some +gentler office. Yet, while I am writing this paragraph, there passes by +my window, on his daily errand of duty, not seeing me, though I catch a +glimpse of his manly features through the oval glass of his chaise, as +he rides by, a surgeon of skill and standing, so friendly, so modest, +so tender-hearted in all his ways, that, if he had not approved himself +at once adroit and firm, one would have said he was of too kindly a +mould to be the minister of pain, even if it were saving pain. You +may be sure that some men, even among those who have chosen the task of +pruning their fellow-creatures, grow more and more thoughtful and truly +compassionate in the midst of their cruel experience. They become less +nervous, but more sympathetic. They have a truer sensibility for +others' pain, the more they study pain and disease in the light of +science. I have said this without claiming any special growth in +humanity for myself, though I do hope I grow tenderer in my feelings as +I grow older. At any rate, this was not a time in which professional +habits could keep down certain instincts of older date than these. +This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed +rapacity of Science, which he feared would have her "specimen," if his +ghost should walk restlessly a thousand years, waiting for his bones to +be laid in the dust, touched my heart. But I felt bound to speak +cheerily.--We won't die yet awhile, if we can help it,--I said,--and +I trust we can help it. But don't be afraid; if I live longest, I will +see that your resting-place is kept sacred till the dandelions and +buttercups blow over you. He seemed to have got his wits together by +this time, and to have a vague consciousness that he might have been +saying more than he meant for anybody's ears.--I have been talking a +little wild, Sir, eh?--he said.--There is a great buzzing in my head +with those drops of yours, and I doubt If my tongue has not been a +little looser than I would have it, Sir. But I don't much want to live. +Sir; that's the truth of the matter; and it does rather please me to +think that fifty years from now nobody will know that the place where I +lie doesn't hold as stout and straight a man as the best of 'em that +stretch out as if they were proud of the room they take. You may get me +well, if you can, Sir, if you think it worth while to try; but I tell +you there has been no time for this many a year when the smell of fresh +earth was not sweeter to me than all the flowers that grow out of it. +There's no anodyne like your good clean gravel, Sir. But if you can +keep me about awhile, and it amuses you to try, you may show your skill +upon me, if you like. There is a pleasure or two that I love the +daylight for, and I think the night is not far off, at best.--I believe +I shall sleep now; you may leave me, and come, if you like, in the +morning. Before I passed out, I took one more glance round the +apartment. The beautiful face of the portrait looked at me, as +portraits often do, with a frightful kind of intelligence in its eyes. +The drapery fluttered on the still outstretched arm of the tall object +near the window;--a crack of this was open, no doubt, and some breath +of wind stirred the hanging folds. In my excited state, I seemed to see +something ominous in that arm pointing to the heavens. I thought of the +figures in the Dance of Death at Basle, and that other on the panels of +the covered Bridge at Lucerne; and it seemed to me that the grim mask +who mingles with every crowd and glides over every threshold was +pointing the sick man to his far home, and would soon stretch out his +bony hand and lead him or drag him on the unmeasured journey towards +it. The fancy had possession of me, and I shivered again as when I +first entered the chamber. The picture and the shrouded shape; I saw +only these two objects. They were enough. The house was deadly still, +and the night-wind, blowing through an open window, struck me as from a +field of ice, at the moment I passed into the creaking corridor. As I +turned into the common passage, a white figure, holding a lamp, stood +full before me. I thought at first it was one of those images made to +stand in niches and hold a light in their hands. But the illusion was +momentary, and my eyes speedily recovered from the shock of the bright +flame and snowy drapery to see that the figure was a breathing one. It +was Iris, in one of her statue-trances. She had come down, whether +sleeping or waking, I knew not at first, led by an instinct that told +her she was wanted,--or, possibly, having overheard and interpreted the +sound of our movements,--or, it may be, having learned from the servant +that there was trouble which might ask for a woman's hand. I sometimes +think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they +cannot see or hear, are in suffering. How surely we find them at the +bedside of the dying! How strongly does Nature plead for them, that we +should draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last +upon their faithful breasts! + +With white, bare feet, her hair loosely knotted, dressed as the +starlight knew her, and the morning when she rose from slumber, save +that she had twisted a scarf round her long dress, she stood still as a +stone before me, holding in one hand a lighted coil of wax-taper, and +in the other a silver goblet. I held my own lamp close to her, as if +she had been a figure of marble, and she did not stir. There was no +breach of propriety then, to scare the Poor Relation with and breed +scandal out of. She had been "warned in a dream," doubtless suggested +by her waking knowledge and the sounds which had reached her exalted +sense. There was nothing more natural than that she should have risen +and girdled her waist, and lighted her taper, and found the silver +goblet with "_Ex dono pupillorum_" on it, from which she had taken her +milk and possets through all her childish years, and so gone blindly +out to find her place at the bedside,--a Sister of Charity without the +cap and rosary; nay, unknowing whither her feet were leading her, and +with wide, blank eyes seeing nothing but the vision that beckoned her +along.--Well, I must wake her from her slumber or trance. I called her +name, but she did not heed my voice. + +The Devil put it into my head that I would kiss one handsome young girl +before I died, and now was my chance. She never would know it, and I +should carry the remembrance of it with me into the grave, and a rose +perhaps grow out of my dust, as out of Lord Lovel's, in memory of that +immortal moment! Would it wake her from her trance? and would she see +me in the flush of my stolen triumph, and hate and despise me ever +after? Or should I carry off my trophy undetected, and always from that +time say to myself, when I looked upon her in the glory of youth and +the splendor of beauty, "My lips have touched those roses and made +their sweetness mine forever"? You think my cheek was flushed, perhaps, +and my eyes were glittering with this midnight flash of opportunity. On +the contrary, I believe I was pale, very pale, and I know that I +trembled. Ah, it is the pale passions that are the fiercest,--it is the +violence of the chill that gives the measure of the fever! The +fighting-boy of our school always turned white when he went out to a +pitched battle with the bully of some neighboring village; but we knew +what his bloodless cheeks meant,--the blood was all in his stout +heart,--he was a slight boy, and there was not enough to redden his +face and fill his heart both at once. + +Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the +internal conflicts in the heart of a quiet person something more than +juvenile and something less than senile, as to whether he should be +guilty of an impropriety, and, if he were, whether he would get caught +in his indiscretion. And yet the memory of the kiss that Margaret of +Scotland gave to Alain Chartier has lasted four hundred years, and put +it into the head of many an ill-favored poet, whether Victoria or +Eugenie would do as much by him, if she happened to pass him when he +was asleep. And have we ever forgotten that the fresh cheek of the +young John Milton tingled under the lips of some high-born Italian +beauty, who, I believe, did not think to leave her card by the side of +the slumbering youth, but has bequeathed the memory of her pretty deed +to all coming time? The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a +cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer. + +There is one disadvantage which the man of philosophical habits of mind +suffers, as compared with the man of action. While he is taking an +enlarged and rational view of the matter before him, he lets his chance +slip through his fingers. Iris woke up, of her own accord, before I had +made up my mind what I was going to do about it. + +When I remember how charmingly she looked, I don't blame myself at all +for being tempted; but if I had been fool enough to yield to the +impulse, I should certainly have been ashamed to tell of it. She did +not know what to make of it, finding herself there alone, in such +guise, and me staring at her. She looked down at her white robe and +bare feet, and colored,--then at the goblet she held in her hand,--then +at the taper; and at last her thoughts seemed to clear up. + +I know it all,--she said.--He is going to die, and I must go and sit by +him. Nobody will care for him as I shall, and I have nobody else to +care for. + +I assured her that nothing was needed for him that night but rest, and +persuaded her that the excitement of her presence could only do harm. +Let him sleep, and he would very probably awake better in the morning. +There was nothing to be said, for I spoke with authority; and the young +girl glided away with noiseless step and sought her own chamber. + +The tremor passed away from my limbs, and the blood began to burn in my +cheeks. The beautiful image which had so bewitched me faded gradually +from my imagination, and I returned to the still perplexing mysteries +of my little neighbor's chamber. All was still there now. No plaintive +sounds, no monotonous murmurs, no shutting of windows and doors at +strange hours, as if something or somebody were coming in or going out, +or there was something to be hidden in those dark mahogany presses. Is +there an inner apartment that I have not seen? The way in which the +house is built might admit of it. As I thought it over, I at once +imagined a Bluebeard's chamber. Suppose, for instance, that the narrow +bookshelves to the right are really only a masked door, such as we +remember leading to the private study of one of our most distinguished +townsmen, who loved to steal away from his stately library to that +little silent cell. If this were lighted from above, a person or +persons might pass their days there without attracting attention from +the household, and wander where they pleased at night,--to Copp's-Hill +burial-ground, if they liked,--I said to myself, laughing, and pulling +the bed-clothes over my head. There is no logic in superstitious +fancies any more than in dreams. A she-ghost wouldn't want an inner +chamber to herself. A live woman, with a valuable soprano voice, +wouldn't start off at night to sprain her ankles over the old graves of +the North-End cemetery. + +It is all very easy for you, middle-aged reader, sitting over this page +in the broad daylight, to call me by all manner of asinine and anserine +unchristian names, because I had these fancies running through my head. +I don't care much for your abuse. The question is not, what it is +reasonable for a man to think about, but what he actually does think +about, in the dark, and when he is alone, and his whole body seems but +one great nerve of hearing, and he sees the phosphorescent flashes of +his own eyeballs as they turn suddenly in the direction of the last +strange noise,--what he actually does think about, as he lies and +recalls all the wild stories his head is full of, his fancy hinting the +most alarming conjectures to account for the simplest facts about him, +his common-sense laughing them to scorn the next minute, but his mind +still returning to them, under one shape or another, until he gets very +nervous and foolish, and remembers how pleasant it used to be to have +his mother come and tuck him up and go and sit within call, so that she +could hear him at any minute, if he got very much scared and wanted +her. Old babies that we are! + +Daylight will clear up all that lamplight has left doubtful. I longed +for the morning to come, for I was more curious than ever. So, between +my fancies and anticipations, I had but a poor night of it, and came +down tired to the breakfast-table. My visit was not to be made until +after this morning hour;--there was nothing urgent, so the servant was +ordered to tell me. + +It was the first breakfast at which the high chair at the side of Iris +had been unoccupied.--You might jest as well take away that +chair,--said our landlady,--he'll never want it again. He acts like a +man that's struck with death, 'n' I don't believe he'll ever come out +of his chamber till he's laid out and brought down a corpse.--These +good women do put things so plainly! There were two or three words in +her short remark that always sober people, and suggest silence or brief +moral reflections. + +----Life is dreadful uncerting,--said the Poor Relation,--and pulled in +her social tentacles to concentrate her thoughts on this fact of human +history. + +----If there was anything a fellah could do,--said the young man John, +so called,--a fellah'd like the chance o' helpin' a little cripple like +that. He looks as if he couldn't turn over any handier than a turtle +that's laid on his back; and I guess there a'n't many people that know +how to lift better than I do. Ask him if he don't want any watchers. I +don't mind settin' up any more 'n' a cat-owl. I was up all night twice +last month. + +[My private opinion is, that there was no small amount of punch +absorbed on those two occasions, which I think I heard of at the +time;--but the offer is a kind one, and it isn't fair to question how +he would like sitting up without the punch and the company and the +songs and smoking. He means what he says, and it would be a more +considerable achievement for him to sit quietly all night by a sick man +than for a good many other people. I tell you this odd thing: there are +a good many persons, who, through the habit of making other folks +uncomfortable, by finding fault with all their cheerful enjoyments, at +last get up a kind of hostility to comfort in general, even in their +own persons. The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is +hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. Look at old misers; first +they starve their dependants, and then themselves. So I think it more +for a lively young fellow to be ready to play nurse than for one of +those useful but forlorn martyrs who have taken a spite against +themselves and love to gratify it by fasting and watching.] + +----The time came at last for me to make my visit. I found Iris sitting +by the Little Gentleman's pillow. To my disappointment, the room was +darkened. He did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept +nearly closed. It was good enough for me;--what business had I to be +indulging my curiosity, when I had nothing to do but to exercise such +skill as I possessed for the benefit of my patient? There was not much +to be said or done in such a case; but I spoke as encouragingly as I +could, as I think we are always bound to do. He did not seem to pay any +very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life +and more than her own life were depending on the words I uttered. She +followed me out of the room, when I had got through my visit. + +How long?--she said. + +Uncertain. Anytime; to-day,--next week,--next month,--I answered.--One +of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or +slow. + +The women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. But +Iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and +kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she'd +be killin' herself; if she begun at that rate, and haf to give up, if +she didn't want to be clean beat out in less than a week. + +At the table we were graver than common. The high chair was set back +against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her +nearest neighbor's on the right. But the nest morning, to our great +surprise, that good-looking young Marylander had very quietly moved his +own chair to the vacant place. I thought he was creeping down that way, +but I was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous +parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. There was +no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair, as they sat +side by side. But whatever the young girl may have thought of her new +neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little +friend who had been taken from her side. There are women, and even +girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. One might as well reason with +a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the +construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from +their own way of doing their own work. It was not a question with Iris, +whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of +things to play the part of a nurse. She was a wilful creature that must +have her way in this matter. And it so proved that it called for much +patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the +kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share +in the household where accident had thrown her. She had that genius of +ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked +even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet +footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to +the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep, +or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with. + +Day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she +kept her place by the pillow.--That girl will kill herself over me, +Sir,--said the poor Little Gentleman to me, one day,--she will kill +herself, Sir, if you don't call in all the resources of your art to get +me off as soon as may be. I shall wear her out, Sir, with sitting in +this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you +leave me to the care of Nature without dosing me. + +This was rather queer pleasantly, under the circumstances. But there +are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the +larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to +them as death and death as life.--How am I getting along?--he said, +another morning. He lifted his shrivelled hand, with the death's-head +ring on it, and looked at it with a sad sort of complacency. By this +one movement, which I have seen repeatedly of late, I know that his +thoughts have gone before to another condition, and that he is, as it +were, looking back on the infirmities of the body as accidents of the +past. For, when he was well, one might see him often looking at the +handsome hand with the flaming jewel on one of its fingers. The single +well-shaped limb was the source of that pleasure which in some form or +other Nature almost always grants to her least richly endowed children. +Handsome hair, eyes, complexion, feature, form, hand, foot, pleasant +voice, strength, grace, agility, intelligence,--how few there are that +have not just enough of one at least of these gifts to show them that +the good Mother, busy with her millions of children, has not quite +forgotten them! But now he was thinking of that other state, where, +free from all mortal impediments, the memory of his sorrowful burden +should be only as that of the case he has shed to the insect whose +"deep-damasked wings" beat off the golden dust of the lily-anthers, as +he flutters in the ecstasy of his new life over their full-blown summer +glories. + +No human being can rest for any time in a state of equilibrium, where +the desire to live and that to depart just balance each other. If one +has a house, which he has lived and always means to live in, he pleases +himself with the thought of all the conveniences it offers him, and +thinks little of its wants and imperfections. But once having made up +his mind to move to a better, every incommodity starts out upon him +until the very ground-plan of it seems to have changed in his mind, and +his thoughts and affections, each one of them packing up its little +bundle of circumstances, have quitted their several chambers and nooks +and migrated to the new home, long before its apartments are ready to +receive their bodily tenant. It is so with the body. Most persons have +died before they expire,--died to all earthly longings, so that the +last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already +deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity with which the great +majority of dying persons await this locking of those gates of life +through which its airy angels have been going and coming, from the +moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have been often +called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always there is +a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on the +smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk-tooth. The roots which +hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its +place. Some of the dying are weary and want rest, the idea of which is +almost inseparable in the universal mind from death. Some are in pain, +and want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the +legend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. Some are stupid, mercifully +narcotized that they may go to sleep without long tossing about. And +some are strong in faith and hope, so that, as they draw near the next +world, they would fain hurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster +over the sands when the foremost travellers send word along the file +that water is in sight Though each little party that follows in a +foot-track of its own will have it that the water to which others think +they are hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all +ages and for human beings of every creed which recognized a future, +that those who have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert +have dreamed at least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its +murmurs as they lay dying. + +The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the +future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is +extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not +insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness, +on the strength of that odious fore-knowledge often imparted by +science, before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call +_death_, has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness. +There is a singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate +of his own vital force. His physician knows the state of his material +frame well enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less +impaired or disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold +out so much longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while, +though by the logic of disease he ought to die without any delay. + +The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his +remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was +a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various +modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The +landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had +saved somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me +to carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to +the title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more +than twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to +"A Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned +before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and +forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he +said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate. +Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the +late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was +something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was +a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of talents. Could +not always agree with his statements,--thought he was a little +over-partial to this city, and had some free opinions; but was sorry to +lose him,--and if--there was anything--he--could----. In the midst of +these kind expressions, the gentleman with the _diamond_, the +Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way, +bow the old boy was likely to cut up,--meaning what money our friend +was going to leave behind. + +The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish +snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the +Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult +him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r +intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young +man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his +chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and +they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out. + +The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one +quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man +down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such +encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to +knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do +happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be +angry, and get up and give you a thrashing. + +So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the +yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm +round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble +art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having +completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side +of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens +that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as +much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter +than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary +was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against +his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone, +judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat +backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little, +the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered +between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to +grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with +that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so +frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and +negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the +spot by "knocking the man down." + +We are in the habit of handling our faces so carefully, that a heavy +blow, taking effect on that portion of the surface, produces a most +unpleasant surprise, which is accompanied with odd sensations, as of +seeing sparks, and a kind of electrical or ozone-like odor, +half-sulphurous in character, and which has given rise to a very vulgar +and profane threat sometimes heard from the lips of bullies. A person +not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this +surprise. The Koh-i-noor, exasperated by his failure, and still a +little confused by the smart hit he had received, but furious, and +confident of victory over a young fellow a good deal lighter than +himself, made a desperate rush to bear down all before him and finish +the contest at once. That is the way all angry greenhorns and +incompetent persons attempt to settle matters. It doesn't do, if the +other fellow is only cool, moderately quick, and has a very little +science. It didn't do this time; for, as the assailant rushed in with +his arms flying everywhere, like the vans of a windmill, he ran a +prominent feature of his face against a fist which was travelling in +the other direction, and immediately after struck the knuckles of the +young man's other fist a severe blow with the part of his person known +as the _epigastrium_ to one branch of science and the _bread-basket_ to +another. This second round closed the battle. The Koh-i-noor had got +enough, which in such cases is more than as good as a feast. The young +fellow asked him if he was satisfied, and held out his hand. But the +other sulked, and muttered something about revenge.--Jest as y' +like,--said the young man John.--Clap a slice o' raw beefsteak on to +that mouse o' yours 'n' 't'll take down the swellin'. (_Mouse_ is a +technical term for a bluish, oblong, rounded elevation occasioned by +running one's forehead or eyebrow against another's knuckles.) The +young fellow was particularly pleased that he had had an opportunity of +trying his proficiency in the art of self-defence without the gloves. +The Koh-i-noor did not favor us with his company for a day or two, +being confined to his chamber, _it was said_, by a _slight feverish +attack_. He was chop-fallen always after this, and got negligent in his +person. The impression must have been a deep one; for it was observed, +that, when he came down again, his moustache and whiskers had turned +visibly white--_about the roots_. In short, it disgraced him, and +rendered still more conspicuous a tendency to drinking, of which he had +been for some time suspected. This, and the disgust which a young lady +naturally feels at hearing that her lover has been "licked by a fellah +not half his size," induced the landlady's daughter to take that +decided step which produced a change in the programme of her career I +may hereafter allude to. + +I never thought he would come to good, when I heard him attempting to +sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man +begins to attack the State-House, when he gets bitter about the +Frog-Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. Poor Edgar +Poe died in the hospital soon after he got into this way of talking; +and so sure as you find an unfortunate fellow reduced to this pass, you +had better begin praying for him, and stop lending him money, for he is +on his last legs. Remember poor Edgar! He is dead and gone; but the +State-House has its cupola fresh-gilded, and the Frog-Pond has got a +fountain that squirts up a hundred feet into the air and glorifies that +humble sheet with a fine display of provincial rainbows. + +--I cannot fulfil my promise in this number. I expected to gratify your +curiosity, if you have become at all interested in these puzzles, +doubts, fancies, whims, or whatever you choose to call them, of mine. +Next month you shall hear all about it. + +--It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As I paused at +the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the +wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:--no, this was the voice +of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in +her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them. + + + + +HYMN OF TRUST. + + +O Love Divine, that stooped to share + Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear, +On Thee we cast each earthborn care, + We smile at pain while Thou art near! + +Though long the weary way we tread, + And sorrow crown each lingering year, +No path we shun, no darkness dread, + Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near! + +When drooping pleasure turns to grief, + And trembling faith is changed to fear, +The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf + Shall softly tell us, Thou art near! + +On Thee we fling our burdening woe, + O Love Divine, forever dear, +Content to suffer, while we know, + Living and dying, Thou art near! + + + * * * * * + +ART. + +PICTURES AT SEVILLE AND MADRID. + + +_Seville, January, 1859_. + +I do not know whether I ought not to take you to the Museo on so bright +a morning, although I should like better to stroll with you on the +Paseo by the pretty river across which I look to the faintly seen hills +of Ronda, with the rich palm-trees in the foreground, and a great stone +pine in the middle distance, which would recall to us the Campagna and +Italy. Many people have said to me, "You cannot judge of Murillo till +you see him at Seville,"--they, of course, having been at Seville. This +is so far true, that his best picture is undoubtedly in the Cathedral +here; but in all other ways, Murillo is perfectly to be seen in other +cities. _You_ know, therefore, just what the pictures and the Museo +have to say to you. They speak of a most clever artist, who evidently +consulted Nature conscientiously, and who perceived and understood very +often many phases of her grace and beauty. The most masterly of his +fifteen or twenty pictures in the gallery is the one of Saint Thomas of +Villanueva giving Alms to the Poor; and it is, certainly, charmingly +arranged, with great breadth of effect and clever drawing,--on a cool +scale of color throughout. The Saint is in a black robe, relieved +against a light background of gray wall. The beggar who is receiving +alms is capitally understood, and carries the light broadly through the +picture. A charming little boy leans against his mother in the +left-hand corner, in half shadow, and shows her the coin in his hand. A +few other heads fill up the right-hand of the picture behind the Saint. +A red drapery, of a dull color, and a touch of brown-red here and +there, warm the agreeable grayness of the rest of the canvas. I like +much, also, a "Conception," in many respects like the usual picture +which Murillo repeated so often; but the Virgin in this one is +represented as very young,--about twelve or fourteen years old,--and +the whole effect is most silvery and delicate. + +But the Saint Antonio in the Cathedral is, I should say, his great +picture. It is very simple, and full of feeling. The Saint, half +kneeling, stretches forward to the vision of the Christ-Child, which +descends in a glory of cherubim toward him. The great mass of light +falls directly upon the kneeling figure and the upturned face, and +throws strong shadows on the ground. One is reminded, in some of the +angel-figures, of the brilliant light and shadow on the little flying +cherubs in the "Assumption," at Venice. Here all is silvery, where in +Titian all burns with the glory of a Venetian sunset. But this picture +of Murillo seems to me what one must call an eminently "happy" picture. +It gives one the idea that the painter enjoyed painting it, for the +expressive movement of the Saint is most admirably given, and the +extreme simplicity of every part of the picture is most agreeable; so +that we are ready to give great praise to Murillo for what he did, and +to say that he was earnest and tried to represent what he really felt. +And when we say that, we say a great deal; do we not? But we cannot, +for a moment, compare him to the great Venetians. He did not attempt +what they did, because he did not feel it at all; and, as a painter, he +is not comparable to them. One sees that he executed with rapidity and +a sort of dash, as it were. The Venetian concealed his execution, as +Nature does, and attempted to render the most subtile things which he +knew his art alone _could_ give, in their full force and beauty. As a +painter, therefore, he cannot be compared with men who wrought from so +different a principle. And when we think of the lovely elevation and +noble thought in the great Venetians, we must quietly rest grateful for +those great blessings,--grateful and happy that they exist, and that +we, in some measure at least, understand and appreciate their meaning. +Is it not delightful to think of them and know them in their precious +old corners and over their dear old altars? + + +_Madrid, March, 1859_. + + +You see that we have at last left Andalusia, and are here in what is +like a bit of Paris,--shops, dress, carriages, and now and then the +smell of asphalt pavement being renewed. Still, mantillas are the +coverings for the female head, and peasants in costumes drive mules and +donkeys through the crowds in the busy streets, and one is still in +Spain. We came, you know, for the gallery, and the first glimpse of it +showed us that we have enough to do to see that, during our proposed +stay of a month. I must tell you just a few things about the pictures, +and give you a peep at Madrid through my eyes, since you are not here +to use your own. + +Murillo is here the same as everywhere else. I very much prefer his +pictures in Seville. Velasquez, however, is to be really seen nowhere +so well as here. I do not know how many pictures there are here by him, +but a great quantity, it seems to me: Philips without number, in +childhood, youth, and age; Dons with curled moustaches; Queens with +large hoops and disfigured heads; an actor, full of life and character, +one of his very best. But his greatest picture, and really a wonder, is +his portrait of himself painting the little Infanta, who is in the +foreground of the picture with two young girls, her court ladies, her +dwarf, and a diminutive page. It is quite like a photograph, in clear, +broad effect of light and dark. From the other side of the room, full +of truth and vigor,--as you approach it, you find it is dashed in with +a surety of touch and a breadth truly extraordinary,--no details, no +substance even; painted with one huge brush, it would almost seem, all +is vigorous, dashing, clever, the triumph of _chic_, as shown by a +master hand. The dog in the immediate foreground is capital, the page +pushing him playfully with his foot. The dwarf stands next, full of a +sort of quaint truth, with her big head and heavy chin. The mass of +light falls on the Infanta, who takes a cup of something, chocolate, I +suppose, from one of the kneeling girls, while the other makes a +reverence on the other side. Beyond are a nun and a _guarda-damas_, and +in the mirror at the other end of the room are most cleverly indicated +the portraits of Philip and his wife. Velasquez stands on the left of +the picture, behind the Infanta, painting, with his canvas turned back +toward us as we look into the room. The black figure of an attendant +has passed out of the apartment and is going up a stair against a clear +white wall. The skilful way in which you are led into the picture is +astonishing, and the whole thing is quite by itself as a piece of +painting. There is no attempt at anything subtile or even delicate in +the treatment, speaking from the point of view of a result achieved by +paint on canvas,--no texture, no difference of handling, no imitation; +all is _paint_, admirably put on, for the effect across the room. I +think we must set Velasquez quite by himself as a truthful and surely +most gifted portrait-master. With a peculiar gift,--genius, I think we +might say,--certainly he is like no one else, and nobody else is like +him. Then there is his equestrian portrait of Philip IV., of which you +may remember the sketch in the Pitti Gallery,--also one of the Duke of +Olivarez, fresh, dashing, and spirited. But I prefer the portrait of +--some actor, I am sure,--full of character, against a gray wall +background,--one of those faces one is sure one has seen somewhere in +Spain, and he is declaiming evidently with the most capital action.--So +much for Velasquez. + +But I hardly dare attempt to tell you of the glory of the great Titian, +who seems almost newly revealed, in many _perfect_ works. Nothing can +equal the superb style of a portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara; it is like +nothing but Nature,--a splendid, dark, manly face and figure, standing +and looking thoughtfully at you, or rather, beyond you, caressing in an +absent way a little silky dog who puts his paw up to attract his +master's notice. The glowing flesh, the superbly painted dress of deep +blue with fine arabesques of gold,--the delicate hand lying on the +soft, silky hair of the dog, with its turquoise ring on the second +joint of one of the fingers,--you can imagine it, can you not? Next him +stands Philip II., pale, elegant, and repulsive, in gorgeous armor worn +over festal, glittering white satin. Charles V. is on the other side; +and I hardly know which of these portraits is the finest as a work of +Art, for all are _perfect_. Charles is standing, with a noble dog +leaning up against his hand; there is something _simpatica_ in his gray +eyes, his worn face, and even in his protruding jaw, it is so admirably +rendered, and gives such a firm character to the face. His costume is +_elegantisimo_, white satin and gold,--with a tissue-of-gold doublet, +and a cassock of silver-damask, with great black fur collar and lining, +against which is relieved the under-dress; he wears his velvet cap and +plume, and a deep emerald satin curtain hangs on his right hand. These +portraits are just about as wonderful as any you may remember,--in his +best style and in capital condition. But I know you would say that the +great portrait of Charles on horseback is more grand. It is a sort of +heroic poem; he looks like Sir Galahad, or Chivalry itself, going forth +to conquer wrong and violence. His eager, worn face looks out from the +helmet so calmly and so steadily, the flash of his armor, which gleams +like real metal, the coal-black horse, which comes forward out of the +landscape shaking his head-piece of blood-red plumes against the golden +sunset sky and champing the golden bit, the grasp of the lance by the +noble rider: well, painting can do no more than that. It is history, +poetry, and the beauty of Nature recreated by the grand master. An +entirely different phase of his character is seen in his Ariadne Asleep +surrounded by the Bacchanals. This is full of antique Grecian feeling; +and such a subtile, delicious piece of painting! Ariadne is in the +foreground, full of warm, breathing life, her arm thrown over her +lovely head, and her golden hair falling over the vase of gold and onyx +on which she rests; a river of red wine runs through the emerald grass; +two beautiful girls have just put by their music and instruments, and +one turns her exquisite face toward us to speak to the other reclining +on the grass. The one who turns to us is the beauty of the Louvre, or +some one very like her, in full Venetian loveliness. In her bosom are +one or two violets and a paper with _Titianus_ written on it. The bit +of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the +middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying +great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny +hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam +on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity. +It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking +on the green among flowers and fruits. A figure full of action and +passion holds up a glass to the statue of the goddess in one corner. +The children are kissing each other and carrying about baskets of +fruit; these baskets are hung with rich pearls and rubies and gems of +all kinds. The green, fresh trees wave against a summer sky, and the +work is full of tender, sensitive elegance and love. It shows to me an +entirely new side of Titian in its extreme delicacy and sweetness. +Nobody can ever speak of a "want of refinement" in Titian, if they +thought so before, after seeing these pictures. Then there is the +Herodias, the same as the girl in Dresden who holds up the +casket,--wonderfully delicate and beautiful; and several other +portraits and pictures, which I cannot tell you of, even if you are not +already tired. I ought, however, to say that Paul Veronese has a very +fine Venus and Adonis here, full of sunlight and summer beauty, and +Christ Teaching the Doctors, nobly serious in character and admirable +in treatment; also two sketches of Cain and of Vice and Virtue, very +full of feeling for his subject. The Cain has his back toward you. His +wife and child look up at him entreatingly. There is a fine, solemn +horizon with a gleam of twilight. There are several Tintorets, but no +favorable specimens,--a portrait is the best. There is also a Giovanni +Bellini, which brings back the Venetian altar-pieces, quiet and lovely; +and a Giorgione, like the large one in the Louvre, in many ways; a +Madonna and Infant, with a fine female Saint and a noble Saint George. + +These are some of the glorious treasures which the Spaniards own. If we +could only have some of these! or if, while we or our country are +committing the sin of coveting the Spanish possessions, we would only +covet something worth the having! I confess, I should delight to take +away one or two fine jewels of pictures that nobody here would miss. + +I had almost forgotten to mention the great Raphael, the "Spasimo." It +is in his Roman style, with much that is, to me, forced in the action +and expression. The head of Christ, however, is beautiful, and +exquisitely drawn. Beside the Spasimo, there is a little picture of the +Virgin and Child, with Saint Joseph, in Raphael's early manner, very +lovely, and reminding one of the "Staffa" Madonna, at Perugia. It is +faint in color, and most charming in careful execution. + +Then there are the finest Hemmlings I have ever seen,--finer than those +at Munich: lovely Madonnas, meek and saintly; superb adoring Kings, all +glowing with cloth-of-gold and velvets and splendid jewels; beautiful +quiet landscapes, seen through the arches of the stable; and angels, +with wings of dazzling green and crimson. The real love with which +these wonderful pictures are caressed by the careful, thoughtful artist +makes them most precious. Every little flower is delicately and +artistically done, and everything is invested with a sort of sacred +reverence by this earnest Pre-Raphaelite. One or two Van Eycks have the +same splendor and depth of feeling. These pictures look as if they were +painted yesterday, so clear and brilliant are their colors. + +It is a pleasant circumstance, that some of the great Venetian pictures +in the gallery here were gained for Spain by the judgment and taste of +Velasquez. When he went to Italy with a commission from Philip IV., +which it must have delighted him to execute, "to buy whatever pictures +were for sale that he thought worth purchasing," he spent some time in +Venice, and there bought, among other things, the Venus and Adonis of +Paul Veronese, and several of the works of Tintoretto. The Titians had +come to Spain before, and it was from the study of them, perhaps, that +Velasquez learned to paint so well. At any rate, we know what he +thought of Titian; for Mr. Sterling gives an extract from a poem by a +Venetian, Marco Boschini, which was published not long after +Velasquez's journey to Italy, in which part of a conversation is given +between him and Salvator Rosa, who asked him what he thought of +Raphael. You will like to see it, if you have not Sterling by you. + +"Lu storse el cao cirimoniosamente, +E disse: 'Rafael (a dirve el vero, +Piasendome esser libero e sinciero) +Stago per dir che nol me piase niente.' + +"'Tanto che,' repliche quela persona, +'Co' no ve piase questo gran Pitor, +In Italia nissun ve da in l' umor, +Perche nu ghe donemo la corona.' + +"Don Diego repliche con tal maniera: +'A Venetia se trova el bon e 'l belo; +Mi dago el primo luogo a quel penelo; +Tician xe quel che porta la bandiera.'" + +Here is a translation:-- + +The master, with a ceremonious air, +Bowed, and then said, "Raphael, truth to tell, +For to be free and honest suits me well, +Pleases me not at all, I must declare." + +"Since, then," replied the other, "you so frown +On this great painter, in Italy is none +By whom, indeed, your favor can be won; +For upon him we all bestow the crown." + +Don Diego thereupon to him replies, +"At Venice may be found the good and fair; +I give the first place to the pencil there; +Titian is he who carries off the prize." + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +1. _Dictionary of Americanisms_. A Glossary of Words and Phrases +usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. By JOHN RUSSELL +BARTLETT. Second Edition, greatly improved and enlarged. Boston: +Little, Brown, & Company, 1859. pp. xxxii., 524. + +2. _A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the +Thirteenth Century_. By HERBERT COLERIDGE. London: Truebner & Company. +1859. pp. iv., 104. + +3. _Outlines of the History of the English Language_, for the Use of +the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools. By +GEORGE L. CRAIK, Professor of History and of English Literature in +Queen's College, Belfast. Third Edition, revised and improved. London: +Chapman & Hall. 1859. pp. xii., 148. + +4. _The Vulgar Tongue_. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases, +used in London from 1839 to 1859; Flash Songs, Essays on Flash, and a +Bibliography of Canting and Slang Literature. By DUCANGE ANGLICUS. +Second Edition, improved and much enlarged. London: Bernard Quaritch. +1859. pp. 80. + +5. _A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words_, etc., etc. +By a London Antiquary. London: John Camden Holten. 1859. pp. lxxxviii., +160. + +6. _On the English Language, Past and Present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX +TRENCH, D.D. New Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Blakeman & +Mason. 1859. pp. 238. + +7. _A Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses +different from their present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New +York: Redfield. 1859. pp. xi., 218. + +8. _Rambles among Words; their Poetry, History, Wisdom_. By WILLIAM +SWINTON. New York. Scribner. 1859. pp. 302. + + +The first allusion we know of to an Americanism is that of Gill, in +1621,--"_Sed et ab Americanis nonnulla mutuamur, ut_ MAIZ _et_ KANOA." +Since then, English literature, not without many previous wry faces, +has adopted or taken back many words from this side of the water. The +more the matter is looked into, the more it appears that we have no +peculiar dialect of our own, and that men here, as elsewhere, have +modified language or invented phrases to suit their needs. When Dante +wrote his "De Vulgari Eloquio," he reckoned nearly a thousand distinct +dialects in the Italian peninsula, and, after more than five hundred +years, it is said that by far the greater part survive. In England, +eighty years ago, the county of every member of Parliament was to be +known by his speech; but in "both Englands," as they used to be called, +the tendency is toward uniformity. + +In spite of the mingling of races and languages in the United States, +the speech of the people is more uniform than that of any European +nation. This would inevitably follow from our system of common-schools, +and the universal reading of newspapers. This has tended to make the +common language of talk more bookish, and has thus reacted unfavorably +on our literature, giving it sometimes the air of being composed in a +dead tongue rather than written from a living one. It gladdens us, we +confess, to see how goodly a volume of _Americanisms_ Mr. Bartlett has +been enabled to gather, for it shows that our language is alive. It is +only from the roots that a language can be refreshed; a dialect that is +taught grows more and more pedantic, and becomes at last as unfit a +vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin. This is the danger which +our literature has to guard against from the universal Schoolmaster, +who wars upon home-bred phrases, and enslaves the mind and memory of +his victims, as far as may be, to the best models of English +composition,--that is to say, to the writers whose style is faultlessly +correct, but has no blood in it. No language, after it has faded into +_diction_, none that cannot suck up feeding juices from the +mother-earth of a rich common-folk-talk, can bring forth a sound and +lusty book. True vigor of expression does not pass from page to page, +but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the lips are +limbered by downright living interests and by passions in the very +throe. Language is the soil of thought; and our own especially is a +rich leaf-mould, the slow growth of ages, the shed foliage of feeling, +fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth-change, that the +vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself anew with living +green. There is death in the Dictionary; and where language is limited +by convention, the ground for expression to grow in is straitened also, +and we get a _potted_ literature, Chinese dwarfs instead of healthy +trees. + +We are thankful to Mr. Bartlett for the onslaught he makes in his +Introduction upon the _highfaluting_ style so common among us. But we +are rather amused to find him falling so easily into that _Anglo-Saxon_ +trap which is the common pitfall of those half-learned men among whom +we should be slow to rank him.[A] He says, "The _unfortunate tendency_ +to _favor_ the Latin at the _expense_ of the Saxon _element_ of our +_language_, which _social_ and _educational causes_ have long _tended_ +to foster in the mother _country_, has with us _received_ an +_additional_ _impulse_ from the great _admixture_ of _foreigners_ in +our _population_." (p. xxxii.) We have underscored the words of Latin +origin, and find that they include _all_ the nouns, all the adjectives +but two, and three out of five verbs,--one of these last (the auxiliary +_have_) being the same in both Latin and Saxon. Speaking of the +Bostonians, Mr. Bartlett says, "The great _extent_ to which the +_scholars_ of New England have carried the _study_ of the _German +language_ and _literature_ for some years back, _added_ to the _very +general neglect_ of the old _master-pieces_ of English _composition_, +have [has] had the _effect_ of giving to the writings of many of them +an _artificial, unidiomatic character_, which has an _inexpressibly +unpleasant effect_ to those who are not _habituated_ to it." (p. xxv. +We again underscore the un-Saxon words.) Now if there be any short cut +to the Anglo-Saxon, it is through the German; and how far the +Bostonians deserve the reproach of a neglect of old English +masterpieces we do not pretend to say, but the first modern reprint of +the best works of Latimer, More, Sidney, Fuller, Selden, Browne, and +Feltham was made in Boston, under the care of the late Dr. Alexander +Young. We have no wish to defend Boston; we mean only to call Mr. +Bartlett's attention to the folly of asking people to write in a +dialect which no longer exists. No man can write off-hand a page of +Saxon English; no man with pains can write one and hope to be commonly +understood. At least let Mr. Bartlett practise what he preaches. When a +deputation of wig-makers waited on George III. to protest against the +hair-powder-tax, the mob, seeing that one of them wore his own hair, +ducked him forthwith in Tower-Ditch,--a very Anglo-Saxon comment on his +inconsistency. We should not have noticed these passages in Mr. +Bartlett's Introduction, had he not, after eleven years' time to weigh +them in, let them remain as they stood in his former edition, of 1848. + +In other respects the volume before us greatly betters its forerunner. +That contained many words which were rather vulgarisms than +provincialisms, and more properly English than American. Almost all +these Mr. Bartlett has left out in revising his book. Once or twice, +however, he has retained as Americanisms phrases which are proverbial, +such as "born in the woods to be scared of an owl," "to carry the foot +in the hand," and "hallooing before you're out of the woods." But it +will be easier to follow the alphabetical order in our short list of +_adversaria_ and comments. + +ALEWIFE. We doubt if Mr. Bartlett is right in deriving this from a +supposed Indian word _aloof_. At least, Hakluyt speaks of a fish called +"old-wives"; and in some other old book of travels we have seen the +name derived from the likeness of the fish, with its good, round belly, +to the mistress of an alehouse. + +BANK-BILL. Is not an Americanism. It is used by Swift, Pope, and +Fielding. + +BOGUS. Mr. Bartlett quotes a derivation of this word from the name of a +certain _Borghese_, said to have been a notorious counterfeiter of +bank-notes. But is it not more probably a corruption of _bagasse_, +which, as applied to the pressed sugarcane, means simply something +worthless? The word originally meant a worthless woman, whence our +"baggage" in the same sense. + +[Footnote A: This, perhaps, was to be expected; for he calls Dr. +Latham's _English Language_ "unquestionably the most valuable work on +English philology and grammar--which has yet appeared," (p. xxx., +note,) and refers to the first edition of 1841. If Mr. Bartlett must +allude at all to Dr. Latham, (who is reckoned a great blunderer among +English philologers,) he should at least have referred to the second +edition of his work, in two volumes, 1855.] + +CHAINED-LIGHTNING. More commonly chain-lightning, and certainly not a +Western phrase exclusively. + +CHEBACCO-BOAT. Mr. Bartlett says, "This word is doubtless a corruption +of _Chedabucto_, the name of a bay in Nova Scotia, from which vessels +are fitted out for fishing." This is going a great way down East for +what could be found nearer. _Chebacco_ is (or was, a century since) the +name of a part of Ipswich, Massachusetts. + +TO FALL a tree Mr. Bartlett considers a corruption of to _fell_. But, +as we have commonly heard the words used, to _fell_ means merely to cut +down, while to fall means to make it fall in a given direction. + +TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative +language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the +prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit +for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German +_untergehen_ (fig.), to perish. + +HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_, +except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has +befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern +sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr. +Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard +the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in +England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon +than _bonnet_ and _gown_. + +IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I +left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among +us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made +better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled +_Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was +published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result +of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the +title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find, +"Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were +_improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract +has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should +have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use +long before with the same meaning. + +To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And +Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good +scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and +_imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:-- + + "Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_ + Donna piu su." + +LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an +herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_. + +LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon, +and used wherever English is spoken. + +LOAFER. We think there can be no doubt that this word is German. +_Laufen_ in some parts of Germany is pronounced _lofen_, and we once +heard a German student say to his friend, _Ich lauf'_ (lofe) _hier bis +du wiederkehrst_: and he began accordingly to saunter up and down,--in +short, to _loaf_ about. + +TO MULL. "To soften, to dispirit." Mr. Bartlett quotes +_Margaret_,--"There has been a pretty considerable _mullin_ going on +among the doctors." But _mullin_ here means stirring, bustling in an +underhand way, and is a metaphor derived from _mulling wine_. _Mull_, +in this sense, is probably a corruption of _mell_, from Old Fr. +_mesler_, to mix. + +TO BE NOWHERE (in the sense of failure) is not an Americanism, but +_Turf_-Slang. + +SALLY-LUN, a kind of cake, is English. + +TO SAVE, meaning to kill game so as to get it, is not confined to the +Far West, but is common to hunters in all parts of the country. + +SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of +Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a +vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had +what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and +Hector Boece. + +SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and +Western." Used also in New York. + +SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low). + +TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of +his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is, +perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary. + +TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self." +It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital +metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the +Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces +in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _etaler_. + +STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is +surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently +explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in +the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their +shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious. + +SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of +the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in +almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the +name. + +A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett. + +A CARRY: portage. _Passim_. + +CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England. + +CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England. + +COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of +certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the +archaic form, _Quo' he_. + +TO COTTON TO. + +DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to +acknowledging ignorance. + +GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England. + +LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts. + +LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair. + +LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means +weak-willed. Massachusetts. + +MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water. +Massachusetts. + +OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England. + +OLD DRIVER: } euphemistic for the +OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil. + +ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger. + +ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New +England. + +SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be +suited, for couldn't be suited. + +STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it +from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of +the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in +Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be +called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it. + +STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins. + +SWALE: a hollow. New England. English also; see Forby. + +TORMENTED: euphemistic, as "not a _tormented_ cent." New England. + +WELL-SWEEP. + +We have gone through Mr. Bartlett's book with the attention which a +work so well done deserves, and are thoroughly impressed with the +amount of care and labor to which it bears witness. We have quarrelled +with it wherever we could, because it cannot fail to become the +standard authority in its department. Its value will increase from year +to year. For instance, the Spanish words, in which it is especially +rich, are doomed to undergo strange metamorphoses on Anglo-Saxon lips; +for it is the instinct of the unlearned to naturalize words as fast as +possible, and to compel them to homebred shapes and sounds. There is +often an unwitting humor in these perversions,[A] and they are always +interesting as showing that it is the nature of man to use words with +understanding, however appearances might lead us to an opposite +conclusion. + +[Footnote A: We remember once hearing a man say of something, that it +was written in a "very grand delinquent [grandiloquent] style,"--a +phrase certainly not without modern application. We have heard also +Angola-Saxons and Angular-Saxons,--the latter, at least, not an unhappy +perversion.] + +The least satisfactory part of Mr. Bartlett's book is the Appendix, in +which he has got together a few proverbs and similes, which, it seems +to us, do no kind of justice to the humor and invention of the people. +Most of them have no characteristic at all, except coarseness. We hope +there is nothing peculiarly American in such examples as these:--"Evil +actions, like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all"; and +"Vice is a skunk that smells awfully rank when stirred up by the pole +of misfortune." These have, beside, an artificial air, and are quite +too long-skirted for working proverbs, in which language always "takes +off its coat to it," if we may use a proverbial phrase, left out by Mr. +Bartlett. We confess, we looked for something racier and of a more +_puckery_ flavor. One hears such now and then, mostly from the +West,--like "Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog"; "I take my +tea _bar-foot_," the answer of a backwoodsman, when asked if he would +have cream and sugar. Some are unmistakably Eastern; as, "All deacons +are good,--but there's odds in deacons"; "He's a whole team and the dog +under the wagon"; "That's first-rate and a half"; "Handy as a pocket in +a shirt" (ironical). Almost every county has some good die sinker in +language, who mints phrases that pass into the currency of a whole +neighborhood. We picked up two such the other day, both of the same +coinage. The county-jail (the only stone building where all the +dwellings were of wood) was described as "the house whose underpinning +comes up to the eaves"; while the place unmentionable to ears polite +was "where they don't rake up the fires at night." A man, speaking to +us once of a very rocky clearing, said, "Stone's got a pretty heavy +mortgage on that farm"; and another, wishing to give us a notion of the +thievishness common in a certain village, capped his climax +thus:--"Dishonest! why, they have to take in their stone walls o' +nights." Any one who has driven over a mountain-stream by one of those +bridges made of _slabs_ will feel the force of a term we once heard +applied to a parson so shaky in character that no dependence could be +placed on him,--"A slab-bridged kind o' feller!" During some very cold +weather, a few years ago, we picked a notable saying or two. "The fire +don't seem to git no kind o' _purchase_ on the cold." "They say Cap'n +M'Clure's gone through the Northwest Passage." "Has? Think likely, and +left the door open, too!" Elder Knapp, the once noted itinerant +preacher, had a kind of unwashed poetry in him. We heard him say +once,--"Do you want to know when a Unitarian" (we think it was) "will +get into heaven? When hell's froze over, and he can skate in!" We quote +merely for illustration, and do not mean to compare the Elder with +Taylor or South. + +The element of exaggeration has often been remarked on as typical of +American humor. In Dr. Petri's "Compact Handbook of Foreign Words,"[A] +(from which Mr. Bartlett will be surprised to learn that _Hoco-pocos_ +is a nickname for the Whig party in the United States,) we are told that +the word _humbug_ "is commonly used for the exaggerations of the +North-Americans." One would think the dream of Columbus half-fulfilled, +and that Europe had found in the West the near way to Orientalism, at +least of diction. But it seems to us that a great deal of what is set +down as mere exaggeration is more fitly to be called intensity and +picturesqueness, symptoms of the imaginative faculty in full health and +strength, though producing, as yet, only the raw material.[B] +By-and-by, perhaps, the world will see it worked up into poem and +picture, and Europe, which will be hard-pushed for originality ere +long, may thank us for a new sensation. The French continue to find +Shakspeare exaggerated, because he treated English just as our folk do +when they speak of "a steep price," or say that they "freeze to" a +thing. The first postulate of an original literature is, that a people +use their language as if they owned it. Even Burns contrived to write +very poor English. Vulgarisms are often only poetry in the egg. The +late Horace Mann, in one of his Addresses, commented at some length on +the beauty of the French phrase _s'orienter_, and called on his young +hearers to practise it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience +whose problem had not always been to find out what was "_about east_" +and shape his course accordingly. The Germans have a striking proverb; +_Was die Gans gedacht, das der Schwan vollbracht_; What the goose but +thought, that the swan fullbrought; or, to de-Saxonize it a little, +_pace_ Mr. Bartlett, What the goose conceived, that the swan +achieved;--and we cannot help thinking, that the life, invention, and +vigor shown in our popular speech, and the freedom with which it is +shaped to the need of those who wield it, are of the best omen for our +having a swan at last. + +[Footnote A: _Gedraengtes Handbuch der Fremdwoerter_, etc., etc., +Leipzig, 1852.] + +[Footnote B: Take, for instance, the "negro so black that charcoal made +a chalk-mark on him," or the "shingle painted to look so like stone +that it sank in water,"--itself overpersuaded by the skill of the +painter. We overheard the following dialogue last winter. +(Thermometer,--12 deg..) "Cold, this morning."--"That's _so_. Hear what +happened to Joe?"--"No, I didn't."--"Well, the doctors had ben givin' +him one thing another with merc'ry in't, and he walked out down to the +Post-Office and back, and when he come home he kind o' felt somethin' +hard in his boots. Come to pull 'em off, they found a lump o' +quicksilver in both on 'em."--"Sho!"--"Fact; it had shrunk clean down +through him with the cold." This rapid power of dramatizing a dry fact, +of putting it into flesh and blood, and the instantaneous conception of +Joe as a human thermometer, seem to us more like the poetical faculty +than anything else. It is, at any rate, humor, and not mere quickness +of wit,--the deeper, and not the shallower quality. Humor tends always +to overplus of expression; wit is mathematically precise. Captain Basil +Hall denied that our people had humor; but did he possess it himself? +for, if not, he would never find it. Did he always feel the point of +what was said to himself? We doubt, because we happen to know a chance +he once had given him in vain. The Captain was walking up and down the +_piazza_ of a country tavern while the couch changed horses. A +thunderstorm was going on, and, with that pleasant European air of +indirect self-compliment in condescending to American merit, which is +so conciliating, he said to a countryman lounging near, "Pretty heavy +thunder, you have here." The other, who had taken his measure at a +glance, drawled gravely, "Waal, we _du_, considerin' the number of +inhabitants."] + +Even persons not otherwise interested in the study of provincialisms +will find Mr. Bartlett's book an entertaining one. The passages he +quotes in illustration are sometimes strangely comic. Here is one: "To +SAVE. To make sure, i.e., to kill game, or an enemy, whether man or +beast. _To get_ conveys the same meaning.... The notorious Judge W---- +of Texas ... once said in a speech at a barbecue, (after his political +opponent had been apologizing for taking a man's life in a duel,)-- + +"'The gentleman need not make such a fuss about _getting_ such a +rascal; everybody knows that I have shot three, and two of them I +_saved_.'" + +We have but one fault to find with Mr. Bartlett's Dictionary, and that +it shares with all other provincial glossaries. No accents are given. +No stranger could tell, for example, whether _hacmatack_ should be +pronounced hac'matack, hacma'tack, or hacmatack'. The value of Mr. +Wright's otherwise excellent dictionary is very much impaired by this +neglect. Ignorance of the pronunciation enhances tenfold the difficulty +of tracing analogies or detecting corruptions. The title of Mr. +Coleridge's volume (the second on our list) is enough to give scholars +a notion of its worth. It is the first instalment of the proposed +comprehensive English Dictionary of the Philological Society, a work +which, when finished, will be beyond measure precious to all students +of their mother-tongue. At the end of the volume will be found the Plan +of the Society, with minute directions for all those who wish to give +their help. Cooperation on this side the water will be gladly welcomed. + +Of Dean Trench's two volumes, one is new, and the other a revised +edition. No one has done more than he to popularize the study of words, +which is only another name for the study of thought. His new book has +the same agreeable qualities which marked its forerunners, maintaining +an easy conversational level of scholarly gossip and reflection, the +middle ground between learning and information for the million. Without +great philological attainments, and without any pretence of such, he +gives the results of much good reading. + +Mr. Craik's book is a compact and handy manual. + +The SLANG Dictionaries are both as ill-done as possible, and the author +of the smaller one deserves to be put under the pump for taking the +name of the illustrious Ducange, one of those megatheria of erudition +and industry that we should look on as an extinct species, but for such +men as the brothers Grimm. The larger book has the merit of including a +bibliography of the subject, for which the author deserves our thanks, +though in other respects showing no least qualification for the task he +has undertaken. We trust there are not many "London Antiquaries" so +ignorant as he. One curious fact we glean from his volume, namely, the +currency among the London populace of certain Italian words, chiefly +for the smaller pieces of money. What a strident invasion of +organ-grinders does this seem to indicate! The author gives them thus: +"Oney saltec, a penny; Dooe saltee, twopence; Tray saltee, threepence," +etc., and adds, "These numerals, as will be seen, are of mongrel +origin,--the French, perhaps, predominating."! He must be the gentleman +who, during the Exhibition of 1851, wrote on his door, "No French +spoken here." _Dooe saltee_ and _tray saltee_ differ little but in +spelling from their Italian originals, _due soldi_ and _tre soldi_. On +another page we find _molto cattivo_ transmogrified into "_multee +kertever_, very had." Very bad, indeed! For one more good thing beside +the Bibliography, we are indebted to the "London Antiquary." In his +Introduction he has reprinted the earliest list of _cant_ words in the +language, that made by Thomas Harman in Elizabeth's time. We wish we +could only feel sure of the accuracy of the reprint. In this list we +find already the adjective _rum_ meaning _good, fine_,--a word that has +crept into general use among the lower classes in London, without ever +gaining promotion. The fate of new words in this respect is curious. +Often, if they are convenient, or have knack of lodging easily in the +memory, they work slowly upward. The Scotch word _flunky_ is a case in +point. Our first knowledge of it in print is from Fergusson's Poems. +Burns advertised it more widely, and Carlyle seems fairly to have +transplanted it into the English of the day. As we believe its origin +is still obscure, we venture on a guess at it. French allies brought +some words into Scotland that have rooted themselves, like the +Edinburgh _gardyloo_. _Flunky_ is defined in Fergusson's glossary as "a +better kind of servant." This is an exact definition of the Scotch +_hench-man_, the most probable original of which is _haunch-man_ or +body-guard. Turn haunch-man into French and you get _flanquier_; +corrupt it back into Scotch and you have _flunky_. Whatever liberties +we take with French words, the Gauls have their revenge when they take +possession of an English one. We once saw an Avis of the police in +Paris, regulating _les chiens et les boule dogues_, dogs and bull-dogs. + +Vocabularies of vulgarisms are of interest for the archaisms both of +language and pronunciation which we find in them. The dictionaries say +_coverlet_, as if the word were a diminutive; the rustic persists in +the termination _lid_, which points to the French _lit_, bed. On the +other hand, he still says _hankercher_, having been taught so by his +betters, though they have taken up the final _f_ again. Sewel, in the +Introduction to his Dutch Dictionary, 1691, gives _henketsjer_, and +Voltaire, forty years later, _hankercher_, as the received +pronunciation. Sewel tells us also that the significant _l_ was still +sounded in _would_ and _should_, as it still is by the peasantry in +many parts of England. + +Mr. Swinton's book, the last on our list, is an entertaining one, and +gives proof of thought, though sometimes smothered in fine writing. It +is written altogether too loosely for a work on philology, one of the +exactest of sciences. But we have a graver fault to find with Mr. +Swinton, and that is for his neglect to give credit where he is +indebted. He seems even desirous to conceal his obligations. The +general acknowledgment of his Preface is by no means enough, where the +debt is so large. The great merit of Dr. Richardson's Dictionary being +the number of illustrative passages he has brought together, it is +hardly fair in Mr. Swinton so often to make a show of learning with +what he has got at second hand from the lexicographer. Dr. Trench could +also make large reclamations, and several others. There is beside an +unpleasant assumption of superiority in the book. An author who says +that _paganus_ means village, who makes _ocula_ the plural of _oculus_, +and who supposes that _in petto_ means _in little_, is not qualified to +settle Dr. Webster's claims as a philologer, much less to treat him +with contempt. The first two blunders we have cited may be slips of the +pen or the press, but this cannot be true of the many wrong etymologies +into which Mr. Swinton has fallen. We hope that in another edition he +will correct these faults, for he shows a power to appreciate ideas +which is worth more than mere scholarship, vastly more than the +reputation of it among the unscholarly. + +_A History and Description of New England, General and Local._ By A. J. +COOLIDGE and J. B. MANSFIELD. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. In +Two Volumes. Vol. I. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin +J. Coolidge, 1859. pp. xxv., 1023. + +This is a book of great labor, being nothing less in plan than a +condensed town-history of New England. In spite of all efforts to the +contrary, one is forced to admit that there is very little poetry in +American history. It is a record of advances in material prosperity, +and scarce anything more. The only lumps of pure ore are the _Idea_ +which the Pilgrims were possessed with and its gradual incarnation in +events and institutions. Beyond this all is barren. There is a fearful +destitution of the picturesque elements. It is true that our local +historians commonly avoid all romance as if it were of the Enemy; but +if we compare their labors with "The Beauties of England and Wales," +for example, the work certainly of uninspired men, we shall be +convinced that the American Dryasdust suffers from poverty of material. +There is no need to remind us of Hawthorne; but he is such a genius as +is rare everywhere, and could conjure poetry out of a country +meeting-house. + +In books of this kind we see evidence of what is called the +"enterprise" of our people on every page,--one almost hears the hum of +the factory-wheels, as he reads,--but that is all. It is not to be +wondered at that foreigners fail to find our country interesting, and +that the only good book of American travels is that of De Tocqueville, +who deals chiefly with abstract ideas. It is possible to conceive minds +so constituted that they may reach before long the end of their +interest in the number of shoes, yards of cotton, and the like, which +we produce in a year. The only immortal Greek shoemaker is he who had +the good luck to be snubbed by Apelles, and Penelope is the only +manufacturer in antiquity whose name has come down to us. + +One thing in the narrative part of this volume is striking,--the +continual recurrence of massacre by the French and Indians. This is +something to be borne in mind always by those who would understand the +politics of our New England ancestors. We confess that we were +surprised, the other day, to see a journal so able and generally so +philosophical as the London "Saturday Review" joining in the outcry +about the treatment of the Acadians. If our forefathers were ever wise +and foreseeing, if they ever showed a capacity for large political +views, it is proved by their early perception that the first question +to be settled on this continent was, whether its destiny should be +shaped by English or Keltic, by Romish or Protestant ideas. By what +means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another +question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history +written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans +doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_. + +The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils +honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way +of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the +enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are +to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak +highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it +is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply +the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating +cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the +pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only +been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no +bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the +same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the +heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the +coast, _and Pemaquid in particular._" Of a certain tavern we are told +that the daughters of the landlord were "genteel, sprightly, +intelligent young ladies, ambitious of display and of setting a rich +and elegant table." This is no doubt true, but surely History should +sift her tacts with a coarser sieve. + +In spite of these faults, the book is one which all New Englanders will +find interesting, and we hope that in their second volume the authors +will balance their commendable profusion of industry with a +corresponding economy of fine writing. + +_An Oration, delivered before the Municipal Authorities of the City of +Boston, July_ 4, 1850. By GEORGE SUMNER, etc, etc, Boston. 1859. pp. +125. + +The opposition in the Common Council to the order (usual on such +occasions in Boston) to print the oration of Mr. Sumner, and the series +of assaults it has encountered front the administration press, have +given it a considerable, though secondary, importance. Intrinsically a +performance of great merit, those on whom the weight of his arguments +and learning fell disclosed their sense of its power by the anger of +their debate and their efforts to repel it. + +Its value, as containing a fresh and instructive contribution to the +knowledge of our Revolutionary history, derived from original sources +of inquiry, explored by Mr. Sumner in person, would alone have rescued +from neglect any ordinary Fourth-of-July oration. + +The services and aids of Spain, material and moral, pecuniary and +diplomatic, to the American Revolutionary cause,--the introduction, +through the fortunes of Captain John Lee of Marblehead, of the American +question into the policy and polities of Spain,--the effect of the +arrival of our National Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, on the +fate of that gallant New England cruiser, then detained as a pirate, +for his heroic exploits under our infant and unknown flag,--the +incidents of vast and varied labor and accomplishment in our behalf, +connected with the name and administration of the eminent Spanish +minister and statesman, Florida Blanca,--the weaving and spreading out +of that network of influences and circumstances, in the toils of which +France and Spain entangled Great Britain, until she found herself +confronted by much of the physical and all the moral power of the +Continent, and from which all extrication was made hopeless, until the +American Colonies should be free,--the origin of "the armed +neutrality," and the shock it gave to the naval power of England, in +the very crisis of the hopes of American liberty,--are presented in a +narrative, clear, condensed, and original. + +From the aspect of peace and freedom in which our country so happily +reposes, going on prospering and increasing, "by confidence in +democratic principles, by faith in the people, and by the spirit of +mutual forbearance and charity," the orator turns to that Europe to +which our fathers there looked for succor, now "echoing to the clang of +arms, and hostile legions arrayed for combat." + +A tribute to Italy, for the gifts, poured out from her treasures of +art, science, medical skill, and political knowledge, of literature and +philosophy, to all the uses and adornments of human life, introduces a +reference to the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, which are shown +to have been based on these great principles:--That all authority over +the people emanates from the people,--should return to them at stated +intervals,--and that its holders should be accountable to the people +for its use. "To those Republics," it is added, "we also owe the +practical demonstration of the great truth, that no state can long +prosper or exist where intelligent labor is not held in honor, and that +labor cannot be honorable where it is not free." + +Mr. Sumner's defence of democratic republican ideas,--of the fitness of +the European peoples for self-government,--his repulse of those +unbelieving theorists who would consign the French and the Italians to +the eternal doom of oppression,--are manly, powerful, and unanswerable. +His hearty love of genuine democratic principles, as taught by the old +republican school of statesmen and philosophers, and his zealous pride +of country, which always made him one of the most intensely American, +in thought, word, and deed, of all the Americans who have ever +sojourned in the Old World, shine forth from every page of the Oration. +And in the honest ardor of his defence of the natural and political +rights of man, as they were taught by Turgot, by Montesquieu, by +Jefferson, not content with declamation or rhetoric, he ploughs deep +into the reasoning by which they were demonstrated or defended, and +ranges wide over the fields of learning by which they were illustrated. +Careful for nothing but for the truth itself, he refutes the errors of +a French writer who had charged practical ingratitude on the part of +America towards de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of +France to these Colonies, and arraigns and exposes the historical +mistakes of Lord Brougham and of President Fillmore, unfavorable to +Republican France and to Continental liberty. + +The crimes of Austria are shown to have been made possible by the moral +support Austria has received from the government of England. The fruits +of the reverses suffered by Hungary, and by other nationalities +struggling for independence and popular liberty, are exhibited in the +sacrifices since endured by England in the war in the Crimea, and in +the embarrassments of the present hour. + +Among our own duties and responsibilities to the great and world-wide +cause of liberty,--discussed thus far in its relations to Europe,--Mr. +Sumner proceeds to present the grand duty we owe, not less to ourselves +than to Europe, of giving to the struggling nations an example of +government true to the memories of our National Anniversary, and to the +fundamental ideas of civil freedom "implied in an independent, but +rigidly responsible judiciary, and a complete separation of the +legislative and judicial functions." + +From Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall, and Story,--to say nothing +of English and French jurists,--Mr. Sumner brings authority to define +and illustrate the true place of the judicial office in the political +system of a free government. And here, fidelity to those principles of +liberty he had explained and defended, fidelity to the "good old cause" +itself, at home and in the grand forum of the nations, demanded and +received the frank avowal, that "a recent scene in the Supreme Court of +the United States has shown that Jefferson was no false prophet, and +has furnished at the same time a serious warning to all who prefer a +government based upon law to either despotism or anarchy." + +The clear and sharp, merciless and logical veracity with which he +discriminates between the solemn judgment of a tribunal and a stump +speech from the bench,--the startling narration of decisions and +statutes, practice and precedent, condensed into a few of the closing +pages of the Oration, with which the discussion read by Chief Justice +Taney in the famous case of Dred Scott is confronted and exposed,--are +among the greater merits of this elaborate and able discourse. It must +have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a +large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of +an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of +self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for +his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience +and many of his countrymen. + +It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery +that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of +republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the +model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good +government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station, +quality, and character of the active offender. + +And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land, +and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary +between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce, +and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is +tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political +_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America. + +Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the +humblest comprehension. The chief justice and a majority of his +associates held that Dred Scott, who sued his master for his freedom in +the Federal court, had been already legally declared to be the slave of +that same master by the highest court of the State of Missouri, in +which State Scott resided at the time. They held that this decision of +the Missouri court was binding on all other tribunals; and that the +Federal court had no authority to reverse it, even if wrong. + +The _merits_ of the cause then before the court were thus conclusively +disposed of, whether the decision be regarded as bearing on the main +issue between the parties, or on the plea in abatement filed by the +defendant, avowing that Scott was not a _citizen_ of Missouri,--an +averment, if true, fatal to his standing in the Federal court,--since +its jurisdiction of the cause depended on the citizenship of the +litigants. In a word, if he was a _slave_, he was no _citizen_, If he +was the slave of Sanford, his doom was fixed, his dream of rights +dissolved. If the decision of the Missouri court was finally binding, +the functions of the Federal tribunal were at an end. + +What, then, was the pertinency of going on to argue the effect of the +Ordinance of 1787 over Scott while a resident in Illinois, or of the +Missouri Compromise on him during his residence in Wisconsin, or the +effect of his color, race, or ancestral disabilities upon a cause +controlled finally and beyond appeal by the authority of a decision +already made and recorded? + +Mr. Buchanan made hot haste to use this _pronunciamento_ of his chief +justice, issued only a few hours after his inauguration as President, +and withheld until after the election of 1856 had taken place. He +proclaimed--on its authority as a judicial exposition of a point of +constitutional law--the existence of slavery in the Territory of +Kansas. And he endeavored to make it efficient and powerful by +practical application in the administration of the government of the +Territory, and by interpolating these bastard dogmas, dropped from the +Federal bench, into the creed of the political party of which he was +the official chief. + +These _dicta_ of Mr. Chief Justice Taney made Dred Scott neither more +nor less a _slave_, neither more nor less a _citizen_, than he had been +without their utterance. But they aided the purpose of subjugating +Kansas, of opening all American territory to slavery, of Africanizing +the continent by reopening the slave-trade, of breaking down barriers +which State legislation has interposed against the introduction of +slaves, and of putting the propagandists of slavery in full possession +of every power. + +We gladly record our sense of the skill, learning, and intrepidity with +which Mr. Sumner fulfilled his task of presenting, defining, and +defending, within the brief limits of a single oration, the cause of +Liberty,--Liberty,--American, European, universal. + + + * * * * * + +_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan & +Co. 8vo. pp. 381. + +The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a +trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may +follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has +been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its +present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or +the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of +which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized +society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means +of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty +in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in +the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so +revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's +experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one +productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class +that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so +indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this +kind which could be studied and talked about. Dumas _fils_' "Dame aux +Camelias" is a great melodramatic story; but it is so exceptional in +its incidents and episodical in its character, that its heroine is +quite worthless as a specimen for examination and analysis; and it is, +beside, so very French as to be almost valueless in this regard, for +that reason alone. What it would be well to have written is the story +of an abandoned woman, told simply and without any reserve, except that +of decency, and purely from a woman's point of view. But, except by a +woman, and at the cost of the experience to be recounted, this is +manifestly possible only to genius. The author of "Out of the Depths" +has not attained the _desideratum_; but has yet approached so near it, +that we fear the right man, or, possibly, woman, may be deterred from +the attempt to do better. If so, there is a good subject--good for the +making of a grand psychological, physiological, and dramatic +study--lost. + +The subject of this professed autobiography, Mary Smith, is the +daughter of a gardener on a large English estate. Her family is much +noticed and favored by the ladies of the mansion, and she, who is +handsome and intellectual, soon acquires tastes and an education above +her position; and as she is vain and selfish and of a voluptuous +temperament, the consequence seems inevitable. Her first fault, +however, is committed with her betrothed husband, a young gentleman, +destined for the Church, by whose sudden death, at a time when his life +was more than ever essential to her happiness, she is left an outcast, +a creature to be spurned from the door of those upon whose tender care +Nature and themselves had given her unextinguishable claims. She finds +shelter and kind treatment with two girls who belong, though not +ostensibly, to the class into which she is about to fall, and soon she +appears as the mistress of a foolish young nobleman, for whom she has +not the least affection. At last he wearies of and parts with her, and +she finds a second companion and protector in an eminent barrister, who +takes pleasure in cultivating her literary tastes. Her unfaithfulness +to him results in a separation, and she passes into the hands of a +third keeper, who abandons her on occasion of his approaching marriage. +Infuriated at his desertion, she intrudes upon him at a social party at +his private chambers, and behaves so outrageously that she is handed +over to the police, and her name appears in public as that of an +infamous and disorderly woman. From this point she rapidly descends to +the lowest rank of her unfortunate class. On her way, a strong hand is +put out to save her. It is that of a gigantic young clergyman, who +allows her to think that she has decoyed him to her room, but who +really goes there to endeavor to turn her from her course of life. She +scorns his exhortations, and attempts to browbeat him; but she finds +him ready for a row upon the spot. He offers to fight her crowd of +bullies singlehanded, and when she locks the door upon him, twists the +lock off, hasp and all, with a turn of his wrist. Although they +part,--he none the worse, she none the better, for the interview,--it +is not without fruits; for he leaves her his address, and when, after +being reduced to the lowest depths of degradation and brought to the +last endurable pinch of suffering, she determines, at the death-bed of +a repentant companion, to reform at any cost, and does set her face +upward, and is beaten back and trodden under foot by the righteously +uncharitable of her own sex, she thinks of her big clergyman, seeks him +out, and by his instrumentality is taken into the country, and made the +mistress of a school in his parish. Here the friends of her youth find +her, forgive her, and cherish her; and she receives a proposal of +marriage from an estimable and wealthy farmer, who persists in his +suit, even after she has told him of her former life, and after the +small-pox, caught on a ministration of mercy, has harrowed all the +beauty from her face. But rapid consumption supervenes, and relieves +the author from the embarrassing position into which he had brought +himself. + +This is all the story that Mary Smith has to tell; and it will be seen, +that, so far as the incidents are concerned, it is commonplace enough. +It is not distinguished by one novel incident, or one fresh character, +except, perhaps, the muscular divine. Even in the grouping and +narration of its old incidents it exhibits no dramatic power, and +little skill of characterization in the portraiture of its personages. +And not only does a matter-of-fact air pervade the narrative, but the +tale is told with such reticence of fact as well as of feeling, that it +reveals but little of the real life of a London courtesan, and leaves +the reader almost as ignorant as he was when he took up the book of +what it is that makes the horror of such existence; all of which might +have been imparted without any violation of the decorum proper to such +a book, and which, therefore, should not have been withheld. The book, +too, is much too goody-goody. There is too much preaching throughout +it, and in certain parts a suddenness in the kneeling down to pray that +is quite startling. This stupid sort of goodness helps much to defeat +the purpose of the work. Even the strong minister, although his is not +the old-fashioned way, seems to have more beef on his bones than brains +in his head, or he would not answer to a desperate exclamation of Mary +Smith,--"Don't say that. God only knows what is best for us all; even +you, and all like you, may begin to live for the good of society, +without being its bane." This is very true,--as true as Justice +Shallow's original observation, that "we must all die." But the idea of +attempting to impress a degraded woman of the town by telling her that +she, and all like her, might be brought to live _for the good of +society!_ + +But in spite of these faults, the book has one great merit, which is +not too common; it seems to be the truthful story of a real life. This +impression is partly the result of a peculiarity of style which is very +difficult to express otherwise than by saying that the use of language +seems to indicate that the writer is of the condition of life in which +Mary Smith professes to have been born, and has acquired a knowledge of +language and literature in the manner in which she relates that she +acquired hers. There is no vulgarity, but a certain air of constrained +propriety, and an absence of any elegance, or grace, or indications of +a slow and unconsciously acquired acquaintance with the phraseology of +cultivated society. If this be really assumed, the author has exhibited +a delicate refinement in the art of writing not surpassed in any work +of imagination known to us. Another ground for the seeming actuality of +the story, to those who have any knowledge of the class to which its +heroine belongs, is the cause to which she attributes her fall. This +was not seduction; for she confesses, what hardly one in a thousand of +her sisters in shame will fail to confess, if they speak the truth, +that she was not seduced;--and neither was it poverty; for her father +was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a +young lady of wealth and station;--but it was her vanity and her +unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as +regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life; +and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate of +prudence; just as to a man whose great purpose is the getting of money, +honesty is but the best policy. After she has met the man who brings +her fate with him, (it might as well have been any other of his class,) +she writes,--"The one great pleasing and wretched hope of my mind was +that I should see him again; for it is so pleasant to believe that any +man in a higher station should take an interest in me." And again she +speaks of "exultation at the prospect which opened before me of being +raised out of the station in life from which I sprang by birth"; and +again, of her "desire of being a lady." This vanity it is, this desire +to dress and live like the women above them, and have intercourse with +the men above them, which leads the greater number of our fallen women +to their ruin, or, rather, sends them to it with their eyes open; and +for the rest, when Mary Smith, living in her own fine house, the petted +mistress of the wealthy Mr. Plowden, was unfaithful to him, it was not +for love of fine clothes or fine society. It is not long since our +whole country was shocked by the dire results of a similar abandonment +to vanity and wantonness, about which the usual amount of commonplace +and cant was uttered. It is time that the very truth was told about +this matter, in sad earnestness and singleness of purpose. We hoped to +find the whole truth in "Out of the Depths"; but, finding only a part +of it, we can greet it only with a partial welcome. + +_Reply to the "Statement of the Trustees" of the Dudley Observatory._ +By BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, JR. Albany: Printed by Charles Van +Benthuysen. 1859. 8vo. pp. 366. + +The question between Dr. Gould and the Trustees of the Albany +Observatory was not one of merely private or passing interest. It +concerned not only all men of science, but all men of honor. It +concerned all who like pluck, and who, in a quarrel, instinctively take +sides with one against many. It was of interest to men of science, +because the question was between show and reality, between newspaper +notoriety and the quiet advancement of real and enduring knowledge. It +concerned men of honor, because it was of some consequence to know +whether public sentiment in America would justify, nay, tolerate even, +the printing of confidential letters, and not only the printing, but +the garbling of them to suit the ends of personal spite. It concerned +lovers of fair-play, because it was to be settled whether it is right +to accuse a man of peculation whom you wish to convict of disagreeable +manners. + +Dr. Gould's pamphlet is a thorough vindication of himself. It is so not +only as to graver charges, but incidentally, by its perfect quietness +of tone, it answers the accusation of bad temper. The hitting is none +the less severe that it is done with scientific precision, and the +astronomer shows his ability to make his antagonists "see stars" in a +less comfortable way than through a telescope. There is a grim humor, +too, as well as dignity, in the Cool way in which Dr. Gould +recapitulates all the charges made against him,--especially where he +condenses them in the Index. Better pamphlet-fighting has not been seen +since Bentley. The hardship of the matter is, that people are commonly +more ready to believe slander than to trouble themselves with reading a +refutation of it. It gave us particular satisfaction to see that the +American Association for the Advancement of Science had shown its sense +of the merits of the quarrel by electing Dr. Gould vice-president of +their body. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Black Diamonds, gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South. By Edward A. +Pollard, of Virginia. New York. Pudney and Russell. 12mo. pp. 122. 50 +cts. + +Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders; or the Cogitations +and Confessions of an Aged Physician. By William A. Alcott, M.D. +Boston. John P. 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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: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9391] +[This file was first posted on September 28, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 4, NO. 25, NOVEMBER, 1859 *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. IV.--NOVEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXV. + + + + +E. FELICE FORESTI. + + +Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the +harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such +exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers +who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not +the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy +of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor the +fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new +country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees +of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and +breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and +self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the +bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud +consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and +being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when +first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of +the lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to +watch their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest +thought or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its +spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were +extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open. +Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple +facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and +cordial greeting. + +Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose +high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man of +moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul. Traces +of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent; but +with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave and +ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE FORESTI,--subsequently, and for +years, the favorite professor of his beautiful native language and +literature in New York,--the favorite guest and the cherished friend in +her most cultivated homes and among her best citizens,--the Italian +patriot, which title he vindicated by consistency, self-respect, and +the most genial qualities. The vocation he adopted, because of its +availability, only served to make apparent comprehensive endowments and +an independent spirit; the lady with whom he read Tasso, beside the +chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem Delivered," learned to appreciate +modern knighthood; and the scholar to whom he expounded Dante, from the +political chart of the Middle Ages, turned to an incarnation of +existent patriotism. Not only by the arguments of Gioberti, the graphic +pictures of Manzoni, and the terse pathos of Leopardi, did he +illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius; but through his own +eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her achievements and faith in +her destiny. The savings of years of patient toil were sacrificed to +the subsistence of his poor countrymen who came hither after bravely +fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara, to have their fruits of +victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity, consequent upon +early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn chains, laid the +stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed of pain. He +uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which no courage +can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious privilege of +being independent": yet his American friends must have surmised the +truth; for, one day, he received a letter stating that a sum, fully +adequate for two years' support, remained to his credit on the books of +a merchant,--one of those mysterious provisions, such as once redeemed +a note of Henry Clay's, and of which no explanation can be given, +except that "it is a way they have" among the merchant princes of New +York. By a providential coincidence, surgical skill, at this juncture, +essentially improved his physical condition; but it became +indispensable, at the same time, that he should exchange our rigorous +clime for one more congenial; and he sailed five years ago for Italy, +taking up his residence in Piedmont, where dwell so many of the eminent +adherents of the cause he loved, and where the institutions, polity, +and social life include so many elements of progress and of faith. It +was now that those who knew him best, including some of the leading +citizens of his adopted city, applied to the Executive for his +appointment as United States Consul at Genoa. There was a singular +propriety in the request. Having passed and honored the ordeal of +American citizenship, and being then a popular resident of the city +which gave birth to the discoverer of this continent,--familiar with +our institutions, and endeared to so many of the wise and brave in +America and Italy,--illustrious through suffering, a veteran disciple +and martyr of freedom,--he was eminently a representative man, whom +freemen should delight to honor; and while it then gratified our sense +of the appropriate that this distinction and resource should cheer his +declining years, we are impelled, now that death has canonized +misfortune and integrity, to avail ourselves of the occasion to +rehearse the incidents and revive the lessons of his life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is to be lamented that Foresti had not anticipated our +purpose with that consecutive detail possible only in an autobiography. +"_Le Scene del Carcere Duro in Austria_," writes the Marquis +Pallavicino, "non sono ancora la storia del Ventuno. Un uomo potrebbe +scriverla e svelare molte infamie tuttavia occulte del governo +Austriaco. Quest' uomo e Felice Foresti. Il quale abbandono gli agi +Americani per combattere un' altra volta, guerriero canuto, le gloriose +battaglie dell' Italico risorgimento. Il martire scriva: e la sua +penna, come quella d' un altro martire,--Silvio Pellico,--sara una +spada nel cuoro dell' Austria."--Notes to _Spielbergo e Gradisca_.] + +Underlying the external apathy and apparently frivolous life of the +Italian peninsula, there has ever been a resolute, clear, earnest +patriotism, fed in the scholar by memories of past glory, in the +peasant by intense local attachment, and kindled from time to time in +all by the reaction of gross wrongs and moral privations. Sometimes in +conversation, oftener in secret musing, now in the eloquent outburst of +the composer, and now in the adjuration of the poet or the vow of the +revolutionist, this latent spirit has found expression. Again and +again, spasmodic and abortive _emeutes_, the calm protest of a +D'Azeglio and the fanaticism of an Orsini, sacrifices of property, +freedom, and life,--all the more pathetic, because to human vision +useless,--have made known to the oppressor the writhings of the +oppressed, and to the world the arbitrary rule which conceals injustice +by imposing silence. The indirect, but most emphatic utterance of this +deep, latent self-respect of the nation we find in Alfieri, whose stern +muse revived the terse energy of Dante; and in our own day, this +identical inspiration fired the melancholy verse of Leopardi, the +letters of Foscolo, the novels of Guerrazzi, and the tender melody of +Bellini. Recent literature has exhibited the conditions under which +Italian Liberals strive, and the method of expiating their +self-devotion. The novels of Ruffini, the letters of the Countess +d'Ossoli, the rhetoric of Gavazzi, and the parliamentary reports of +Gladstone, the leading reviews, the daily journals, intercourse with +political refugees, and the personal observations of travel, have, more +or less definitely, caused the problem called the "Italian Question" to +come nearer to our sympathies than any other European exigency apart +from practical interests. Moreover, the complicated and dubious aspect +of the subject, viewed by transatlantic eyes, has, within the last ten +years, been in a great measure dispelled by experimental facts. That +Italy needs chiefly to be _let alone_, to achieve independence and +realize a noble development, civic, economical, and social, every +intelligent traveller who crosses the Austrian frontier and enters the +Sardinian state, knows. + +A greater contrast, as regards productive industry, intellectual +enterprise, religious progress, comfort, and happiness, no adjacent +countries ever exhibited; constitutional freedom, an unrestricted +press, toleration, and public education on the one hand, and foreign +bayonets, espionage, and priestcraft on the other, explain the anomaly. +In Venice the very trophies of national life are labelled in a foreign +tongue, the _caffes_ of Milan resound with Teutonic gutturals, and +under the arcades of Bologna every other face wears the yellow beard of +the North; yet the family portraits in the vast palace-chambers, the +eyes and dialect of the people, the monumental inscriptions, announce +an indigenous and superseded race; their industry, civil rights, +property, and free expression in art, literature, and even speech, +being forcibly and systematically repressed: while in the mountains of +Savoy, the streets of Turin, and the harbor of Genoa, the stir and +zest, the productiveness, and the felicity of national life greet the +senses and gladden the soul. Statistics evidence what observation +hints; Cavour wins the respect of Europe; D'Azeglio illustrates the +inspiration which liberty yields to genius; journalism ventilates +political rancor; debate neutralizes aggressive prejudice; physical +resources become available; talent finds scope, character +self-assertion; Protestantism builds altars, patriotism shrines; and +genuine Italian nationality has a vital existence so palpably +reproachful of circumjacent stagnation, ruin, and wrong, that no laws +or material force can interpose a permanent obstacle to its indefinite +extension and salutary reign. + +In his first youth, Foresti imbibed the creative spirit breathed into +the social and civic life of Italy by Napoleon's victories and +administration; it was at that vivid epoch when the military, +political, artistic, and literary talent of the land, so long repressed +and thwarted by superstition and despotism, broke forth, that his +studies were achieved. We have only to compare what was done, thought, +and felt in the Peninsula, during the ten years between the coronation +of Bonaparte at Milan and his overthrow at Waterloo, with the +subsequent dearth of national triumphs in every sphere, and with the +inert, apprehensive, baffled existence of the Italians in the grasp of +reinstated and reinforced imbecile, yet tyrannic governments, to +appreciate the feelings of a young, well-born, gifted citizen, when +suddenly checked in a liberal and progressive career, and remanded, as +it were, from the bracing atmosphere of modern civilization and +enlightened activity, to the passive, silent endurance of obsolete +feudalism. It was the inevitable and deliberate protest against this +wicked and absurd reaction which gave birth to the political +organization of the _Carbonari_; wherein the noblest men and the wisest +princes of that day enrolled themselves; and the inefficiency of whose +far-reaching, secret, and solemn aims can be accounted for only by the +fatal error of trusting in the magnanimity of an order born to +hereditary power, and overlooking, in their municipal fraternities, the +vast importance of the more scattered, but not less capable and +patriotic agricultural class. + +Foresti was born at Conselice in the Ferrarese. Few American travellers +linger in Ferrara. Fresh from the more imposing attractions of Florence +or Venice, this ancient Italian city offers little in comparison to +detain the eager pilgrim; and yet to one cognizant of its history and +alive to imaginative associations, this neglect might increase the +charm of a brief sojourn. It is pleasant to explore the less hackneyed +stories of history and tradition, to enjoy an isolated scene fraught +with grand or tender sentiment, to turn aside from the trampled highway +and the crowded resort, to listen to some plaintive whisper from the +Past amid the deserted memorials of its glory and grief. Such a place +is Ferrara. The broad and regular streets and the massive palaces +emphatically declare its former splendor; and its actual decadence is +no less manifest in the grass-grown pavement of the one and the +crumbling and dreary aspect of the other. It requires no small effort +of fancy, as we walk through some deserted by-way, wherein our +footsteps echo audibly at noonday, to realize that this was the +splendid arena where the House of Este so long held sway, limited in +extent, but in its palmy days the centre of a brilliant court, a famous +school of pictorial art, the seat of a university whose fame drew +scholars from distant Britain, and whose ducal family gave birth to the +Brunswick dynasty, whence descended the royalty of England. The city +dates its origin from the fifth century, when its marshy site gave +refuge from the pursuing Huns, and the ambition of its rulers gradually +concentrated around the unpromising domain those elements of +ecclesiastical prestige, knightly valor, artistic and literary +resources which enriched and signalized the Italian cities of the +Middle Ages. Enlightened, though capricious patronage made this +halting-place between Bologna and Venice, Padua and Rome, the nucleus +of talent, enterprise, and diplomacy, the fruits whereof are permanent. +But there are two hallowed associations which in a remarkable degree +consecrated Ferrara and endeared her to the memory of later +generations: she gave an asylum to the persecuted Christian Reformers, +and was the home and haunt of poets. It is this recollection which +stays the feet and warms the heart of the transatlantic visitor, as he +roams at twilight around the venerable castle "flanked with towers," +traces the dim fresco in a church Giotto decorated, reads "Parisina" in +Byron's paraphrase near the dungeons where she and her lover were +slain, or gazes with mingled curiosity and love on the chirography of +St. Chrysostom, the original manuscripts of Tasso, Ariosto, and +Guarini, or the inscription of Victor Alfieri in the Studio Publico. It +is because Calvin was here sheltered, and Olympia Morata found sympathy +and respect,--because the author of "Jerusalem Delivered" here loved, +triumphed, and despaired, and the author of the "Orlando Furioso" so +assiduously labored for his orphaned family, the exacting Cardinal +Ippolito, and the cause of learning, and strung a lyre which has for +centuries vibrated in the popular heart and fancy,--because, in a word, +Ferrara contains the prison of Tasso, and the home of Ariosto, who +called her "_citta bene avventurosa_," as did Tassoni the "_gran donna +del Po_,"--that the desolate old city is revived to the imagination, +with its hundred thousand people, its gay courtiers and brave knights, +the romance of its feats of minstrelsy and arms whereat noble beauties +and immortal bards assisted, and Art, Chivalry, Learning, Church, and +State held festival with the Muses to adorn and perpetuate the +transient pageant, the loveliness, and the rule,--otherwise since +consigned to the monotonous record of vanished pomp and arbitrary sway. + +When Napoleon fell, Foresti was a student at the University of Bologna, +whence he returned to his native capital, after obtaining the degree of +Doctor of Laws. His earliest forensic labors, like those of our young +advocates, were in the defence of accused criminals; and, limited as is +this sphere, he must have displayed unusual maturity of judgment and +natural eloquence, to have received successively the eminent +appointments of Provisory Assistant Judge in the Court of Justice of +Ferrara, Supplementary Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the +Lyceum, and Judge of the Peace, by virtue of which latter office he +crossed the Po to practise at Polesino,--wisely preferring the Austrian +to the Papal jurisdiction. In Crespino, in the province of Rovigo, in +the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, Foresti was made Praetor under the +Emperor's warrant. Coincident with this recognition of his judicial +knowledge and skill, was a kindred appreciation on the part of his +liberal and patriotic countrymen; they beheld in the vigorous and +disciplined mind and generous heart of Foresti, in his civic wisdom and +courage, the representative and ally they sought in this portion of +their beautiful and unhappy land. To disseminate the principles and +secure the cooperation of Venice became the special office of the +Carbonari leaders of Ferrara, and they had only to reveal the high and +holy object they cherished, to one who so well knew the wants and woes +of his country as Foresti, to enlist his adventurous sympathy. The +delicate and difficult mission, fraught with the dearest prospects of +Italy, was nearly consummated, when a treacherous colleague revealed to +the accredited agents both of Austria and the Pope the system of this +mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara. The latter +shrank from extreme measures, and was content with an oath of +retraction; but the Austrian government gave instant orders to the +chiefs of police, both there and at Venice, to arrest those whom the +perjured Count Villa named as adherents of Carbonarism. The decree was +executed with military force; and, without warning, preparation, or +even a parting interview with their families and friends, the suspected +were hurried off to the Piombi, that Venetian prison so graphically +described by Pellico. All correspondence and personal intercourse was +denied. Meantime, an ingenious and persevering investigation went on, +to ascertain the scope of the enterprise thus summarily baffled, the +means proposed, and the individuals implicated. To complicate still +further the situation of the victims, in other quarters the flame they +had secretly fed burst forth conspicuously; Naples and Piedmont were in +arms; and Austria conceived an alarming idea of the national spirit she +had partially contravened. The rigor of espionage towards the +imprisoned and their friends increased; the prosecution was insidiously +prolonged; privation and solitude, vigilance and suspense were made +instruments for subduing the resolution and invading the confidence of +the captives; they pined in desolation, ignorant of their fate, +uninformed of the welfare of those most dear to them, without resources +of defence or consolation, except what the strength of individual +character yields; physically weakened, morally isolated; sometimes +roused from sleep and bewildered with questions; at other times told +they were to die, that some companion had confessed, or that some loved +one had ceased to exist;--and all these crises of feeling and anxiety, +of surprise and despair, induced with a fiendish deliberation, to +startle honor into self-betrayal, wring from exhausted Nature what +conscious rectitude would not divulge, or agonize human love into +inadvertent disloyalty. + +At length their fate was decided. Foresti's companion in prison was the +son of a judge of Ferrara; and, one November midnight, their +conversation was interrupted by the unexpected entrance of the jailer, +who bade Foresti follow him. The hour and the manner of the official +convinced both him and his comrade that his sacrifice was resolved +upon; they embraced, and he left the cell to find himself strictly +guarded by six soldiers. This nocturnal procession marched silently +through the vast, lonely, and magnificent rooms of the Ducal Palace to +the door which leads to the Bridge of Sighs: it was the old road to +destruction,--the mysterious process, made familiar by novelists and +poets, by which the ancient and sinister republic made more fearful the +vengeance of government. As the unfortunate youth passed through a +labyrinth of gloomy corridors, he recognized the haunts of the ancient +Inquisition; the atmosphere was clogged with damp; moisture dripped +from the stones. A dungeon, lighted only by a lamp suspended from the +vault, and narrow, humid, and unfurnished, except with a pile of straw +and a rude table, proved the dreary goal of their heavy steps. Left to +his own reflections, Foresti contemplated his prospects with deliberate +anguish; that he had been found guilty was apparent; if the fact of his +direct agency in initiating the oath of self-emancipation, the sacred +compact of national self-assertion in the Austrian dominions, had +transpired, he felt that his prominence as a judicial officer, and the +firmness with which he had refused to explain the purposes or betray +the associates of this memorable league, made him the most probable +victim of extreme measures, should one be chosen from the Carbonari of +Ferrara. At that period of his life he entertained the opinion that +suicide was justifiable to avoid an ignominious death at the hands of +arbitrary power. Believing his fate sealed, he gave a few moments of +tender reminiscence to his dead mother and his living father and +sisters, to the dreams of his youth, and the patriotic aspirations to +which he was about to fall a sacrifice. The jailer returned, bringing a +book and a bottle of wine, for which he had asked; a few tears were +shed, a prayer for forgiveness breathed, and then he plunged a knife +into his breast; the blade broke; he shattered the bottle at his side +and swallowed the fragments, and then fell bleeding and exhausted on +the straw. If left long alone, life would have ebbed away; but, +probably in anticipation of such a catastrophe, the officer ere many +hours revisited the cell to put chains upon the prisoner. Discovering +his condition, a surgeon was called, remedies were applied, and two +Austrian sentinels carried Foresti into the presence of the judge. It +was scarcely dawn; the venerable and courteous, but inflexible +representative of the Emperor expressed solicitude and sympathy; a +secretary and physician, with the guard and their prisoner, confronted +each other by the dim light of two candles. Irritated by the +conventional politeness of this arbiter of his destiny at such a +crisis, having vainly sought death, and bitterly conscious of the long +outrages perpetrated under the name of justice, Foresti burst forth +into stern invectives, and boldly declared his liberal sentiments, his +allegiance to the principles for the sake of which he thus suffered, +and his absolute enmity to the usurpers of his country's freedom. The +Cavalier Mazzetti treated this overflow of emotion as the ebullition of +a youthful mind, romantic and intrepid, but unreasonable; he professed +the sincerest pity for so gifted and brave a youth, lamented his +delusion, painted in emphatic words his want of gratitude and +allegiance, treated his political creed and organization as chimerical, +and wound up by informing Foresti that he was condemned to die on the +public square of Venice, and that nothing would save him but a complete +revelation of the true plan, arrangements, and members of the secret +conclave to which he belonged. Threats and blandishments failed to move +the prisoner; he was silent, accepted his doom, and was remanded with +two allies,--one of whom purchased a remission by treason to his vows. +Such was the climax of two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by +ingenious moral torture. + +If the modern history of liberty is written by a comprehensive +humanitarian, he will not look exclusively to the battle-field for +picturesque and impressive _tableaux_; in that record most signally +will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of +victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler +will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that +which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve, +1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more +distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,--the only +spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous +old city of the sea,--the gay centre of a recreative population, where +the costumes and physiognomies of the Orient and the West mingle in +dramatic contrast,--the nucleus of historical and romantic +associations, singularly domesticated in two hemispheres by the +household lore of Shakspeare and Otway, Byron and Rogers, Cooper and +Ruskin. The ancient temple of St. Mark, the bronze horses of Lysippus, +the arched galleries of the Palace, the waters of the Adriatic, the +firmament above, and the stones beneath seem instinct with the fame of +commercial grandeur, maritime triumphs, and diplomatic prowess; the +cheerful arcades that shade the _caffes_ remind us of the "harmless +comedy of life" which Goldoni recorded; the flush of sunset on dome, +balcony, and canal seems warm with the peerless tints which Titian here +caught and transmitted; the crowd of pleasure-seekers recall the music, +love, and chivalry, of which this was once the splendid centre; while +the shadow of a dark _facade_ whispers of the mysterious oligarchy, the +anonymous accusers, the secret council, and the venerable Doge;--a more +remarkable union of gloom and gayety, of romance and reality, of the +beautiful and the tragic, directly suggested by inevitable local +associations, cannot be found in the whole range of European travel. +Imagine this memorable square, on the afternoon of a great Christmas +festival;--fair faces at every window,--the adjacent roofs crowded with +spectators,--an Austrian regiment drawn up around a scaffold,--the +Viceroy, brother of the Emperor, standing in the large balcony of the +Palace,--two cannon placed between the columns of San Marco and San +Teodoro,--every inch of the vast Piazza, without the circle of +soldiery, occupied by eager spectators. Over this vast assemblage, amid +the impending thoughts which the incidents of the hour and the memory +of the Past inspired, reigned a profound silence; no laugh or jest, +such as bespeaks a holiday, no heartless curiosity, such as accompanies +a mere public show, no vulgar excitement was evident; on many faces +dwelt an expression of awe and pity,--on others an indignant frown,--on +all painful and sympathetic expectancy. Every class was represented, +from the swarthy fishermen of the lagoons to the dark-eyed countess of +the Palazzo,--pale students, venerable citizens, the shopkeeper and the +marquis, the priest and the advocate. It was not merely the fate of the +few prisoners on the scaffold, deep as was the public sympathy, which +occasioned this profound suspense; they represented the national cause, +and in every city of the land there were scores of the bravest and the +best equally involved in the patriotic sacrifice, and whose destiny +had, for long and weary months, agonized their relations, friends, and +countrymen. The anomalous tyranny under which the nation had collapsed +was demonstrated not so much by the outward aspect as by the moral +facts of that fatal day in the Piazza of San Marco. On the scaffold +were a group of educated, courageous, honest Italians, guarded by +Austrian soldiers and overlooked by the official representative of +imperial despotism; their attitude was criminal, their acts sublime; +ostensibly condemned, they were in reality glorified. Not a being in +that vast multitude, except the official creatures of Austria, but +gazed with respect, love, sorrow, pride, tenderness, and admiration +upon her noble victims; it was the apparent triumph of physical force, +and the actual realization of moral superiority: the silence of that +multitude was the eloquent protest of humanity. + +And this ominous silence was all at once broken by the clear, +well-emphasized voice of a judicial officer, reading the sentence; it +was listened to with such breathless attention, that, when the phrase, +_condemned to death_, was uttered, a visible shudder vibrated, like an +electric shock, through the dense mass of human beings, and upturned +faces flushed or grew pallid in an instant; but scarcely were these +simultaneous emotions recognized, when another phrase, _life granted_, +called forth a cry as of one mighty voice. All were spared: but a +sentence, to such as understood its meaning, of living death,--_carcere +duro_ in Spielberg and the Castle of Lubiano,--some for ten, others for +fifteen, and the remainder for twenty years,--was substituted. + +This entire ceremony was characteristic of Austrian despotism, aware of +the profound sympathy among the Italians for their patriot martyrs, of +the widespread disaffection, of the necessity of exciting vague and +terrible apprehension,--and at the same time conscious that policy +forbade arousing the fury of despair. The accused were thus kept more +than two years alternating from hope to desperation, the people in +ignorance of the issue, and then, when led out, as they supposed, to +die, they served as a warning to those who dared imperial vengeance, +while, by a sudden act of apparent clemency, the government at once rid +itself of formidable opponents and assumed the character of merciful +executors of law! It was rumored that the consideration of his youth +saved the life of Foresti;--he was sentenced to twenty years' +imprisonment. + +From, the scaffold the prisoners were transferred to the Island of St. +Michael. Their transit was more like an ovation than a disgrace. The +better class of spectators embarked in gondolas and followed the +_cortege_ with shouts of encouragement and waving of handkerchiefs; +"Courage, courage, brave patriots!" was their salutation; and when +night fell upon the scene, there rose from the lagoons strains of +instrumental and vocal melody, and improvised recitations breathing +honor, compassion, and hope; so that in spite of bayonets and police, +terrorism and espionage, the voice of their fettered country wafted to +every captive the assurance that he had not striven and been faithful +unto death in vain. + +These scenes in Venice were reenacted, with unimportant modifications, +within a few months, at Rome and Turin, at Modena, Parma, and Naples. +The rolls of victims embraced the most highly endowed and heroic men of +the day. Many of them, after years of incarceration, distinguished +themselves in civil and literary life; some perished miserably in +durance; and a few yet survive and enjoy social consideration or +European fame. Among them were representatives of every rank, vocation, +and section of the land,--noblemen, professors, military officers, +advocates, physicians, priests, men of wealth, of genius, and of +character. Those known in America, either personally or by their +writings, are Count Gonfalonieri of Milan, Silvio Pellico, Castilla, +Borsieri, Maroncelli, and Foresti. The abortive revolutions of 1831 and +1848 sent other refugees to our shores, and canonized other saintly +heroes in the Calendar of Freedom; but these were the original, and, as +a body, the remarkable men, who, imbued with the intelligent and +progressive Liberalism of the nineteenth century, practically +established in Italy by Napoleon, bravely initiated the vital reaction +invoked by humanity as well as patriotism, before which European +despotism has never ceased to tremble, and which, however baffled, +postponed, and misunderstood, by the law of God as well as the +development of man, is absolutely destined to an ultimate triumph. + +The show of justice and clemency was made at noonday with every +circumstance of pomp and authority to give it popular effect; the trial +and punishment were enacted in darkness and isolation. On a cold, still +night of January came police commissioners to the island, whither the +condemned patriots had been conveyed amid tears and benedictions, and +chained them in couples like galley-slaves. By the light of torches +they were placed in boats which glided noiselessly by sleeping Venice +to Mestre, and there they were transferred to carriages, two prisoners +and four guards to each vehicle, and in this manner, for four dreary +weeks, borne through the winter days farther and farther from country +and home,--sleeping at night in town-jails, by-way fortresses, or, when +neither were available, in the worst apartments of lonely inns. Who can +adequately describe the wretchedness of that journey, the bitterness of +soul, the prospective desolation, the tender regrets of those unhappy +prisoners,--torn from the embrace of kindred, the dignity and motive of +a high career, the most beautiful of countries, and the most sacred of +ties and duties, to bury their youth, with all its high dreams and +noble fervor and consecrated gifts, in a distant dungeon? Even the +strangers through whose domain they passed testified by looks, signs, +respectful greetings, and, when possible, kind attentions, their +sympathy and esteem; people of rank continued to approach them in +disguise merely to indicate their humane recognition; the very +commissioners sent to attest the execution of the sentence parted from +their charge with tearful respect. Grief, privation, and fatigue, +greatly aggravated by the shackles which bound them in pairs, had +exhausted body and mind at the end of the journey. From the city of +Brunn, the capital of Moravia, their wan looks sought the mountain +prison above, where frowned the bastions of Spielberg, once a mediaeval +castle, then a fortress, built by the Emperor Charles, and, just before +the battle of Austerlitz, dismantled by Napoleon, and now the place of +confinement for the most degraded criminals of Austria, nearly a +thousand of whom there expiate their offences. Into this herd of +malefactors were thrust gentlemen, scholars, citizens, for the crime of +patriotism. To each was assigned a cell, twelve feet in length and +eight in breadth, with a small iron-barred window, a plank with, a +mattress and blanket, an iron chair secured to the wall, and an earthen +jug for water. Arrayed in convict uniform, here the brave youths were +immured. Sentinels were continually on guard in the corridors and court +and around the bastions; the food was inadequate and often loathsome; +an hour's walk in the yard daily, between two soldiers with loaded +muskets, was the only respite from solitude and inaction; "Lives of the +Saints" were the only books allowed; intercourse with the outward world +was entirely cut off; surveillance was incessant; on Sunday they were +guarded to the chapel, but kept apart; every quarter appeared a priest, +who strove, by rigid examination, to elicit political secrets; the +agents and officials maintained an unmitigated reserve; what transpired +in the world, how it fared with their country and their loved ones, was +unknown; existence so near to death itself, in passivity, "cold +obstruction," alienation from all the interests, the hopes, and the +very impressions of human life, it is impossible to imagine. +Subsequently reforms were introduced, and the rigors of this system +somewhat modified; but the era of Foresti's confinement at Spielberg +was that which has become accursed in political history as the reign of +Francesco Primo. He insisted to the last on chains, the badge of crime, +and the severest _regime_ possible to life. He had even visited Brunn, +and been within hearing of his victims, and sent his physician to +ascertain their condition; but refused any mitigation of sufferings, +moral and physical, which involved sanity, health, and almost vitality. + +The details of this experience are familiar through current European +memoirs. Silvio Pellico has made the life of an Austrian +prisoner-of-state, in its outward environment and inward struggles, as +well known as that of the Arctic explorer or the English +factory-operative. A confirmatory supplement to this dark chapter in +the history of modern civilization has recently appeared from the pen +of another of Foresti's fellow-martyrs, Pallavicino. [Footnote: +_Spielbergo e Gradisca: Scene del Carcere Duro di_ GIORGIO PALLAVICINO. +Torino. 1856.] But while they were undergoing the bitter ordeal, it was +all but unknown in Europe and undreamed of in America; literature, that +noble vantage-ground for oppressed humanity, has now broken the silence +and proclaimed the truth. There was one solace ingeniously obtained by +these buried members of the living human family,--occasional indirect +intercourse with each other: the telegraphs of eye and ear conveyed +their mutual feelings. One after another succumbed, from the vital +injuries of the _regime_; in one case the brain grew weak, in another +the blood was impoverished or fevered; this one was prostrated by +gangrene in wounds caused by chafing fetters, and that attenuated by +insufficient nourishment: yet they contrived to make known to each +other how it fared with them respectively. Pellico, through an +indulgent guard, sent Foresti verses on his birthday; Maronchelli +sounded on the wall the intimation of his continued existence after his +leg was amputated; and when marshalled for a walk or convened on Sunday +in the chapel, the devoted band had the melancholy satisfaction of +beholding each other, though the different groups were not permitted to +communicate. Andryane, a French officer, included in the original +edict, though upon most inadequate evidence, describes, with keen +interest, his first impressions when permitted to go to mass at +Spielberg. His companion speculated on the identity of each of the +captives. "That one, with dejected looks and hollow eyes, who seems so +exhausted, and, though a tall man, is bent down into a dwarf, is Villa. +Poor fellow! he has but a few months to live. As for the last one, with +the stern looks and bushy black hair, he appears to bear his fate in +such a manner as ought to make us resigned to our own." "That," +whispered a fellow-prisoner, "is Foresti, who, like Ajax, doubtless +mutters between his teeth, 'I will foil them yet, though even the gods +oppose me!'" [Footnote: "_Memoires d'un Prisonnier d'Etat_." Par +ALEXANDRE ANDRYANE. Paris.] + +This observation was sagacious. It was by calm resolution and +philosophic self-possession, through faith in the ultimate triumph of +justice and freedom, that Foresti kept at bay the corrosive despair +which irritated less noble characters into melancholy or wasted spirits +of gentler mould to insanity. Yet his physical torture was extreme. Of +robust frame and in the plenitude of youthful vigor when arrested, the +want of food during the earlier years of his captivity made serious and +permanent inroads upon a naturally powerful constitution. We have heard +him relate, with a humorous emphasis indicative of brave endurance, yet +suggestive of the keenest pangs, how eagerly he one day seized a +pudding, thrust under his dress, as he passed the lodge of an official +in the court, by a compassionate woman,--how ingeniously he concealed +it from the sentinels, at the risk of burning his hands,--with what +triumph he unfolded and with what voracity he devoured it in the +solitude of his cell. Sometimes an indignity overcame his +self-possession, as, on one occasion, when the jailer's attendant +rudely awoke him with a kick, as he deposited a basin of hot broth, +which Foresti indignantly seized and dashed its scalding contents into +the face of the brutal menial, who thenceforward was more respectful in +his salutations. But it was the moral suffering against which all his +wisdom and courage were invoked to struggle,--the resolute maintenance +of healthful mental activity, without an object or motive underived +from will,--the repression of hopeless, vague, self-tormenting +reverie, which perverts intellect and drains moral energy,--the +habitual exercise of memory, reflection, and fancy, to preserve their +functions unimpaired. Such expedients were of special necessity at +Spielberg; for never were educated men so barbarously deprived of the +legitimate resources of mind and heart; thought and love were left +uninvited, unappeased. Sir Walter Raleigh had the materials, at the +Tower, to write a history; Lafayette, at Olmutz, lived in perpetual +expectancy of release; Moore and Byron, children, flowers, birds, and +the Muses cheered Leigh Hunt's year of durance: but in this bleak +fortress, innocent and magnanimous men beheld the seasons come and go, +night succeed day, and year follow year, with no cognizance of kindred +or the world's doings,--no works of bard or sage,--no element of +life,--but a grim, cold, deadly routine within stone walls,--all tender +sympathies, the very breath of the soul, denied,--all influx of +knowledge, the food of the mind, prohibited, experience a blank, +existence a void! + +Had we need of evidence that conscience is a normal attribute of +humanity, that the soul is endowed with relations to the Infinite, we +should find it in the self-preservation realized under such +circumstances as these. Only conscious rectitude could arm humanity +against the sense of degradation and deprivation thus surrounding and +pressing upon it for years,--only the belief in a Power above and +beyond human will and perversity,--only, in a word, the recuperative +force of moral individuality and aspiration, could keep intact and +uninvaded the integrity of conscious being. Of course, the method +thereof depends on character; a cheerful heart In one, a buoyant +imagination in another, and the sweet self-oblivion which Faith imparts +in a third, sentiment here and will there, work the same miracle. +Foresti belonged to that class of Italians who combine perspicacity and +force of reasoning with a frank, affectionate, and trustful +disposition,--types of the manly intellect, the childlike heart; +incarceration, while it failed to enfeeble the former, by seclusion +from life's game and the world's encroachments from early youth to +middle age, perhaps confirmed the latter into the candid and loving +nature which endeared him to so many friends in Europe and America. +Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress; +and Isaac Taylor has observed, that the devout heart can find in a +single blade of grass the evidence of a Divine Creator. We have all +read of Bruce testing his fate, when a captive, by the gyrations of a +spider, of Baron Trenck finding solace in a dungeon in the +companionship of a mouse, and the imaginative prisoner of Fenestrelle +absorbed in vigilant and even affectionate observation of a little +plant,--its germination, slow approach to maturity, and consummate +flowering. But there were alleviating circumstances in the situation of +these captives,--a definite hope of release or a certainty of +life-bondage, either of which alternatives is more favorable to +tranquillity of soul than absolute suspense; they enjoyed tidings from +without or indulgences within. At Spielberg, the _sistema diabolico_, +as it has been justly called, especially at the epoch of Foresti's +incarceration, retained the galling chain on the limbs, cut off the +supply of moral and intellectual vitality, refused appropriate +occupation, baffled hope, eclipsed knowledge, and kept up a vile +inquisitorial process to goad the crushed heart, sap the heroic will, +and stupefy or alienate the mental faculties; dawn ushered in the +twilight of a mausoleum, noon fell dimly on paralyzed manhood, night +canopied aggravating dreams. + + "To such sad pitch their gathering griefs were wrought, + Life seemed not life, save when convulsed by thought." + +Casual evasions of this fiendish torture, through ingenuity or the +compassion of officials, are among the few animated episodes of their +dreary experiences recorded by the victims. At length the Emperor died +(an event they had surmised from a change in the form of the public +prayer); his son Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, and signalized his +accession by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning +them to perpetual exile in America. Those long years of such captivity +did not even gain them the privilege of again enjoying civil rights, +their country, and kindred! Protests were vain, appeals disregarded. In +November, 1835, their chains were removed; the same blacksmith who had +welded Foresti's shackles fourteen years before, now severed them, and +wept with joy as they fell! One night they were all summoned to the +director's room, and he, too, announced their enfranchisement with +congratulations; the prison garb was exchanged for citizen's dress, and +they were taken in carriages to the police prison of Brunn, where +comfortable apartments, good food, free intercourse, books, and +newspapers awaited them. Imagine the vividness of their sensations, the +hilarity of feeling inspired by the first sight of scenes and objects +associated with their youth! It was like a new birth. To grasp the +hands and hear the voices of their fellow-creatures,--to behold +streets, _caffes_, and shops, the tokens of industry, the insignia of +life,--to taste viands unknown for years,--to see the horizon,--to feel +the breath of heaven,--to trace once more those charts of living +history, the journals, resume acquaintance with favorite authors, +converse together, move unchained, think aloud,--this sudden and entire +transition awakened a sensation of almost infantile joy. But privation +had too long been their lot to be instantly ignored with impunity; a +reaction followed; the weakness incident to long confinement, +prostrated faculties, and inadequate nourishment brought on illness; +they could not, at once, bear the excitement, digest the food, or +sustain the keen pleasure; and a rigorous climate quelled their +sensitive vitality. But universal sympathy now environed them; their +very custodian ministered to their wants; and the Emperor ordered them +to be removed to the Castle of Gradisca, on the confines of Italy, +where a milder atmosphere prevailed. + +How much had occurred while these years of arbitrarily imposed +monasticism crept heavily by, to excite the speculative thought and +kindle the sympathies of educated men! To what new aspects of +civilization and fresh phases of contemporaneous history their +liberation suddenly introduced them! + +Their journey from Brunn to Gradisca was a perfect contrast to that +melancholy transit, so many years before, from Venice to Spielberg. It +was near the beginning of April, 1836, when they started in carriages +with a commissary and a few guards; in every town and village through +which they passed, crowds surrounded them with gratulations; the inns +where they stopped were besieged with well-wishers; Nature, too, seemed +to hail their release with vernal beauty; and so they journeyed on, to +be received as honored guests rather than prisoners-of-state at the +Castle of Gradisca. Their sojourn here was as recreative as was +consistent with that degree of supervision necessary to prevent escape; +they were at liberty to walk about, to make and receive visits, to +bathe in the sea, to attend the fairs, and examine the local +celebrities of Friuli; a single commissary often accompanied their +excursions, and personally the most delicate consideration was paid +them. Here, too, the most affecting reunions of long-severed kindred +and friends took place; their relatives hastened hither to embrace +them. + +Foresti used to relate many anecdotes illustrative of the sympathy and +respect felt and manifested by strangers during this interlude between +prison and exile. One deserves record here. Two travelling-carriages +arrived at a village-inn, one evening, where they were resting. While +the gentlemen were inspecting the apartments, a lady of distinguished +appearance inquired of a bystander, who the strangers were towards whom +so many friendly glances were directed; soon after, the landlord bore +to them her request for an interview; they rose at her entrance; she +attempted to speak, but her voice faltered, and, with tears, she turned +to her little boys and said, "Kneel, my darlings, to these brave +Italian patriots; they are illustrious victims in the great cause of +Liberty; and you, gentlemen, bless my sons; your blessing will be +fruitful to them of good; it will make them love their country and die +for it, if need be. I am a Pole. My country is oppressed like yours. I +have two brothers compromised in the last insurrection in Cracow. May +God preserve them!"--and weeping bitterly, she retired. They afterwards +learned that her husband was Counsellor of State to the King of +Prussia. + +On the 1st of August, 1836, they were transported by night to Trieste, +and, by a singular coincidence, placed on board the same brig-of-war +whence Kozsta was subsequently taken at Smyrna,--an incident memorable +in our subsequent diplomacy, as having occasioned the celebrated letter +of Webster to the Austrian envoy. Provided by that government with warm +clothing, the money they had taken to Spielberg was restored to them, +not, however, in the original gold coin, but in the Vienna bills for +which it had been then exchanged by the police, diminished nearly +two-thirds in value during the interval of fourteen years. The vessel +was uncomfortably crowded; the voyage occupied three months; but they +fared alike with the officers. Towards the close of October, they +beheld the noble bay of New York; and so intense was the satisfaction +with which they first trod American soil, the goal and terminus of such +protracted suffering, that, ever after, the Battery, where they landed, +was hallowed to their memories as consecrated ground. + +Within a few days of their arrival, a banquet was given them by their +compatriots; and from that hour, Foresti became the oracle and the +consoler, the teacher, almoner, and chief of his fellow-exiles. +Subsequent events drove many other Italian patriots to our shores; his +purse and his counsel were ever ready for the impoverished and +inexperienced, who regarded him with filial admiration; while to the +more educated he was the intimate companion or sympathetic friend. +Through his personal influence, employment was constantly obtained and +kindness enlisted for his countrymen. When the great political crisis +of 1848 occurred, Foresti hastened to Europe; Pius IX., at the urgent +prayer of his sisters and cousins, offered him free entrance to his +dominions, a favor his predecessor might have granted but for the +strong opposition of Cardinal Lambruschini. He took counsel with the +revolutionary leaders at Paris, and passed through Italy to the +frontiers of the Papal States, whence the fatal reaction, supported by +French bayonets, at Rome, sent him back once more to the land of his +adoption, whither he was soon followed by many of the heroic and +unfortunate men who redeemed the martial fame, without being able to +retrieve the fate of Italy. + +Of the many Italian exiles who have found an asylum in the United +States, Foresti was preeminently the representative man. The period of +his arrival, the circumstances of his life, and the traits of his +character united thus to distinguish him even among the best educated +and most unfortunate of the political refugees from Southern Europe. At +the time of his arrest, the vilest modern despotism of the Continent +had reached its acme; and the patriotic movements it then sought to +annihilate by a cruelty unparalleled since the Middle Ages were +justified even by conservative reformers, on account of their stringent +moral necessity, the intelligent scope of their advocates, and the high +and cultivated spirit of their illustrious martyrs. As scholars, +citizens, gentlemen, and, in more than one instance, authors of real +genius, these Liberals stand alone, and are not to be confounded with +the perverse Radicals of a subsequent epoch. Moreover, their +aspirations were, as we have seen, more reactionary than experimental; +for the rights for which they conspired had been in a great measure +enjoyed under Europe's modern conqueror, then impotent in action, but +most efficient in remembrance, although isolated on his prison-rock. +Foresti's companion in misfortune has made their mutual wrongs +"familiar as household words"; and to be associated in captivity with +the author of "Le Mie Prigioni" was of itself a passport to the +sympathy of the civilized world. + +The interest his previous history inspired was deepened and confirmed +by intimate acquaintance with Foresti. He lived for many years +domesticated in the family of a fellow-countryman; and an _habitue_ of +his apartments was transported in a moment from bustling, prosperous, +and republican New York, to the land of song, of martyrdom, and of +antiquity. The soulful ardor and childlike ingenuousness, the keen +perceptions and earnest will of Foresti suggested an obsolete, or at +least rare type of character; he belonged essentially to the olden days +of loyalty and lore which gave birth to self-reliance on the one hand, +and disinterested feeling on the other. His manner and conversation +had, as it were, an historical as well as national flavor, by virtue +whereof we were borne away from the prosaic and practical spirit of the +age, to the days of chivalry, feudal zeal, and genuine humanity,--when +faith was an inspiration, friendship a moral fact, and manhood, in its +virile simplicity, greater than wealth. Nor were the generous exile's +humble surroundings alien to these impressions: the effigies of his +country's poets were the favorite ornaments of his sitting-room; a +volume of Foscolo on the table, or a fresh letter from Silvio Pellico +under his snuffbox,--the grim, old-fashioned type of his _Sentenza_, as +it was originally distributed through Austrian Italy, and hanging in +its black frame, a memorial of startling import to a freeman's eyes,--a +landscape representing the Castle of Ferrara, the far-away scene of his +youthful life,--and a primitive engraving from one of the old masters +of that city, dedicated to him in one of those euphonious inscriptions +peculiar to Italian artists,--these and such as these tokens of his +experience and tastes gave interesting significance to his +companionship. Nor were indications of present consideration and +usefulness wanting: flowers or dainty needle-work, the offerings of his +fair pupils, applications to him, as President of the Italian +Benevolent Society, diplomas from American colleges, and invitations to +the country, to dinner, and to domestic _fetes_, from the numerous +friends he had won in the free land of his adoption, gave evidence of +social enjoyment and genial activity. + +Whoever enjoyed Foresti's hospitality, in the conversations as well as +the viands has found an epitome and reflex of his most genial hours in +Italy: brave soldiers, like Avezzana and Garibaldi, scholars, artists, +every form of the national character, were gratefully exhibited in +reunions, of which he was the presiding genius, and to which his +American friends were admitted with fraternal cordiality. It was then +that his clear and strong mind often displayed itself with the +spontaneity of his race. + +Chastened, though unsubdued by misfortune, Foresti cherished a truly +Christian spirit of forgiveness, and the liberality which large +experience invariably fosters in enlightened minds: it was the system, +rather than its agents, which he ever held up to condemnation in +discussing the Austrian policy. Familiarity with American and English +politics and the modern history of Europe induced a wise modification +of his opinions on government; a fervent republican in sentiment, he +yet recognized the radical benefits of a constitutional monarchy, like +those of England and Sardinia. He was a natural orator, and, on several +occasions, memorably addressed the public with rare eloquence and power +on subjects of national or beneficent interest. During his long sojourn +in New York, he was not merely the acknowledged representative of +Italy, but her eloquent advocate, her wise expositor, her illustrious +son, whose literature he memorably unfolded, whose history he +sagaciously analyzed, whose misfortunes he tenderly portrayed, whose +glory he proudly vindicated, and whose nationality he incessantly +affirmed. Well did one of the leading Turin journals indicate the +prevalent graces of his character:--"A pure and just man, he knew +always how to appreciate those who dissented from him about forms of +government, because he could discover in them the true love of +nationality, to which Italy aspires. Wise without pretension, +beneficent without ostentation, chaste in deed and word, exquisitely +tender-hearted, he tempered the harsh lessons of experience by the +unchanged serenity of his bearing." + +Foresti was the most charming of correspondents; in a chirography +almost feminine, he wrote, in the old cavalier style, such quaintly +pleasant epistles, with graceful turns of expression, beautiful +epithets, and appropriate adjectives, that, to one fond of the writer +and cognizant of his native tongue, the most casual note was a prize to +be treasured. "Truly," remarks one of his friends, "he was +_squisitamente affetuoso di cuore_," and now the sweetest proof thereof +is to be found in his correspondence. In his two visits to Italy, he +used to walk daily to the shores, when within reach of the +Mediterranean, and salute, with tears, the _bandiera stellata_,--as he +called our national banner, under which his exile had been protected +and honored. + +The pleasure expressed at Foresti's consular appointment, as well as +the high order of applicants in his behalf, afforded the best evidence +of the friendship and interest he had awakened and maintained in a +foreign land. On the shores of the Hudson, by the cliffs of Newport, +under the elms of New Haven, as well as in the metropolis where he had +so long dwelt, faithful hearts rejoiced at the announcement. "Few are +aware," said Hillhouse, in his Eulogy on Lafayette, "how hallowed and +how deep are their feelings who worship Liberty as a mistress they may +never possess." And it was the constancy and intelligence of his +devotion to her which won for him such peculiar regard; for he did not +belong to the sentimental and spasmodic, but to the resolute and +philosophic devotees at her shrine; his native taste was more wedded to +the wise satire of Casti and the acute generalities of Vico than +satisfied with the soft beauties of Petrarch or the luxurious graces of +Boccaccio; the stoical Alfieri, more than the epicurean Metastasio, +breathed music to his soul. "You belong," wrote Pellico to him, "you +belong to those who to a generous disposition unite an intellect to see +things wisely; never can I forget the gifts of genius and of courage +developed in you in the days of misfortune." It was an auspicious sign +of the times when the land which protected such an exile was +represented by him in that of his nativity. + +Brief, however, was Foresti's enjoyment of the distinction and resource +thus secured for him through the considerate efforts of his American +friends. "I write to you," says his last letter to one of them, dated +immediately after the reception of his commission, "with my left hand +pressed on a heart overflowing with gratitude for the means thus +honorably afforded to solace the last years of the old prisoner of +Spielberg." Three months after, that noble heart ceased to beat; an +effusion on the chest, which ultimately defied the best medical skill +and the most assiduous friendly devotion, ended fatally on the morning +of the 14th of September, 1858, "By his death," said one of his +eulogists, "is broken one of the links that bind the New World to the +Old"; and as if to evidence the sympathy of mourners in two hemispheres +and attest the varied associations which embalm the example and memory +of Foresti, his funeral was typical of his life, and so illustrative of +his character, that we can imagine no peculiar honor wanting, grateful +to the patriot, the liberal, the martyr, or the man. In that ancient +city of Genoa, of old renowned for commercial glory and maritime valor, +the birthplace of the discoverer of the land of his adoption, now the +refuge of more who had sacrificed all for their country, and the state +where that country's best prospects are centred and her highest +aspirations cherished, in the home of the moral, civic, and social +vanguard of modern Italy, he found a grave. The American flag was his +pall; American mariners carried his bier; before it was borne the +Cross. His remains were followed from the Piazza della Maddelena, +through the principal streets and the Porta Romana to the Campo Santo, +by the officers and crew of the United States frigate "Wabash," the +captains of the American merchantmen in port, the Society of +Operatives, the industrial representative of a progressive state, of +which he was an honorary member, a vast multitude of emigrants from the +less favored Italian provinces, and a numerous body of literary, +official, and private gentlemen who enjoyed his personal friendship. + + + * * * * * + + +LARVAE. + + +My little maiden of four years old + (No myth, but a genuine child is she, +With her bronze-brown eyes, and her curls of gold) + Came, quite in disgust, one day, to me. + +Rubbing her shoulder with rosy palm,-- + As the loathsome touch seemed yet to thrill her, +She cried,--"Oh, mother, I found on my arm + A horrible, crawling caterpillar!" + +And with mischievous smile she could scarcely smother, + Yet a glance, in its daring, half-awed and shy, +She added,--"While they were about it, mother, + I wish they'd just finished the butterfly!" + +They were words to the thought of the soul that turns + From the coarser form of a partial growth, +Reproaching the Infinite Patience that yearns + With an unknown glory to crown them both. + +Ah, look thou largely, with lenient eyes, + On whatso beside thee may creep and cling, +For the possible beauty that underlies + The passing phase of the meanest thing! + +What if God's great angels, whose waiting love + Beholdeth our pitiful life below, +From the holy height of their heaven above, + Couldn't bear with the worm till the wings should grow? + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING.[*] + +[Footnote *: Copyright secured by the Author in Great Britain and +France.] + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE QUILTING. + +By six o'clock in the morning, Miss Prissy came out of the best room to +the breakfast-table, with the air of a general who has arranged a +campaign,--her face glowing with satisfaction. All sat down together to +their morning meal. The outside door was open into the green, turfy +yard, and the apple-tree, now nursing stores of fine yellow jeannetons, +looked in at the window. Every once in a while, as a breeze shook the +leaves, a fully ripe apple might be heard falling to the ground, at +which Miss Prissy would bustle up from the table and rush to secure the +treasure. + +As the meal waned to its close, the rattling of wheels was heard at the +gate, and Candace was discerned, seated aloft in the one-horse wagon, +with her usual complement of baskets and bags. + +"Well, now, dear me! if there isn't Candace!" said Miss Prissy; "I do +believe Miss Marvyn has sent her with something for the quilting!" and +out she flew as nimble as a humming-bird, while those in the house +heard various exclamations of admiration, as Candace, with stately +dignity, disinterred from the wagon one basket after another, and +exhibited to Miss Prissy's enraptured eyes sly peeps under the white +napkins with which they were covered. And then, hanging a large basket +on either arm, she rolled majestically towards the house, like a +heavy-laden Indiaman, coming in after a fast voyage. + +"Good-mornin', Miss Scudder! good-mornin', Doctor!" she said, dropping +her curtsy on the door-step; "good-mornin', Miss Mary! Ye see our folks +was stirrin' pootty 'arly dis mornin', an' Miss Marvyn sent me down wid +two or tree little tings." + +Setting down her baskets on the floor, and seating herself between +them, she proceeded to develop their contents with ill-concealed +triumph. One basket was devoted to cakes of every species, from the +great Mont-Blanc loaf-cake, with its snowy glaciers of frosting, to the +twisted cruller and puffy doughnut. In the other basket lay pots of +golden butter curiously stamped, reposing on a bed of fresh, green +leaves,--while currants, red and white, and delicious cherries and +raspberries, gave a final finish to the picture. From a basket which +Miss Prissy brought in from the rear appeared cold fowl and tongue +delicately prepared, and shaded with feathers of parsley. Candace, +whose rollicking delight in the good things of this life was +conspicuous in every emotion, might have furnished to a painter, as she +sat in her brilliant turban, an idea for an African Genius of Plenty. + +"Why, really, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder, "you are overwhelming us!" + +"Ho! ho! ho!" said Candace, "I's tellin' Miss Marvyn folks don't git +married but once in der lives, (gin'ally speakin', dat is,) an' den dey +oughter hab plenty to do it wid." + +"Well, I must say," said Miss Prissy, taking out the loaf-cake with +busy assiduity,--"I must say, Candace, this does beat all!" + +"I should rader tink it oughter," said Candace, bridling herself with +proud consciousness; "ef it don't, 'ta'n't 'cause ole Candace ha'n't +put enough into it. I tell ye, I didn't do nothin' all day yisterday +but jes' make dat ar cake. Cato, when he got up, he begun to talk +someh'n' 'bout his shirt-buttons, an' I jes' shet him right up. Says I, +'Cato, when I's r'ally got cake to make for a great 'casion, I wants my +mind _jest_ as quiet an' _jest_ as serene as ef I was a-goin' to de +sacrament. I don't want no 'arthly cares on't. Now,' says I, 'Cato, de +ole Doctor's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's his quiltin'-cake,--an' +Miss Mary, she's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's _her_ +quiltin'-cake. An' dar'll be eberybody to dat ar quiltin'; an' ef de +cake a'n't right, why, 'twould be puttin' a candle under a bushel. An' +so,' says I, 'Cato, your buttons mus' wait' An' Cato, he sees de +'priety ob it, 'cause, dough he can't make cake like me, he's a 'mazin' +good judge on't, an' is dre'ful tickled when I slips out a little loaf +for his supper." + +"How is Mrs. Marvyn?" said Mrs. Scudder. + +"Kinder thin and shimmery; but she's about,--habin' her eyes eberywar, +'n' lookin' into eberyting. She jes' touches tings wid de tips ob her +fingers an' dey seem to go like. She'll be down to de quiltin' dis +arternoon. But she tole me to take de tings an' come down an' spen' de +day here; for Miss Marvyn an' I both knows how many steps mus' be taken +sech times, an' we agreed you oughter favor yourselves all you could." + +"Well, now," said Miss Prissy, lifting up her hands, "if that a'n't +what 'tis to have friends! Why, that was one of the things I was +thinking of, as I lay awake last night; because, you know, at times +like these, people run their feet off before the time begins, and then +they are all limpsey and lop-sided when the time comes. Now, I say, +Candace, all Miss Scudder and Mary have to do is to give everything up +to us, and we'll put it through straight." + +"Dat's what we will!" said Candace. "Jes' show me what's to be done, +an' I'll do it." + +Candace and Miss Prissy soon disappeared together into the pantry with +the baskets, whose contents they began busily to arrange. Candace shut +the door, that no sound might escape, and began a confidential +outpouring to Miss Prissy. + +"Ye see," she said, "I's _feelin's_ all de while for Miss Marvyn; +'cause, ye see, she was expectin', ef eber Mary was married,--well--dat +'twould be to somebody else, ye know." + +Miss Prissy responded with a sympathetic groan. + +"Well," said Candace, "ef't had been anybody but de Doctor, _I_ +wouldn't 'a' been resigned. But arter all he's done for my color, dar +a'n't nothin' I could find it in my heart to grudge him. But den I was +tellin' Cato t'oder day, says I, 'Cato, I dunno 'bout de rest o' de +world, but I ha'n't neber felt it in my bones dat Mass'r James is +r'ally dead, for sartin.' Now I feels tings _gin'ally_, but _some_ +tings I feels _in my bones_, an' dem allers comes true. An' dat ar's a +feelin' I ha'n't had 'bout Mass'r Jim yit, an' dat ar's what I'm +waitin' for 'fore I clar make up my mind. Though I know, 'cordin' to +all white folks' way o' tinkin', dar a'n't no hope, 'cause Squire +Marvyn he had dat ar Jeduth Pettibone up to his house, a-questionin' on +him, off an' on, nigh about tree hours. An' r'ally I didn't see no hope +no way, 'xcept jes' dis yer, as I was tellin' Cato,--_I can't feel it +in my bones_." + +Candace was not versed enough in the wisdom of the world to know that +she belonged to a large and respectable school of philosophers in this +particular mode of testing evidence, which, after all, the reader will +perceive has its conveniences. + +"Anoder ting," said Candace; "as much as a dozen times, dis yer last +year, when I's been a-scourin' knives, a fork has fell an' stuck +straight up in de floor; an' de las' time I pinted it out to Miss +Marvyn, an' she on'y jes' said, 'Why, what o' dat, Candace?'" + +"Well," said Miss Prissy, "I don't believe in _signs_, but then strange +things do happen. Now about dogs howling under windows,--why, I don't +believe in it a bit, but I never knew it fail that there was a death in +the house after." + +"Ah, I tell ye what," said Candace, looking mysterious, "dogs knows a +heap more'n dey likes to tell!" + +"Jes' so," said Miss Prissy. "Now I remember, one night, when. I was +watching with Miss Colonel Andrews, after Marthy Ann was born, that we +heard the _mournfulest_ howling that ever you did hear. It seemed to +come from right under the front stoop; and Miss Andrews she just +dropped the spoon in her gruel, and says she, 'Miss Prissy, do, for +pity's sake, just go down and see what that noise is.' And I went down +and lifted up one of the loose boards of the stoop, and what should I +see there but their Newfoundland pup?--there that creature had dug a +grave, and was a-sitting by it, crying!" + +Candace drew near to Miss Prissy, dark with expressive interest, as her +voice, in this awful narration, sank to a whisper. + +"Well," said Candace, after Miss Prissy had made something of a pause. + +"Well, I told Miss Andrews I didn't think there was anything in it," +said Miss Prissy; "but," she added, impressively, "she lost a very dear +brother, six months after, and I laid him out with my own hands,--yes, +laid him out in white flannel." + +"Some folks say," said Candace, "dat dreamin' 'bout white horses is a +sartin sign. Jinny Styles is bery strong 'bout dat. Now she come down +one mornin' cryin', 'cause she'd been dreamin' 'bout white horses, an' +she was sure she should hear some friend was dead. An' sure enough, a +man come in dat bery day an' tole her her son was drownded out in de +harbor. An' Jinny said, 'Dar! she was sure dat sign neber would fail.' +But den, ye see, dat night he come home. Jinny wa'n't r'ally +disappinted, but she allers insisted he was _as good as drownded_, any +way, 'cause he sunk tree times." + +"Well, I tell you," said Miss Prissy, "there are a great many more +things in this world than folks know about." + +"So dey are," said Candace. "Now, I ha'n't neber opened my mind to +nobody; but dar's a dream I's had, tree mornin's runnin', lately. I +dreamed I see Jim Marvyn a-sinkin' in de water, an' stretchin' up his +hands. An' den I dreamed I see de Lord Jesus come a-walkin' on de +water, an' take hold ob his hand, an' says he, 'O thou of little faith, +wherefore didst thou doubt?' An' den he lifted him right out. An' I +ha'n't said nothin' to nobody, 'cause, you know, de Doctor, he says +people mus'n't mind nothin' 'bout der dreams, 'cause dreams belongs to +de ole 'spensation." + +"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I am sure I don't know what to +think. What time in the morning was it that you dreamed it?" + +"Why," said Candace, "it was jest arter bird-peep. I kinder allers +wakes myself den, an' turns ober, an' what comes arter dat is apt to +run clar." + +"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I don't know what to think. You +see, it may have reference to the state of his soul." + +"I know dat," said Candace; "but as nigh as I could judge in my dream," +she added, sinking her voice and looking mysterious, "as nigh as I can +judge, _dat boy's soul was in his body!_" + +"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Prissy, looking astonished at the +confidence with which Candace expressed her opinion. + +"Well, ye see," said Candace, rather mysteriously, "de Doctor, he don't +like to hab us talk much 'bout dese yer tings, 'cause he tinks it's +kind o' heathenish. But den, folks as is used to seein' sech tings +knows de look ob a sperit _out_ o' de body from de look ob a sperit +_in_ de body, jest as easy as you can tell Mary from de Doctor." + +At this moment Mrs. Scudder opened the pantry-door and put an end to +this mysterious conversation, which had already so affected Miss +Prissy, that, in the eagerness of her interest, she had rubbed up her +cap border and ribbon into rather an elfin and goblin style, as if they +had been ruffled up by a breeze from the land of spirits; and she flew +around for a few moments in a state of great nervous agitation, +upsetting dishes, knocking down plates, and huddling up contrary +suggestions as to what ought to be done first, in such impossible +relations that Mrs. Katy Scudder stood in dignified surprise at this +strange freak of conduct in the wise woman of the parish. + +A dim consciousness of something not quite canny in herself seemed to +strike her, for she made a vigorous effort to appear composed; and +facing Mrs. Scudder, with an air of dignified suavity, inquired if it +would not be best to put Jim Marvyn in the oven now, while Candace was +getting the pies ready,--meaning, of course, a large turkey, which was +to be the first in an indefinite series to be baked that morning; and +discovering, by Mrs. Scudder's dazed expression and a vigorous pinch +from Candace, that somehow she had not improved matters, she rubbed her +spectacles into a diagonal position across her eyes, and stood glaring, +half through, half over them, with a helpless expression, which in a +less judicious person might have suggested the idea of a state of +slight intoxication. + +But the exigencies of an immediate temporal dispensation put an end to +Miss Prissy's unwonted vagaries, and she was soon to be seen flying +round like a meteor, dusting, shaking curtains, counting napkins, +wiping and sorting china, all with such rapidity as to give rise to the +notion that she actually existed in forty places at once. + +Candace, whom the limits of her corporeal frame restricted to an +altogether different style of locomotion, often rolled the whites of +her eyes after her and gave vent to her views of her proceedings in +sententious expressions. + +"Do you know why _dat ar_ neber was married?" she said to Mary, as she +stood looking after her. Miss Prissy had made one of those rapid +transits through the apartment. + +"No," answered Mary, innocently. "Why wasn't she?" + +"'Cause neber was a man could run fast enough to cotch her," said +Candace; and then her portly person shook with the impulse of her own +wit. + +By two o'clock a goodly company began to assemble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel +arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy +Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye, and a +most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad, +expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the +cabbage-garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced +our tea-party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some +fresh butter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new +Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon +Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and +tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned. + +The quilt-pattern was gloriously drawn in oak-leaves, done in indigo; +and soon all the company, young and old, were passing busy fingers over +it; and conversation went on briskly. + +Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with +hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall +china vases on the mantel-pieces, and, departing from the usual rule of +an equal mixture of roses and asparagus-bushes, had constructed two +quaint and graceful bouquets, where garden-flowers were mingled with +drooping grasses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful +combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it. + +"It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw grass put into a +flower-pot," said Miss Prissy; "but I must say it looks as handsome as +a picture. Mary, I must say," she added, in an aside, "I think that +Madame de Frongenac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I +ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a +minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of grass, or +leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come +just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would +understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a +dress fitted here, to let me try it." + +At the quilting, Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won +the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her +needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among +the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as +being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging Papistical +opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their +minister's bed-quilt; but the younger part of the company were quite +captivated by her foreign air, and the pretty manner in which she +lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her +mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent +herself,--a declaration which arose less from native depravity than +from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young +people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of +course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with +the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a +forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the +parish, was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company. + +Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by +declaring, that, for her part, she never could see into it, how any +girl could marry a minister,--that she should as soon think of setting +up housekeeping in a meeting-house. + +"Oh, Cerinthy Ann!" exclaimed her mother, "how can you go on so?" + +"It's a fact," said the adventurous damsel; "now other men let you have +some peace,--but a minister's always round under your feet." + +"So you think, the less you see of a husband, the better?" said one of +the ladies. + +"Just my views," said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread +with her scissors; "I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four-years' +voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married, +I'm going up to have one of those fellows." + +It is to be remarked, in passing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this +very time receiving surreptitious visits from a consumptive-looking, +conscientious, young theological candidate, who came occasionally to +preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the Deacon, her +father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine +of Election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to illustrate it in a +most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the +consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison +that added vigor to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen +confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at +the demonstration. + +"You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann," said her mother; "they say that +'those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.' Girls talk +about getting married," she said, relapsing into a gentle didactic +melancholy, "without realizing its awful responsibilities." + +"Oh, as to that," said Cerinthy, "I've been practising on my pudding +now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney +with any girl." + +This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no +young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled +Indian-pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up chimney +and come down on the ground, outside, without breaking; and the +consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh. + +"Girls a'n't what they used to be in my day," sententiously remarked an +elderly lady. "I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she +could knit a long cotton stocking in a day." + +"I haven't much faith in these stories of old times,--have you, girls?" +said Cerinthy, appealing to the younger members at the frame. + +"At any rate," said Mrs. Twitchel, "our minister's wife will be a +pattern; I don't know anybody that goes beyond her either in spinning +or fine stitching." + +Mary sat as placid and disengaged as the new moon, and listened to the +chatter of old and young with the easy quietness of a young heart that +has early outlived life, and looks on everything in the world from some +gentle, restful eminence far on towards a better home. She smiled at +everybody's word, had a quick eye for everybody's wants, and was ready +with thimble, scissors, or thread, whenever any one needed them; but +once, when there was a pause in the conversation, she and Mrs. Marvyn +were both discovered to have stolen away. They were seated on the bed +in Mary's little room, with their arms around each other, communing in +low and gentle tones. + +"Mary, my dear child," said her friend, "this event is very pleasant to +me, because it places you permanently near me. I did not know but +eventually this sweet face might lead to my losing you, who are in some +respects the dearest friend I have." + +"You might be sure," said Mary, "I never would have married, except +that my mother's happiness and the happiness of so good a friend seemed +to depend on it. When we renounce self in anything, we have reason to +hope for God's blessing; and so I feel assured of a peaceful life in +the course I have taken. You will always be as a mother to me," she +added, laying her head on her friend's shoulder. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Marvyn; "and I must not let myself think a moment how +dear it might have been to have you more my own. If you feel really, +truly happy,--if you can enter on this life without any misgivings"-- + +"I can," said Mary, firmly. + +At this instant, very strangely, the string which confined a wreath of +sea-shells around her glass, having been long undermined by moths, +suddenly broke and fell down, scattering the shells upon the floor. + +Both women started, for the string of shells had been placed there by +James: and though neither was superstitious, this was one of those odd +coincidences that make hearts throb. + +"Dear boy!" said Mary, gathering the shells up tenderly; "wherever he +is, I shall never cease to love him. It makes me feel sad to see this +come down; but it is only an accident; nothing of him will ever fail +out of my heart." + +Mrs. Marvyn clasped Mary closer to her, with tears in her eyes. + +"I'll tell you what, Mary; it must have been the moths did that," said +Miss Prissy, who had been standing, unobserved, at the door for a +moment back; "moths will eat away strings just so. Last week Miss +Vernon's great family-picture fell down because the moths eat through +the cord; people ought to use twine or cotton string always. But I came +to tell you that the supper is all set, and the Doctor out of his +study, and all the people are wondering where you are." + +Mary and Mrs. Marvyn gave a hasty glance at themselves in the glass, to +be assured of their good keeping, and went into the great kitchen, +where a long table stood exhibiting all that plenitude of provision +which the immortal description of Washington Irving has saved us the +trouble of recapitulating in detail. + +The husbands, brothers, and lovers had come in, and the scene was +redolent of gayety. When Mary made her appearance, there was a moment's +pause, till she was conducted to the side of the Doctor; when, raising +his hand, he invoked a grace upon the loaded board. + +Unrestrained gayeties followed. Groups of young men and maidens chatted +together, and all the gallantries of the times were enacted. Serious +matrons commented on the cake, and told each other high and particular +secrets in the culinary art, which they drew from remote +family-archives. One might have learned in that instructive assembly +how best to keep moths out of blankets,--how to make fritters of Indian +corn undistinguishable from oysters,--how to bring up babies by +hand,--how to mend a cracked teapot,--how to take out grease from a +brocade,--how to reconcile absolute decrees with free will,--how to +make five yards of cloth answer the purpose of six,--and how to put +down the Democratic party. All were busy, earnest, and certain,--just +as a swarm of men and women, old and young, are in 1859. + +Miss Prissy was in her glory; every bow of her best cap was alive with +excitement, and she presented to the eyes of the astonished Newport +gentry an animated receipt-book. Some of the information she +communicated, indeed, was so valuable and important that she could not +trust the air with it, but whispered the most important portions in a +confidential tone. Among the crowd, Cerinthy Ann's theological admirer +was observed in deeply reflective attitude; and that high-spirited +young lady added further to his convictions of the total depravity of +the species by vexing and discomposing him in those thousand ways in +which a lively, ill-conditioned young woman will put to rout a serious, +well-disposed young man,--comforting herself with the reflection, that +by-and-by she would repent of all her sins in a lump together. + +Vain, transitory splendors! Even this evening, so glorious, so +heart-cheering, so fruitful in instruction and amusement, could not +last forever. Gradually the company broke up; the matrons mounted +soberly on horseback behind their spouses; and Cerinthy consoled her +clerical friend by giving him an opportunity to read her a lecture on +the way home, if he found the courage to do so. + +Mr. and Mrs. Marvyn and Candace wound their way soberly homeward; the +Doctor returned to his study for nightly devotions; and before long, +sleep settled down on the brown cottage. + +"I'll tell you what, Cato," said Candace, before composing herself to +sleep, "I can't feel it in my bones dat dis yer weddin's gwine to come +off yit." + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +AN ADVENTURE. + + +A day or two after, Madame de Frontignac and Mary went out to gather +shells and seaweed on the beach. It was four o'clock; and the afternoon +sun was hanging in the sultry sky of July with a hot and vaporous +stillness. The whole air was full of blue haze, that softened the +outlines of objects without hiding them. The sea lay like so much +glass; every ship and boat was double; every line and rope and spar had +its counterpart; and it seemed hard to say which was the more real, the +under or the upper world. + +Madame de Frontignac and Mary had brought a little basket with them, +which they were filling with shells and sea-mosses. The former was in +high spirits. She ran, and shouted, and exclaimed, and wondered at each +new marvel thrown out upon the shore, with the _abandon_ of a little +child. Mary could not but wonder whether this indeed were she whose +strong words had pierced and wrung her sympathies the other night, and +whether a deep life-wound could lie bleeding under those brilliant eyes +and that infantine exuberance of gayety; yet, surely, all that which +seemed so strong, so true, so real could not be gone so soon,--and it +could not be so soon consoled. Mary wondered at her, as the Anglo-Saxon +constitution, with its strong, firm intensity, its singleness of +nature, wonders at the mobile, many-sided existence of warmer races, +whose versatility of emotion on the surface is not incompatible with +the most intense persistency lower down. + +Mary's was one of those indulgent and tolerant natures which seem to +form the most favorable base for the play of other minds, rather than +to be itself salient,--and something about her tender calmness always +seemed to provoke the spirit of frolic in her friend. She would laugh +at her, kiss her, gambol round her, dress her hair with fantastic +coiffures, and call her all sorts of fanciful and poetic names in +French or English,--while Mary surveyed her with a pleased and innocent +surprise, as a revelation of character altogether new and different +from anything to which she had been hitherto accustomed. She was to her +a living pantomime, and brought into her unembellished life the charms +of opera and theatre and romance. + +After wearying themselves with their researches, they climbed round a +point of rock that stretched some way out into the sea, and attained to +a little kind of grotto, where the high cliffs shut out the rays of the +sun. They sat down to rest upon the rocks. A fresh breeze of declining +day was springing up, and bringing the rising tide landward,--each +several line of waves with its white crests coming up and breaking +gracefully on the hard, sparkling sand-beach at their feet. + +Mary's eyes fixed themselves, as they were apt to do, in a mournful +reverie, on the infinite expanse of waters, which was now broken and +chopped into a thousand incoming waves by the fresh afternoon breeze. +Madame de Frontignac noticed the expression, and began to play with her +as if she had been a child. She pulled the comb from her hair, and let +down its long silky waves upon her shoulders. + +"Now," said she, "let us make a Miranda of thee. This is our cave. I +will be Prince Ferdinand. Burr told me all about that,--he reads +beautifully, and explained it all to me. What a lovely story that +is!--you must be so happy, who know how to read Shakspeare without +learning! _Tenez!_ I will put this shell on your forehead,--it has a +hole here, and I will pass this gold chain through,--now! What a pity +this seaweed will not be pretty out of water! it has no effect; but +there is some green that will do;--let me fasten it so. Now, fair +Miranda, look at thyself!" + +Where is the girl so angelic as not to feel a slight curiosity to know +how she shall look in a new and strange costume? Mary bent over the +rock, where a little pool of water lay in a brown hollow above the +fluctuations of the tide, dark and still, like a mirror,--and saw a +fair face, with a white shell above the forehead and drooping wreaths +of green seaweed in the silken hair; and a faint blush and smile rose +on the cheek, giving the last finish to the picture. + +"How do you find yourself?" said Madame. "Confess now that I have a +true talent in coiffure. Now I will be Ferdinand." + +She turned quickly, and her eye was caught by something that Mary did +not see; she only saw the smile fade suddenly from Madame de +Frontignac's cheek, and her lips grow deadly white, while her heart +beat so that Mary could discern its flutterings under her black silk +bodice. + +"Will the sea-nymphs punish the rash presumption of a mortal who +intrudes?" said Colonel Burr, stepping before them with a grace as +invincible and assured as if he had never had any past history with +either. + +Mary started with a guilty blush, like a child detected in an unseemly +frolic, and put her hand to her head to take off the unwonted +adornments. + +"Let me protest, in the name of the Graces," said Burr, who by that +time stood with easy calmness at her side; and as he spoke, he stayed +her hand with that gentle air of authority which made it the natural +impulse of most people to obey him. "It would be treason against the +picturesque," he added, "to spoil that toilette, so charmingly uniting +the wearer to the scene." + +Mary was taken by surprise, and discomposed as every one is who finds +himself masquerading in attire foreign to his usual habits and +character; and therefore, when she would persist in taking it to +pieces, Burr found sufficient to alleviate the embarrassment of Madame +de Frontignac's utter silence in a playful run of protestations and +compliments. + +"I think, Mary," said Madame de Frontignac, "that we had better be +returning to the house." + +This was said in the haughtiest and coolest tone imaginable, looking at +the place where Burr stood, as if there were nothing there but empty +air. Mary rose to go; Madame de Frontignac offered her arm. + +"Permit me to remark, ladies," said Burr, with the quiet suavity which +never forsook him, "that your very agreeable occupations have caused +time to pass more rapidly than you are aware. I think you will find +that the tide has risen so as to intercept the path by which you came +here. You will hardly be able to get around the point of rocks without +some assistance." + +Mary looked a few paces ahead, and saw, a little before them, a fresh +afternoon breeze driving the rising tide high on to the side of the +rocks, at whose foot their course had lain. The nook in which they had +been sporting formed part of a shelving ledge which inclined over their +heads, and which it was just barely possible could be climbed by a +strong and agile person, but which would be wholly impracticable to a +frail, unaided woman. + +"There is no time to be lost," said Burr, coolly, measuring the +possibilities with that keen eye that was never discomposed by any +exigency. "I am at your service, ladies; I can either carry you in my +arms around this point, or assist you up these rocks." + +He paused and waited for their answer. + +Madame de Frontignac stood pale, cold, and silent, hearing only the +wild beating of her heart. + +"I think," said Mary, "that we should try the rocks." + +"Very well," said Burr; and placing his gloved hand on a fragment of +rock somewhat above their heads, he swung himself up to it with an easy +agility; from this he stretched himself down as far as possible towards +them, and, extending his hand, directed Mary, who stood foremost, to +set her foot on a slight projection, and give him both her hands; she +did so, and he seemed to draw her up as easily as if she had been a +feather. He placed her by him on a shelf of rock, and turned again to +Madame de Frontignac; she folded her arms and turned resolutely away +towards the sea. + +Just at that moment a coming wave broke at her feet. + +"There is no time to be lost," said Burr; "there's a tremendous surf +coming in, and the next wave may carry you out." + +"_Tant mieux_!" she responded, without turning her head. + +"Oh, Virginie! Virginie!" exclaimed Mary, kneeling and stretching her +arms over the rock; but another voice called Virginie, in a tone which +went to her heart. She turned and saw those dark eyes full of tears. + +"Oh, come!" he said, with that voice which she never could resist. + +She put her cold, trembling hands into his, and he drew her up and +placed her safely beside Mary. A few moments of difficult climbing +followed, in which his arm was thrown now around one and then around +the other, and they felt themselves carried with a force as if the +slight and graceful form were strung with steel. + +Placed in safety on the top of the bank, there was a natural gush of +grateful feeling towards their deliverer. The severest resentment, the +coolest moral disapprobation, are necessarily somewhat softened, when +the object of them has just laid one under a personal obligation. + +Burr did not seem disposed to press his advantage, and treated the +incident as the most matter-of-course affair in the world. He offered +an arm to each lady, with the air of a well-bred gentleman who offers a +necessary support; and each took it, because neither wished, under the +circumstances, to refuse. + +He walked along leisurely homeward, talking in that easy, quiet, +natural way in which he excelled, addressing no very particular remark +to either one, and at the door of the cottage took his leave, saying, +as he bowed, that he hoped neither of them would feel any inconvenience +from their exertions, and that he should do himself the pleasure to +call soon and inquire after their health. + +Madame de Frontignac made no reply; but curtsied with a stately grace, +turned and went into her little, room, whither Mary, after a few +minutes, followed her. + +She found her thrown upon the bed, her face buried in the pillow, her +breast heaving as if she were sobbing; but when, at Mary's entrance, +she raised her head, her eyes were bright and dry. + +"It is just as I told you, Mary,--that man holds me. I love him yet, in +spite of myself. It is in vain to be angry. What is the use of striking +your right hand with your left? When we _love_ one more than ourselves, +we only hurt ourselves with our anger." + +"But," said Mary, "love is founded on respect and esteem; and when that +is gone"---- + +"Why, then," said Madame, "we are very sorry,--but we love yet. Do we +stop loving ourselves when we have lost our own self-respect? No! it is +so disagreeable to see, we shut our eyes and ask to have the bandage +put on,--you know _that_, poor little heart! You can think how it would +have been with you, if you had found that _he_ was not what you +thought." + +The word struck home to Mary's consciousness,--but she sat down and +took her friend in her arms with an air self-controlled, serious, +rational. + +"I see and feel it all, dear Virginie, but I must stand firm for you. +You are in the waves, and I on the shore. If you are so weak at heart, +you must not see this man any more." + +"But he will call." + +"I will see him for you." + +"What will you tell him, my heart?--tell him that I am ill, perhaps?" + +"No; I will tell him the truth,--that you do not wish to see him." + +"That is hard;--he will wonder." + +"I think not," said Mary, resolutely; "and furthermore, I shall say to +him, that, while Madame de Frontignac is at the cottage, it will not be +agreeable for us to receive calls from him." + +"Mary, _ma chere_, you astonish me!" + +"My dear friend," said Mary, "it is the only way. This man--this cruel, +wicked, deceitful man--must not be allowed to trifle with you in this +way. I will protect you." + +And she rose up with flashing eye and glowing cheek, looking as her +father looked when he protested against the slave-trade. + +"Thou art my Saint Catharine," said Virginie, rising up, excited by +Mary's enthusiasm, "and hast the sword as well as the palm; but, dear +saint, don't think so very, very badly of him;--he has a noble nature; +he has the angel in him." + +"The greater his sin," said Mary; "he sins against light and love." + +"But I think his heart is touched,--I think he is sorry. Oh, Mary, if +you had only seen how he looked at me when he put out his hands on the +rocks!--there were tears in his eyes" + +"Well there might be!" said Mary; "I do not think he is quite a fiend; +no one could look at those cheeks, dear Virginie, and not feel sad, +that saw you a few months ago." + +"Am I so changed?" she said, rising and looking at herself in the +mirror. "Sure enough,--my neck used to be quite round;--now you can see +those two little bones, like rocks at low tide. Poor Virginie! her +summer is gone, and the leaves are falling; poor little cat!"--and +Virginie stroked her own chestnut head, as if she had been pitying +another, and began humming a little Norman air, with a refrain that +sounded like the murmur of a brook over the stones. + +The more Mary was touched by these little poetic ways, which ran just +on an even line between the gay and the pathetic, the more indignant +she grew with the man that had brought all this sorrow. She felt a +saintly vindictiveness, and a determination to place herself as an +adamantine shield between him and her friend. There is no courage and +no anger like that of a gentle woman, when once fully roused; if ever +you have occasion to meet it, you will certainly remember the hour. + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +PLAIN TALK. + + +Mary revolved the affairs of her friend in her mind, during the night. +The intensity of the mental crisis through which she had herself just +passed had developed her in many inward respects, so that she looked +upon life no longer as a timid girl, but as a strong, experienced +woman. She had thought, and suffered, and held converse with eternal +realities, until thousands of mere earthly hesitations and timidities, +that often restrain a young and untried nature, had entirely lost their +hold upon her. Besides, Mary had at heart the true Puritan seed of +heroism,--never absent from the souls of true New England women. Her +essentially Hebrew education, trained in daily converse with the words +of prophets and seers, and with the modes of thought of a people +essentially grave and heroic, predisposed her to a kind of exaltation, +which, in times of great trial, might rise to the heights of the +religious--sublime, in which the impulse of self-devotion took a form +essentially commanding. The very intensity of the repression under +which her faculties had developed seemed, as it were, to produce a +surplus of hidden strength, which came out in exigencies. Her reading, +though restricted to a few volumes, had been of the kind that vitalized +and stimulated a poetic nature, and laid up in its chambers vigorous +words and trenchant phrases, for the use of an excited feeling,--so +that eloquence came to her as a native gift. She realized, in short, in +her higher hours, the last touch with which Milton finishes his +portrait of an ideal woman:-- + + "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat + Build in her loftiest, and create an awe + About her as a guard angelic placed." + +The next, morning, Colonel Burr called at the cottage. Mary was +spinning in the garret, and Madame de Frontignac was reeling yarn, when +Mrs. Scudder brought this announcement. + +"Mother," said Mary, "I wish to see Mr. Burr alone. Madame de +Frontignac will not go down." + +Mrs. Scudder looked surprised, but asked no questions. When she was +gone down, Mary stood a moment reflecting; Madame de Frontignac looked +eager and agitated. + +"Remember and notice all he says, and just how he looks, Mary, so as to +tell me; and be sure and say that I thank him for his kindness +yesterday. We must own he appeared very well there; did he not?" + +"Certainly," said Mary; "but no man could have done less." + +"Ah! but, Mary, not every man could have done it _as_ he did. Now don't +be too hard on him, Mary;--I have said dreadful things to him; I am +afraid I have been too severe. After all, these distinguished men are +so tempted! we don't know how much they are tempted; and who can wonder +that they are a little spoiled? So, my angel, you must be merciful." + +"Merciful!" said Mary, kissing the pale cheek, and feeling the cold +little hands that trembled in hers. + +"So you will go down in your little spinning-toilette, _mimi_? I fancy +you look as Joan of Arc did, when she was keeping her sheep at Domremy. +Go, and God bless thee!" and Madame de Frontignac pushed her playfully +forward. + +Mary entered the room where Burr was seated, and wished him +good-morning, in a serious and placid manner, in which there was not +the slightest trace of embarrassment or discomposure. + +"Shall I have the pleasure of seeing your fair companion this morning?" +said Burr, after some moments of indifferent conversation. + +"No, Sir; Madame de Frontignac desires me to excuse her to you." + +"Is she ill?" said Burr, with a look of concern. + +"No, Mr. Burr, she prefers not to see you." + +Burr gave a start of well-bred surprise, and Mary added, + +"Madame de Frontignac has made me familiar with the history of your +acquaintance with her; and you will therefore understand what I mean, +Mr. Burr, when I say, that, during the time of her stay with us, we +should prefer not to receive calls from you." + +"Your language, Miss Scudder, has certainly the merit of explicitness." + +"I intend it shall have, Sir," said Mary, tranquilly; "half the misery +in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth +plainly and in a spirit of love." + +"I am gratified that you add the last clause, Miss Scudder; I might not +otherwise recognize the gentle being whom I have always regarded as the +impersonation of all that is softest in woman. I have not the honor of +understanding in the least the reason of this apparently capricious +sentence, but I bow to it in submission." + +"Mr. Burr," said Mary, walking up to him, and looking him full in the +eyes, with an energy that for the moment bore down his practised air of +easy superiority, "I wish to speak to you for a moment, as one immortal +soul should to another, without any of those false glosses and deceits +which men call ceremony and good manners. You have done a very great +injury to a lovely lady, whose weakness ought to have been sacred in +your eyes. Precisely because you are what you are,--strong, keen, +penetrating, and able to control and govern all who come near +you,--because you have the power to make yourself agreeable, +interesting, fascinating, and to win esteem and love,--just for that +reason you ought to hold yourself the guardian of every woman, and +treat her as you would wish any man to treat your own daughter. I leave +it to your conscience, whether this is the manner in which you have +treated Madame de Frontignac." + +"Upon my word, Miss Scudder," began Burr, "I cannot imagine what +representations our mutual friend may have been making. I assure you, +our intercourse has been as irreproachable as the most scrupulous could +desire." + +"Irreproachable!--scrupulous!--Mr. Burr, you know that you have taken +the very life out of her. You men can have everything,--ambition, +wealth, power; a thousand ways are open to you: women have nothing but +their heart; and when that is gone, all is gone. Mr. Burr, you remember +the rich man who had flocks and herds, but nothing would do for him but +he must have the one little ewe-lamb which was all his poor neighbor +had. Thou art the man! You have stolen all the love she had to +give,--all that she had to make a happy home; and you can never give +her anything in return, without endangering her purity and her +soul,--and you knew you could not. I know you men _think_ this is a +light matter; but it is death to us. What will this woman's life be? +one long struggle to forget; and when you have forgotten her, and are +going on gay and happy,--when you have thrown her very name away as a +faded flower, she will be praying, hoping, fearing for you; though all +men deny you, yet will not she. Yes, Mr. Burr, if ever your popularity +and prosperity should leave you and those who now flatter should +despise and curse you, she will always be interceding with her own +heart and with God for you, and making a thousand excuses where she +cannot deny; and if you die, as I fear you have lived, unreconciled to +the God of your fathers, it will be in her heart to offer up her very +soul for you, and to pray that God will impute all your sins to her, +and give you heaven. Oh, I know this, because I have felt it in my own +heart!" and Mary threw herself passionately down into a chair, and +broke into an agony of uncontrolled sobbing. + +Burr turned away, and stood looking through the window; tears were +dropping silently, unchecked by the cold, hard pride which was the evil +demon of his life. + +It is due to our human nature to believe that no man could ever have +been so passionately and enduringly loved and revered by both men and +women as he was, without a beautiful and lovable nature;--no man ever +demonstrated more forcibly the truth, that it is not a man's natural +constitution, but the _use_ he makes of it, which stamps him as good or +vile. + +The diviner part of him was weeping, and the cold, proud demon was +struggling to regain his lost ascendency. Every sob of the fair, +inspired child who had been speaking to him seemed to shake his +heart,--he felt as if he could have fallen on his knees to her; and yet +that stoical habit which was the boast of his life, which was the sole +wisdom he taught to his only and beautiful daughter, was slowly +stealing back round his heart,--and he pressed his lips together, +resolved that no word should escape till he had fully mastered himself. + +In a few moments Mary rose with renewed calmness and dignity, and, +approaching him, said,-- + +"Before I wish you good-morning, Mr. Burr, I must ask pardon for the +liberty I have taken in speaking so very plainly." + +"There is no pardon needed, my dear child," said Burr, turning and +speaking very gently, and with a face expressive of a softened concern; +"if you have told me harsh truths, it was with gentle intentions;--I +only hope that I may prove, at least by the future, that I am not +altogether so bad as you imagine. As to the friend whose name has been +passed between us, no man can go beyond me in a sense of her real +nobleness; I am sensible how little I can ever deserve the sentiment +with which she honors me. I am ready, in my future course, to obey any +commands that you and she may think proper to lay upon me." + +"The only kindness you can now do her," said Mary, "is to leave her. It +is impossible that you should be merely friends;--it is impossible, +without violating the holiest bonds, that you should be more. The +injury done is irreparable; but you _can_ avoid adding another and +greater one to it." + +Burr looked thoughtful. + +"May I say one thing more?" said Mary, the color rising in her cheeks. + +Burr looked at her with that smile that always drew out the confidence +of every heart. + +"Mr. Burr," she said, "you will pardon me, but I cannot help saying +this: You have, I am told, wholly renounced the Christian faith of your +fathers, and build your whole life on quite another foundation. I +cannot help feeling that this is a great and terrible mistake. I cannot +help wishing that you would examine and reconsider." + +"My dear child, I am extremely grateful to you for your remark, and +appreciate fully the purity of the source from which it springs. +Unfortunately, our intellectual beliefs are not subject to the control +of our will. I have examined, and the examination has, I regret to say, +not had the effect you would desire." + +Mary looked at him wistfully; he smiled and bowed,--all himself again; +and stopping at the door, he said, with a proud humility,-- + +"Do me the favor to present my devoted regard to your friend; believe +me, that hereafter you shall have less reason to complain of me." + +He bowed, and was gone. + +An eye-witness of the scene has related, that, when Burr resigned his +seat as President of his country's Senate, an object of peculiar +political bitterness and obloquy, almost all who listened to him had +made up their minds that he was an utterly faithless, unprincipled man; +and yet, such was his singular and peculiar personal power, that his +short farewell-address melted the whole assembly into tears, and his +most embittered adversaries were charmed into a momentary enthusiasm of +admiration. + +It must not be wondered at, therefore, if our simple-hearted, loving +Mary strangely found all her indignation against him gone, and herself +little disposed to criticize the impassioned tenderness with which +Madame de Frontignac still regarded him. + +We have one thing more that we cannot avoid saying, of two men so +singularly in juxtaposition as Aaron Burr and Dr. Hopkins. Both had a +perfect _logic_ of life, and guided themselves with an inflexible +rigidity by it. Burr assumed individual pleasure to be the great object +of human existence; Dr. Hopkins placed it in a life altogether beyond +self. Burr rejected all sacrifice; Hopkins considered sacrifice as the +foundation of all existence. To live as far as possible without a +disagreeable sensation was an object which Burr proposed to himself as +the _summum bonum_, for which he drilled down and subjugated a nature +of singular richness. Hopkins, on the other hand, smoothed the +asperities of a temperament naturally violent and fiery by a rigid +discipline which guided it entirely above the plane of self-indulgence; +and, in the pursuance of their great end, the one watched against his +better nature as the other did against his worse. It is but fair, then, +to take their lives as the practical workings of their respective +ethical creeds. + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +NEW ENGLAND IN FRENCH EYES. + + +We owe our readers a digression at this point, while we return for a +few moments to say a little more of the fortunes of Madame de +Frontignac, whom we left waiting with impatience for the termination of +the conversation between Mary and Burr. "_Enfin, chere Sybille_," said +Madame de Frontignac, when Mary came out of the room, with her cheeks +glowing and her eye flashing with a still unsubdued light, "_te voila +encore_! What did he say, _mimi_?--did he ask for me?" + +"Yes," said Mary, "he asked for you." + +"What did you tell him?" + +"I told him that you wished me to excuse you." + +"How did he look then?--did he look surprised?" + +"A good deal so, I thought," said Mary. + +"_Allons, mimi_,--tell me all you said, and all he said." "Oh," said +Mary, "I am the worst person in the world; in fact, I cannot remember +anything that I have said; but I told him that he must leave you, and +never see you any more." + +"Oh, _mimi_, never!" + +Madame de Frontignac sat down on the side of the bed with such a look +of utter despair as went to Mary's heart. + +"You know that it is best, Virginie; do you not?" + +"Oh, yes, I know it; _mais pourtant, c'est dur comme la mort_. Ah, +well, what shall Virginie do now?" + +"You have your husband," said Mary. + +"_Je ne l'aime point_," said Madame de Frontignac. + +"Yes, but he is a good and honorable man, and you should love him." + +"Love is not in our power," said Madame de Frontignac. + +"Not every kind of love," said Mary, "but some kinds. If you have a +kind, indulgent friend who protects you and cares for you, you can be +grateful to him, you can try to make him happy, and in time you may +come to love him very much. He is a thousand times nobler man, if what +you say is true, than the one who has injured you so." + +"Oh, Mary!" said Madame de Frontignac, "there are some cases where we +find it too easy to love our enemies." + +"More than that," said Mary; "I believe, that, if you go on patiently +in the way of duty, and pray daily to God, He will at last take out of +your heart this painful love, and give you a true and healthy one. As +you say, such feelings are very sweet and noble; but they are not the +only ones we have to live by;--we can find happiness in duty, in +self-sacrifice, in calm, sincere, honest friendship. That is what you +can feel for your husband." + +"Your words cool me," said Madame de Frontignac; "thou art a sweet +snow-maiden, and my heart is hot and tired. I like to feel thee in my +arms," she said, putting her arms around Mary, and resting her head +upon her shoulder. "Talk to me so every day, and read me good cool +verses out of that beautiful Book, and perhaps by-and-by I shall grow +still and quiet like you." + +Thus Mary soothed her friend; but every few days this soothing had to +be done over, as long as Burr remained in Newport. When he was finally +gone, she grew more calm. The simple, homely ways of the cottage, the +healthful routine of daily domestic toils, into which she delighted to +enter, brought refreshment to her spirit. That fine tact and exquisite +social sympathy, which distinguish the French above other nations, +caused her at once to enter into the spirit of the life in which she +moved; so that she no longer shocked any one's religious feelings by +acts forbidden by the Puritan idea of Sunday, or failed in any of the +exterior proprieties of religious life. She also read and studied with +avidity the English Bible, which came to her with the novelty of a +wholly new book in a new language; nor was she without a certain +artistic appreciation of the austere precision and gravity of the +religious life by which she was surrounded. + +"It is sublime, but a little _glaciale_, like the Alps," she sometimes +said to Mary and Mrs. Marvyn, when speaking of it; "but then," she +added, playfully, "there are the flowers,--_les roses des Alpes_,--and +the air is very strengthening, and it is near to heaven,--_faut +avouer_." + +We have shown how she appeared to the eye of New England life; it may +not be uninteresting to give a letter to one of her friends, which +showed how the same appeared to her. It was not a friend with whom she +felt on such terms, that her intimacy with Burr would appear at all in +the correspondence. + + + * * * * * + +"You behold me, my charming Gabrielle, quite pastoral, recruiting from +the dissipations of my Philadelphia life in a quiet cottage, with most +worthy, excellent people, whom I have learned to love very much. They +are good and true, as pious as the saints themselves, although they do +not belong to the Church,--a thing which I am sorry for; but then let +us hope, that, if the world is wide, heaven is wider, and that all +worthy people will find room at last. This is Virginie's own little, +pet, private heresy; and when I tell it to the Abbe, he only smiles; +and so I think, somehow, that it is not so very bad as it might be. + +"We have had a very gay life in Philadelphia, and now I am growing +tired of the world, and think I shall retire to my cheese, like +Lafontaine's rat. + +"These people in the country here in America have a character quite +their own, very different from the life of cities, where one sees, for +the most part, only a continuation of the forms of good society which +exist in the Old World. + +"In the country, these people seem simple, grave, severe, always +industrious, and, at first, cold and reserved in their manners towards +each other, but with great warmth of heart. They are all obedient to +the word of their minister, who lives among them just like any other +man, and marries and has children. + +"Everything in their worship is plain and austere; their churches are +perfectly desolate; they have no chants, no pictures, no +carvings,--only a most disconsolate, bare-looking building, where they +meet together, and sing one or two hymns, and the minister makes one or +two prayers, all out of his own thoughts, and then gives them a long, +long discourse about things which I cannot understand enough English to +comprehend. + +"There is a very beautiful, charming young girl here, the daughter of +my hostess, who is as lovely and as saintly as St. Catharine, and has +such a genius for religion, that, if she had been in our Church, she +would certainly have been made a saint. + +"Her mother is a good, worthy matron; and the good priest lives in the +family. I think he is a man of very sublime religion, as much above +this world as a great mountain; but he has the true sense of liberty +and fraternity; for he has dared to oppose with all his might this +detestable and cruel trade in poor negroes, which makes us, who are so +proud of the example of America in asserting the rights of men, so +ashamed for her inconsistencies. + +"Well, now, there is a little romance getting up in the cottage; for +the good priest has fixed his eyes on the pretty saint, and discovered, +what he must be blind not to see, that she is very lovely,--and so, as +he can marry, he wants to make her his wife; and her mamma, who adores +him as if he were God, is quite set upon it. The sweet Marie, however, +has had a lover of her own in her little heart, a beautiful young man, +who went to sea, as heroes always do, to seek his fortune. And the +cruel sea has drowned him; and the poor little saint has wept and +prayed, till she is so thin and sweet and mournful that it makes one's +heart ache to see her smile. In our Church, Gabrielle, she would have +gone into a convent; but she makes a vocation of her daily life, and +goes round the house so sweetly, doing all the little work that is to +be done, as sacredly as the nuns pray at the altar. For you must know, +here in New England, the people, for the most part, keep no servants, +but perform all the household work themselves, with no end of spinning +and sewing besides. It is the true Arcadia, where you find cultivated +and refined people busying themselves with the simplest toils. For +these people are well-read and well-bred, and truly ladies in all +things. And so my little Marie and I, we feed the hens and chickens +together, and we search for eggs in the hay in the barn. And they have +taught me to spin at their great wheel, and at a little one too, which +makes a noise like the humming of a bee. + +"But where am I? Oh, I was telling about the romance. Well, so the good +priest has proposed for my Marie, and the dear little soul has accepted +him as the nun accepts the veil; for she only loves him filially and +religiously. And now they are going on, in their way, with preparations +for the wedding. They had what they call 'a quilting' here the other +night, to prepare the bride's quilt,--and all the friends in the +neighborhood came;--it was very amusing to see. + +"The morals of this people are so austere, that young men and girls are +allowed the greatest freedom. They associate and talk freely together, +and the young men walk home alone with the girls after evening parties. +And most generally, the young people, I am told, arrange their +marriages among themselves before the consent of the parents is asked. +This is very strange to us. I must not weary you, however, with the +details. I watch my little romance daily, and will let you hear further +as it progresses. + +"With a thousand kisses, I am, ever, your loving + +"Virginie." + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +CONSULTATIONS AND CONFIDENCES. + + +Meanwhile, the wedding-preparations were going on at the cottage with +that consistent vigor with which Yankee people always drive matters +when they know precisely what they are about. + +The wedding-day was definitely fixed for the first of August; and each +of the two weeks between had its particular significance and value +precisely marked out and arranged in Mrs. Katy Scudder's comprehensive +and systematic schemes. + +It was settled that the newly wedded pair were, for a while at least, +to reside at the cottage. It might have been imagined, therefore, that +no great external changes were in contemplation; but it is astonishing, +the amount of discussion, the amount of advising, consulting, and +running to and fro, which can be made to result out of an apparently +slight change in the relative position of two people in the same house. + +Dr. H. really opened his eyes with calm amazement. Good, modest soul! +he had never imagined himself the hero of so much preparation. From +morning to night, he heard his name constantly occurring in busy +consultations that seemed to be going on between Miss Prissy and Mrs. +Deacon Twitchel and Mrs. Scudder and Mrs. Jones, and quietly wondered +what they could have so much more than usual to say about him. For a +while it seemed to him that the whole house was about to be torn to +pieces. He was even requested to step out of his study, one day, into +which immediately entered, in his absence, two of the most vigorous +women of the parish, who proceeded to uttermost measures,--first +pitching everything into pie, so that the Doctor, who returned +disconsolately to look for a book, at once gave up himself and his +system of divinity as entirely lost, until assured by one of the +ladies, in a condescending manner, that he knew nothing about the +matter, and that, if he would return after half a day, he would find +everything right again,--a declaration in which he tried to have +unlimited faith, and which made him feel the advantage of a mind +accustomed to believing in mysteries. And it is to be remarked, that on +his return he actually found his table in most perfect order, with not +a single one of his papers missing; in fact, to his ignorant eye the +room looked exactly as it did before; and when Miss Prissy eloquently +demonstrated to him, that every inch of that paint had been scrubbed, +and the windows taken out, and washed inside and out, and rinsed +through three waters, and that the curtains had been taken down, and +washed, and put through a blue water, and starched, and ironed, and put +up again,--he only innocently wondered, in his ignorance, what there +was in a man's being married that made all these ceremonies necessary. +But the Doctor was a wise man, and in cases of difficulty kept his mind +to himself; and therefore he only informed these energetic +practitioners that he was extremely obliged to them, accepting it by +simple faith,--an example which, we recommend to all good men in +similar circumstances. + +The house throughout was subjected to similar renovation. Everything in +every chest or box was vigorously pulled out and hung out on lines in +the clothes-yard to air; for when once the spirit of enterprise has +fairly possessed a group of women, it assumes the form of a "prophetic +fury," and carries them beyond themselves. Let not any ignorant mortal +of the masculine gender, at such hours, rashly dare to question the +promptings of the genius that inspires them. Spite of all the treatises +that have lately appeared, to demonstrate that there are no particular +inherent diversities between men and women, we hold to the opinion that +one thorough season of house-cleaning is sufficient to prove the +existence of awful and mysterious difference between the sexes, and of +subtile and reserved forces in the female line, before which the lords +of creation can only veil their faces with a discreet reverence, as our +Doctor has done. + +In fact, his whole deportment on the occasion was characterized by +humility so edifying as really to touch the hearts of the whole synod +of matrons; and Miss Prissy rewarded him by declaring impressively her +opinion, that he was worthy to have a voice in the choosing of the +wedding-dress; and she actually swooped him up, just in a very critical +part of a distinction between natural and moral ability, and conveyed +him bodily, as fairy sprites knew how to convey the most ponderous of +mortals, into the best room, where three specimens of brocade lay +spread out upon a table for inspection. + +Mary stood by the side of the table, her pretty head bent reflectively +downward, her cheek just resting upon the tip of one of her fingers, as +she stood looking thoughtfully _through_ the brocades at something +deeper that seemed to lie under them; and when the Doctor was required +to give judgment on the articles, it was observed by the matrons that +his large blue eyes were resting upon Mary, with an expression that +almost glorified his face; and it was not until his elbow was +repeatedly shaken by Miss Prissy, that he gave a sudden start, and +fixed his attention, as was requested, upon the silks. It had been one +of Miss Prissy's favorite theories, that _"that dear blessed man had +taste enough, if he would only give his mind to things"_; and, in fact, +the Doctor rather verified the remark on the present occasion, for he +looked very conscientiously and soberly at the silks, and even handled +them cautiously and respectfully with his fingers, and listened with +grave attention to all that Miss Prissy told him of their price and +properties, and then laid his finger down on one whose snow-white +ground was embellished with a pattern representing lilies of the valley +on a background of green leaves. "This is the one," he said, with an +air of decision; and then be looked at Mary, and smiled, and a murmur +of universal approbation broke out. + +"_Il a de la delicatesse_," said Madame de Frontignac, who had been +watching this scene with bright, amused eyes,--while a chorus of loud +acclamations, in which Miss Prissy's voice took the lead, conveyed to +the innocent-minded Doctor the idea, that in some mysterious way he had +distinguished himself in the eyes of his feminine friends; whereat he +retired to his study slightly marvelling, but on the whole well +pleased, as men generally are when they do better than they expect; and +Miss Prissy, turning out all profaner persons from the apartment, held +a solemn consultation, to which only Mary, Mrs. Scudder, and Madame de +Frontignac were admitted. For it is to be observed that the latter had +risen daily and hourly in Miss Prissy's esteem, since her entrance into +the cottage; and she declared, that, if she only would give her a few +hints, she didn't believe but that she could make that dress look just +like a Paris one; and rather intimated that in such a case she might +almost be ready to resign all mortal ambitions. + +The afternoon of this day, just at that cool hour when the clock ticks +so quietly in a New England kitchen, and everything is so clean and put +away that there seems to be nothing to do in the house, Mary sat +quietly down in her room to hem a ruffle. Everybody had gone out of the +house on various errands. The Doctor, with implicit faith, had +surrendered himself to Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy, to be conveyed up +to Newport, and attend to various appointments in relation to his outer +man, which he was informed would be indispensable in the forthcoming +solemnities. Madame de Frontignac had also gone to spend the day with +some of her Newport friends. And Mary, quite well pleased with the +placid and orderly stillness which reigned through the house, sat +pleasantly murmuring a little tune to her sewing, when suddenly the +trip of a very brisk foot was heard in the kitchen, and Miss Cerinthy +Ann Twitchel made her appearance at the door, her healthy glowing cheek +wearing a still brighter color from the exercise of a three-mile walk +in a July day. + +"Why, Cerinthy," said Mary, "how glad I am to see you!" + +"Well," said Cerinthy, "I have been meaning to come down all this week, +but there's so much to do in haying-time,--but to-day I told mother I +_must_ come. I brought these down," she said, unfolding a dozen snowy +damask napkins, "that I spun myself, and was thinking of you almost all +the while I spun them, so I suppose they aren't quite so wicked as they +might be." + +We will observe here, that Cerinthy Ann, in virtue of having a high +stock of animal spirits and great fulness of physical vigor, had very +small proclivities towards the unseen and spiritual, but still always +indulged a secret resentment at being classed as a sinner above many +others, who, as church-members, made such professions, and were, as she +remarked, "not a bit better than she was." She had always, however, +cherished an unbounded veneration for Mary, and had made her the +confidante of most of her important secrets. It soon became very +evident that she had come with one on her mind now. + +"Don't you want to come and sit out in the lot?" she said, after +sitting awhile, twirling her bonnet-strings with the air of one who has +something to say and doesn't know exactly how to begin upon it. + +Mary cheerfully gathered up her thread, scissors, and ruffling, and the +two stepped over the window-sill, and soon found themselves seated +cozily under the boughs of a large apple-tree, whose descending +branches, meeting the tops of the high grass all around, formed a +seclusion as perfect as heart could desire. + +They sat down, pushing away a place in the grass; and Cerinthy Ann took +off her bonnet, and threw it among the clover, exhibiting to view her +black hair, always trimly arranged in shining braids, except where some +glossy curls fell over the rich high, color of her cheeks. Something +appeared to discompose her this afternoon. There were those evident +signs of a consultation impending, which, to an experienced eye, are as +unmistakable as the coming up of a shower in summer. + +Cerinthy began by passionately demolishing several heads of clover, +remarking, as she did so, that she "didn't see, for her part, how Mary +could keep so calm when things were coming so near." And as Mary +answered to this only with a quiet smile, she broke out again:-- + +"I don't see, for my part, how a young girl _could_ marry a minister, +anyhow; but then I think _you_ are just cut out for it. But what would +anybody say, if _I_ should do such a thing?" + +"I don't know," said Mary, innocently. + +"Well, I suppose everybody would hold up their hands; and yet, if I +_do_ say it myself,"--she added, coloring,--"there are not many girls +who could make a better minister's wife than I could, if I had a mind +to try." + +"That I am sure of," said Mary, warmly. + +"I guess you are the only one that ever thought so," said Cerinthy, +giving an impatient toss. "There's father and mother all the while +mourning over me; and yet I don't see but what I do pretty much all +that is done in the house, and they say I am a great comfort in a +temporal point of view. But, oh, the groanings and the sighings that +there are over me! I don't think it is pleasant to know that your best +friends are thinking such awful things about you, when you are working +your fingers off to help them. It is kind o' discouraging, but I don't +know what to do about it";--and for a few moments Cerinthy sat +demolishing buttercups, and throwing them up in the air till her shiny +black head was covered with golden flakes, while her cheeks grew redder +with something that she was going to say next. + +"Now, Mary, there is _that creature_. Well, you know, he won't take +'_No_' for an answer. What shall I do?" + +"Suppose, then, you try '_Yes_,'" said Mary, rather archly. + +"Oh, pshaw! Mary Scudder, you know better than that, now. I look like +it, don't I?" + +"Why, yes," said Mary, looking at Cerinthy, deliberately; "on the +whole, I think you do." + +"Well! one thing I must say," said Cerinthy,--"I can't see what _he_ +finds in me. I think he is a thousand times too good for me. Why, you +have no idea, Mary, how I _have_ plagued him. I believe that man +_really is a Christian_," she added, while something like a penitent +tear actually glistened in those sharp, saucy, black eyes. "Besides," +she added, "I have told him everything I could think of to discourage +him. I told him that I had a bad temper, and didn't believe the +doctrines, and couldn't promise that I ever should; and after all, that +creature keeps right on, and I don't know what to tell him." + +"Well," said Mary, mildly, "do you think you really love him?" + +"Love him?" said Cerinthy, giving a great flounce, "to be sure I don't! +Catch me loving any man! I told him last night I didn't; but it didn't +do a bit of good. I used to think that man was bashful, but I declare I +have altered my mind; he will talk and talk till I don't know what to +do. I tell you, Mary, he talks beautifully, too, sometimes." + +Here Cerinthy turned quickly away, and began reaching passionately +after clover-heads. After a few moments, she resumed:-- + +"The fact is, Mary, that man _needs_ somebody to take care of him; for +he never thinks of himself. They say he has got the consumption; but he +hasn't, any more than I have. It is just the way he neglects +himself,--preaching, talking, and visiting; nobody to take care of him, +and see to his clothes, and nurse him up when he gets a little hoarse +and run down. Well, I suppose if I _am_ unregenerate, I do know how to +keep things in order; and if I should keep _such_ a man's soul in his +body, I should be doing some good in the world; because, if ministers +don't live, of course they can't convert anybody. Just think of his +saying that I could be a comfort to _him_! I told him that it was +perfectly ridiculous. 'And besides,' says I, 'what will everybody +think?' I thought that I had really talked him out of the notion of it +last night; but there he was in again this morning, and told me he had +derived great encouragement from what I had said. Well, the poor man +really is lonesome,--his mother's dead, and he hasn't any sisters. I +asked him why he didn't go and take Miss Olladine Slocum: everybody +says she would make a first-rate minister's wife." + +"Well, and what did he say to that?" said Mary. + +"Well, something really silly,--about my looks," said Cerinthy, looking +down. + +Mary looked up, and remarked the shining black hair, the long dark +lashes lying down over the glowing cheek, where two arch dimples were +nestling, and said, quietly,-- + +"Probably he is a man of taste, Cerinthy; I advise you to leave the +matter entirely to his judgment." + +"You don't, really, Mary!" said the damsel, looking up. "Don't you +think it would injure _him_, if I should?" + +"I think not, materially," said Mary. + +"Well," said Cerinthy, rising, "the men will be coming home from the +mowing, before I get home, and want their supper. Mother has got one of +her headaches on this afternoon, so I can't stop any longer. There +isn't a soul in the house knows where anything is, when I am gone. If I +should ever take it into my head to go off, I don't know what would +become of father and mother, I was telling mother, the other day, that +I thought unregenerate folks were of some use in _this_ world, any +way." + +"Does your mother know anything about it?" said Mary. + +"Oh, as to mother, I believe she has been hoping and praying about it +these three months. She thinks that I am such a desperate case, it is +the only way I am to be brought in, as she calls it. That's what set me +against him at first; but the fact is, if girls will let a man argue +with them, he always contrives to get the best of it. I am kind of +provoked about it, too. But, mercy on us! he is so meek, there is no +use of getting provoked at him. Well, I guess I will go home and think +about it." + +As she turned to go, she looked really pretty. Her long lashes were wet +with a twinkling moisture, like meadow-grass after a shower; and there +was a softened, childlike expression stealing over the careless gayety +of her face. + +Mary put her arms round her with a gentle caressing movement, which the +other returned with a hearty embrace. They stood locked in each other's +arms,--the glowing, vigorous, strong-hearted girl, with that pale, +spiritual face resting on her breast, as when the morning, songful and +radiant, clasps the pale silver moon to her glowing bosom. + +"Look here now, Mary," said Cerinthy; "your folks are all gone. You may +as well walk with me. It's pleasant now." + +"Yes, I will," said Mary; "wait a minute, till I get my bonnet." + +In a few moments the two girls were walking together in one of those +little pasture foot-tracks which run so cozily among huckleberry and +juniper bushes, while Cerinthy eagerly pursued the subject she could +not leave thinking of. + +Their path now wound over high ground that overlooked the distant sea, +now lost itself in little copses of cedar and pitch-pine, and now there +came on the air the pleasant breath of new hay, which mowers were +harvesting in adjoining meadows. + +They walked on and on, as girls will; because, when a young lady has +once fairly launched into the enterprise of telling another all that +_he_ said, and just how _he_ looked, for the last three months, walks +are apt to be indefinitely extended. + +Mary was, besides, one of the most seductive little confidantes in the +world. She was so pure from selfishness, so heartily and innocently +interested in what another was telling her, that people in talking with +her found the subject constantly increasing in interest,--although, if +they really had been called upon afterwards to state the exact portion +in words which she added to the conversation, they would have been +surprised to find it so small. + +In fact, before Cerinthy Ann had quite finished her confessions, they +were more than a mile from the cottage, and Mary began to think of +returning, saying that her mother would wonder where she was, when she +came home. + +[To be continued.] + + + * * * * * + +LION LLEWELLYN. + + +Singing, shining, beautiful May +Lureth me, draweth me, all the day. +Once, when the season wooed me so, +Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go, +Pacing before or close beside, +Reticent, quaint, and dignified, +Roaming with me, wandering wide; +And if ever thy feet inclined, +Weary with roving, to lag behind, +When were my arms to aid thee slow? +"Muver will cahwy her darlin'! So!" + +Not to the pines, my warrior gray, +Gray and stately and scarred as they,-- +Not to the hill, or the valley glen, +Shall we wander together again. + +Nevermore, in the dead of night, +Shall I waken in cold affright,-- +Waken at sounds I know too well, +Growl defiant, and horrid yell, +Sounds that bristle the hair, and tell +Strife is raging, and blood is shed, +Blood and--fur, in the conflict dread. +Nevermore, from my bed, shall I +Unto the chamber-window fly, + +There, by the wintry moon, to spy +Thee on the well-sweep mounted high,-- +Mounting still, from the crafty foe +Creeping and crawling up below; +And, when thou canst no farther go, +See thee crouch for the fearful leap +Off the top of the old well-sweep, +Then, with a swift and dizzy sweep, +Plunge in the crusty snow knee-deep. +Nor, for a lameness gotten so, +Shall I nurse thee again,--all, no! + +Nevermore, from my willing hand +Winning the all I can command, +Shall be heard the pathetic tone, +(Solvent sufficient for heart of stone,) +Making thy simple wishes known; +Nor shall the vibrating long-drawn "Mr--r" +Of thy tranquil thunderous purr +Breathe again, to my ear attent, +Bliss o'erflowing and deep content. + +As I fondly muse on thee, +I recall the spreading tree +Of thy goodly pedigree, +Which, of shapely branch or bough, +Hath no fairer growth than thou; +And my glance caressing now +Sweeps Alas, and Och Oh-Ow, +Chryssa, Christopher, What-Not, +Zabdas, Bunch, Longinus, Dot, +Tom, Zenobia, Nonesuch, +Turvy, Topsy, Inasmuch, +Zillah, Zillah Number Two, +Fremont, Dayton, Tittattoo, +Hiawatha, And, and If, +Minnehaha, But, and Tiff, +Kitty Clover, Kitty Gray, +Flossy, Frolic, Fayaway, +Quip, and Quirk, and Dearest Mae, +Nippenicket, Dido, Puck, +Minnesinger, Friar Tuck, +Periwinkle, Winkle Less, +Quiz, Albeit, Bonnie, Bess, +Midget, Budget, Mayaret, +Jocko, Sancho, Hans, Coquette, +Daisy Du Da, Ditto, Pet, +Pancks, and Peepy, Tilly, Tarn, +Tattycoram, Zoe, Clam, +Little Dorrit, Uncle Sam, +Tomtit, Pug, Penelope, +Ike, Ulysses, Rosalie, + +Punch, and Judy, Ferny Fan, +Cowslip, Hecate, Caliban, +Filibuster, Jonathan,-- +Name them all who may, who can; +For the half has not been told +Of the branches I behold +On the honored parent-stem, +And the later growth from them. + +Lion Llewellyn, faithful friend, +Brave and gentle to the end, +Would that I once more might hail, +Like a banner on the gale, +Waving slow, thy jet-ringed tail! +And thy furry coat of mail, +Like the striped and spotted skin +Of thy savage leopard kin, +Would I might again caress +With the old-time tenderness! + +Why do I talk of what may not be? +For the pillow of him I fain would see +Was changed long since from my motherly knee +To the garden, under the willow-tree,-- +Weeping-willow and flowering moss. +Over it riseth nor pile nor cross; +We, who only have felt his loss, +Needing no sculptured stone to tell +How he battled, and how he fell, +Or where sleepeth who sleeps so well. + +What is the destiny of his race? +Is there, I wonder, no other place +Whence they come or whither they go? +Earth-existence the all they know? +Does the living intelligence +Die in them with the dying sense? +Or, from the body passing hence, +Does it find in another sphere +Being in higher form than here? + +For summers twain, the willow kept +Its watch where low the warrior slept, +But, on the third, a blight had crept +Upon the vigor of its frame; +Nor knew we how or whence it came. + +Whisper it low and fearfully, +The tale of ghostly mystery; +For toothless crones and graybeards said +That from the presence of the dead +An influence around was shed, + +Like warlock's foul, unholy spell, +Of malisons and curses fell, +Which steeped that soil with venom dank, +Of which the fated willow drank. + +Whether it were or were not so, +At least so much as this we know, +That on the willow fell decay; +And though, when all things else grew gay, +It feebly strove to look as they, +Yet was its summer crown of pride +Worn lightly, and soon cast aside, +And when Spring found it, it had died. + +A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown, +Now mark the place of his rest alone. + +I see that the soft west-wind to-day +From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away, +And wherever its fitful currents flow, +Rising or falling, swift or slow, +The tender petals like white wings go, +Floating, eddying, wavering low, +Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow; +And under their light and flickering fall, +The mound, and the flowering moss, and all, +Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest. + +Thou that often these arms have pressed, +Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,-- +Thou that takest thy colder rest, +Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground, +Close, but untenderly, folded round,-- +Ever, by thy drifted mound, +Sleep, the Mystery, be found +Most mysterious, most profound! +And through her enchanted air, +Lighter than petals fair, +Brooding Peace sink downward there; +And the blasted willow make +Haunt perpetual, for thy sake! + + + + +TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA. + + "It were wise, nay, just, + To strike with men a balance: to forgive, + If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama. + + +In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories +and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same +Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years +afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of +_citoyen Francais_, when that new order was created by the Revolution. +At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr. +Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these +occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a +bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had +been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the +New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased +with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with +regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his +destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache, +introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of +filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or +assistant surveyor." + +The "young man" was thirty-seven years of age when he landed in +Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, to begin the real business of his +life. He had been a staymaker, a sailor, an exciseman, a teacher, a +shopkeeper, and an author, to say nothing of his twofold matrimonial +experience. Such a long and various course of schooling had fitted him +to become an American citizen. + +His father was a staymaker, a Quaker, and poor. The son was sent to a +free school, where he was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, +--enough learning to be given to any man at the public expense. +With these three keys, if he is made of the right material, he +can open the world. At thirteen, he worked at his father's trade; at +sixteen, he ran away and shipped on board the privateer "Terrible," +Captain Death: the names of both craft and captain suggest the black +flag and cross-bones. Before the vessel sailed, his father interfered +and brought him ashore. Luckily for him; for, on her next cruise, the +"Terrible" was taken into St. Malo, a prize to the "Vengeance," after +one of the most desperate sea-fights on record. Her captain was killed; +out of a crew of two hundred men, only twenty-six were found alive, +most of them badly wounded. Visions of sea-life again lured Paine away +from the shop-board. He shipped in another privateer, and this time +actually served out the cruise. In 1759, we find him living at +Sandwich, a staymaker and a married man. In 1761, he was a widower and +an officer of the excise. From this position he was dismissed, for some +reason which escaped both Cobbett and Cheetham, and eleven months +afterward was reinstated on his own petition. In the interval, he found +employment in London as usher in a school, at twenty-five pounds a +year. His leisure moments he devoted to lectures on Natural Science. In +1768, he took a second wife at Lewes, the daughter of a tobacconist; +and the father dying soon after, Paine kept the shop. Here he wrote for +his brother-excisemen a petition to government for an increase of +salary. Four thousand copies were published by subscription. This piece +introduced him to Goldsmith, and a letter from the author to the famous +Doctor still exists, requesting "the honor of his company at the tavern +for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine." + +The year 1774 was an eventful one for Paine. He failed in the shop, was +separated from his wife, and dismissed from his office as exciseman. +After petitioning in vain to be reinstated, he determined to emigrate. + +His first scheme was, to establish a school for girls in Philadelphia; +but Bache procured him an engagement as assistant editor of the +"Pennsylvania Magazine," at fifty pounds a year. Paine's contributions +were much applauded, and soon attracted subscribers. His "Reflections +on the Life and Death of Lord Clive" were considered admirable, but do +not suit our present taste. A song on the Death of General Wolfe, still +occasionally reprinted, does not rise above a low level of mediocrity. +But here is a paragraph on the Mineral Riches of the Earth, which, many +years later, found favor in the eyes of the surly Cheetham, and may +still be read with some interest:-- + + + * * * * * + +"Though Nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is sullen, +rude, and niggardly at home; return the visit, and she admits you with +all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance of an antiquated +beauty retired to replenish her charms. Bred up in antediluvian +notions, she has not yet acquired the European taste of receiving +visitants in her dressing-room: she locks and bolts up her private +recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve +her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face that +was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that would view Nature in +her undress, and partake of her internal treasures, must proceed with +the resolution of a robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation +to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation +of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery +of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is +noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of +her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her +gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness; +and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the +riches of a necromancer's cell." + + + * * * * * + +An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper, +introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among +others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to +Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this +communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and +the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the +venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen +appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_," +as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his +contemporaries. [1] + +[Footnote 1: See "Climenole" in The Portfolio, 1803.] + +Paine's own account of the work is probably the true one:-- + + + * * * * * + +"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as +were in his hands towards completing a history of the present +transactions, and seemed desirous to have the first volume out the next +spring. I had then formed the outlines of "Common Sense," and finished +nearly the first part; and as I supposed the Doctor's design in getting +out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to +surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he +thought of." + + + * * * * * + +The times were more suggestive than doctors, even when Franklin was one +of them. When Paine came to America, he found the dispute with England +the all-absorbing topic. The atmosphere was heavy with the approaching +storm. The First Congress was in session in the autumn of that year. On +the 17th of September, John Adams felt certain that the other Colonies +would support Massachusetts. The Second Congress met in May, 1775. +During the winter and spring the quarrel had grown rapidly. Lexington +and Concord had become national watchwords; the army was assembled +about Boston; Washington was chosen commander-in-chief. Then came +Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was +open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had +drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag. + +From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in +their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots, +militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in +regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make +out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to +appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising +revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament +could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed +excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of +British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by +the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial +merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to +independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion +to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists +insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men +and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of +Parliament with both, if necessary. These arguments of our ancestors +led them to an excellent conclusion, and so far are entitled to our +respect; but logically we are afraid that King George had the best of +it. + +Before many months had passed, lagging theory was left so far in the +rear by the rapid course of events, that the Colonists felt it +necessary to move up a new set of principles to the van, if they wished +to present a fair front to the enemy. They had raised an army, and +taken the field. Unless they declared themselves a nation, they were +confessedly rebels. And yet almost all hesitated. There was a +deep-seated prejudice in favor of the English government, and a strong +personal liking for the people. Even when it was known that the second +petition to the King--Dickinson's "measure of imbecility"--was +disregarded, as it deserved to be, and that the Hessians were coming, +and all reasonable men admitted that there was no hope for +reconciliation, they still refused to abandon the pleasing delusion, +and talked over the old plans for redress of grievances, and a +constitutional union with the mother country. With little or no belief +in the possibility of either, they stood shivering on the banks of the +Rubicon, that mythical river of irretrievable self-committal, +hesitating to enter its turbid waters. A few of the bolder "shepherds +of the people" tried to urge them onward; but no one was bold enough to +dash in first and lead them through. Paine seized the opportunity. He +had a mind whose eye always saw a subject, when it could perceive it at +all, in its naked truth, stripped of the non-material accessories which +disturb the vision of common men. He saw that reconciliation was +impossible, mere rebellion folly; and that, to succeed in the struggle, +it was necessary to fight Great Britain as an equal,--nation against +nation. This course he recommended in "Common Sense," published in +January, 1776. + +Paine told the Colonists in this pamphlet that the connection with the +mother country was of no use to them, and was rapidly becoming an +impossibility. "It is not in the power of England to do this continent +justice. The business of it is too weighty and too intricate to be +managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant. +_To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a +petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when +obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few +years be looked upon as folly and childishness_." As to the protection +of England, what is that but the privilege of contributing to her wars? +"Our trade will always be a protection." "Neutrality is a safer convoy +than a man-of-war." "It is the true interest of America to steer clear +of European contentions, which she can never do while by her dependence +on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of European +politics." According to "Common Sense," not only was a separation +necessary and unavoidable, but the present moment was the right time to +establish it. "The time hath found us." The materials of war were +abundant; the union of the Colonies complete. It might be difficult, if +not impossible, to form the continent into a government half a century +hence. Now the task is easy. The interest of all is the same. "There is +no religious difficulty in the way." "I fully believe that it is the +will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of religious +opinions among us. _I look upon the various denominations among us as +children of the same family, differing only in what is called their +Christian names."_ All things considered, "nothing can settle our +affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration of +independence." "This proceeding may at first appear strange and +difficult. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a +superficial appearance of being right"; but in a little time it will +become familiar. "And until independence is declared, the continent +will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant +business from day to day, yet knows it must be done; hates to set about +it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its +necessity." To this he thought it necessary to add a labored argument +against kings from the Old Testament, which may possibly have had much +weight with a people some of whose descendants still triumphantly quote +the same holy book in favour of slavery. + +The King's speech, "a piece of finished villany" in the eyes of true +patriots, appeared in Philadelphia on the same day as "Common Sense". +Thus Paine was as lucky in his time of publication as in his choice of +a subject. All contemporaries admit that the pamphlet produced a +prodigious effect. Paine himself says,--"The success it met with was +beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the copyright +up to every State in the Union, and the demand ran to not less than one +hundred thousand copies." The authorship was attributed to Dr. +Franklin, to Samuel Adams, and to John Adams. + +It is hardly necessary to mention that the movement party, with General +Washington at its head, considered Paine's "doctrines sound, and his +reasoning unanswerable." Even in England, Liberals read and applauded. +The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to +France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common +Sense." + +It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence +doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the +touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew +the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid +a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it +useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared. +None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared +independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread +through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and +believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would +have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation. + +If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an +expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776, +look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much +difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later, +when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in +the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of +tension. The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine +founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote +politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius +Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression, +semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were +relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations +of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise +and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's +coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the +like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American +party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight +with the rank-and-file as his arguments. + +[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge +to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common +Sense."] + +Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst +upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by +all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon +afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr. +Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as +a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.'" Had +he been a man of fortune or American-born, he might have reached a +place in the foremost rank of the Fathers of the Country. But nativism +was powerful, and position important at that time, as Lee and Gates and +even Hamilton himself experienced. The signature, "Common Sense," Paine +preserved through life. It became what our authorlings, who ought to +know better, will persist in calling a _nom [1] de plume_--a Yankee +affectation, unknown to French idioms. + +[Footnote 1: They generally spell it "_nomme_."] + +In the autumn of 1776, Paine joined the army as volunteer aide-de-camp +to General Greene, and served through the gloomy campaign which opened +with the loss of New York in September. He remained in the field until +the army went into winter-quarters after the battles of Trenton and +Princeton. It was not as a combatant that Paine did the States good +service. He played the part of Tyraetus in prose,--an adaptation of the +old Greek lyrist to the eighteenth century and to British America,--and +cheered the soldiers, not with songs, but with essays, continuations of +"Common Sense." The first one was written on the retreat from Fort Lee, +and published under the name of "The Crisis," on the 23d of December, +when misfortune and severe weather had cast down the stoutest hearts. +It began with the well-known phrase, "'These are the times that try +men's souls.' The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this +crisis shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it +now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."--"But after all," +he continues, "matters might be worse. Howe has done very little. Fort +Washington and Fort Lee were no loss to us. The retreat was admirably +planned and conducted. General Washington is the right man for the +place, 'with a mind that can even nourish upon care.'" He closes with a +cheerful sketch of the spirit and condition of the army, attacks the +Tories, and appeals to the Colonies for union and contributions. + +This "Crisis" produced the best effect at home; in England it had the +honor of being burned by the hangman. The succeeding "Crisises" were +brought out at irregular intervals, whenever the occasion seemed to +demand Paine's attention; some of them not longer than a leader in a +daily paper; others swollen to pamphlet dimensions. They were read by +every corporal's guard in the army, and printed in every town of every +State on brown or yellow paper; for white was rarely to be obtained. In +their hours of despondency, the Colonists took consolation and courage +from the "Crisis." "Never," says a contemporary, "was a writer better +calculated for the meridian under which he wrote, or who knew how to +adapt himself more happily to every circumstance... Even Cheetham +admits, that to the army Paine's pen was an appendage almost as +necessary and as formidable as its cannon." + +The next campaign opened gloomily for the Colonies. The Tories felt +certain of victory. In the political almanac of that party, 1777 was +_"the year with three gallows in it."_ The English held New York and +ravaged the Jerseys on their way to Philadelphia. Howe issued a +proclamation "commanding all congresses and committees to desist and +cease from their treasonable doings," promising pardon to all who +should come in and take the oath of allegiance. Paine met him with a +"Crisis." "By what means," he asked, "do you expect to conquer America? +If you could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than +yours, nor in the winter, when we had none, how _are_ you to do it? If +you obtain possession of this city, [Philadelphia,] you could do +nothing with it but plunder it; it would be only an additional +dead-weight on your hands. You have both an army and a country to +contend with. You may march over the country, but you cannot hold it; +if you attempt to garrison it, your army would be like a stream of +water running to nothing. Even were our men to disperse, every man to +his home, engaging to reassemble at some future day, you would be as +much at a loss in that case as now. You would be afraid to send out +your troops in detachments; when we returned, the work would be all to +do." Paine then turns to those who, frightened by the proclamation, +betrayed their country, and paints their folly and its punishment. In +speaking of them, he calls upon the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to +take into serious consideration the case of the Quakers, whose +published protest against breaking off the "happy connection" seemed to +Paine of a treasonable nature. "They have voluntarily read themselves +out of the Continental meeting," he adds, with a humor, doubtless, +little relished by the Friends, "and cannot hope to be restored to it +again, but by payment and penitence." + +In April, Paine was elected, on motion of John Adams, Secretary to the +Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy +dollars a month. When Philadelphia surrendered, he accompanied Congress +in the flight to Lancaster. The day after the affair at Brandywine, a +short "Crisis" appeared, explaining the accidents which had caused the +defeat of the Continentals, and insisting that the good cause was safe, +and that Howe's victories were no better than defeats. Paine was right. +The Americans were gaining more ground in Northern New York than they +had lost in Pennsylvania. Burgoyne, who, + + "Unconscious of impending fates, + Could push through woods, but not through + Gates," + +had capitulated. The news reached Philadelphia on the 18th of October. + +This winter ought to have closed the war. The alliance with France, +Burgoyne's capture, two campaigns without useful results, Washington's +admirable patience and management at Valley Forge, with starvation and +mutiny in the ranks and disaffection to his person in the officers of +the Gates faction, ought to have convinced every Englishman in America +that the attempt to reduce the Colonies was now hopeless. Paine was so +indignant with the reckless obstinacy of the British government, that +he conceived the idea of carrying the war into England with pen and +paper,--weapons he began to think invincible in his hands. "If I could +get over to England," he wrote to his old chief, General Greene, +"without being known, and only remain in safety until I could get out a +proclamation, I could open the eyes of the country with respect to the +madness and stupidity of its government." Greene had no confidence in +the success of this appeal to the English people, and advised Paine not +to attempt it. + +In the mean time the French fleet had arrived, bringing M. Gerard, the +first foreign minister to the United States, and with him trouble to +Thomas Paine. It is well known that the French government employed +Beaumarchais, the author of the "Barber of Seville," as their agent to +furnish secret supplies to the American insurgents, and that +Beaumarchais imagined a firm, Rodrigue Hortalez & Co., who shipped to +the United Colonies munitions of war furnished by the King, and were to +receive return cargoes of tobacco, to keep up mercantile appearances. +Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, represented the +Americans in the business. In 1777, Congress, out of patience with +Deane for his foolish contracts with foreign officers, recalled him. He +returned, bringing with him a claim of Beaumarchais for the cargoes +already shipped to the United States. As Deane could produce no +vouchers, and Arthur Lee had cautioned Congress against his demands, +the claim was laid on the table until the vouchers should be presented. +Deane, confiding in the support of his numerous friends, appealed to +the public in a newspaper. Congress bore this indignity so +amiably,--refusing, indeed, by a small majority to take notice of +it,--that Henry Laurens, the president, who had laid Deane's appeal +before them for their action, resigned in disgust, and was succeeded by +John Jay. But Paine, whose position as Foreign Secretary enabled him to +know that the supplies had come from the French government, and not +from Beaumarchais, answered Deane in several newspaper articles, +entitled, "Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs." In these +he exposed the whole claim with his usual unmitigated directness. M. +Gerard immediately announced officially that Paine's papers were false, +and called upon Congress to declare them so and to pay the claim. Party +feeling ran high on this question,--a foreshadowing of the French and +English factions fifteen years later. Congress passed a resolution in +censure of Paine. Mr. Laurens moved that he be heard in his defence; +the motion was lost, and Paine resigned his office. A motion from the +Deane party to refuse his resignation and to discharge him was also +lost,--the Northern States voting generally in Paine's favor. His +resignation was then accepted. + +As the French government persisted in denying that the King had +furnished any supplies, Congress admitted the debt, and in October, +1779, drew bills on Dr. Franklin in favor of Beaumarchais, for two +millions and a half of francs, at three years' sight. Beaumarchais +negotiated the bills, built a fine hotel, and lived _en prince_. But +neither he nor Deane was satisfied. They still demanded another +million. + +We have no doubt that Paine was correct in his facts, however +injudicious it may have been to use them in his position. Deane's best +friends gave him up, before many years had passed. M. de Lomenie, in +his interesting sketch of Beaumarchais, has tried hard to show the +justice of his demands on the United States, but without much success. +He does not attempt to explain how Beaumarchais, notoriously penniless +in 1775, should have had in 1777 a good claim for three millions' worth +of goods furnished. The American public looked upon Paine as a victim +to state policy, and his position with his friends did not suffer at +all in consequence of his disclosures. Personally, he exulted in his +conduct to the end of his life, and took pleasure in watching and +recording Deane's disreputable career and miserable end. "As he rose +like a rocket, so he fell like the stick," a metaphor which has passed +into a proverb, was imagined by Paine to meet Deane's case. [1] The +immediate consequence of Paine's resignation was to oblige him to hire +himself out as clerk to an attorney in Philadelphia. In his office, +Paine earned his daily bread by copying law-papers until he was +appointed clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania. + +[Footnote 1: This Beaumarchais claim was kept alive until the beginning +of the present generation. In 1794, Gouverneur Morris, Minister to the +French Republic, obtained from the Minister of Finance a receipt to the +Crown for a million of francs, signed by Beaumarchais, and sent it home +to meet the claim which had again been presented. In 1806 it +reappeared, urged by the Imperial Ambassador. In 1816, the Duc de +Richelieu, minister of Louis XVIII., sustained it, and declared, on the +strength of Gerard's assertions, that the million receipt did not in +any way concern the United States. In 1824, the daughter of +Beaumarchais came to this country to solicit Congress in person, with +no better success. But at last, in 1835, when our claim of twenty-five +millions on France was settled, eight hundred thousand francs were +allowed to the heirs of Beaumarchais, and the business closed +forever,--not creditably to us. The claim was probably unfounded; but +our government admitted its validity by the fact of payment; and the +money, if due, ought to have been paid forty years before, or a +suitable compensation made for the long delay. To be Liberals in +borrowing and Conservatives in repayment is not a desirable financial +character for a nation to obtain.] + +Early in May, 1780, while the Assembly of Pennsylvania was receiving +petitions from all parts of the State, praying for exemption from +taxes, a letter was brought to the speaker from General Washington, and +read to the House by Paine as clerk. It stated simply that the army was +in the utmost distress from the want of every necessary which men could +need and yet retain life; and that the symptoms of discontent and +mutiny were so marked that the General dreaded the event of every hour. +"When the letter was read," says Paine, "I observed a despairing +silence in the House. Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At length a +member, of whose fortitude I had a high opinion, rose. 'If,' said he, +'the account in that letter is true, and we are in the situation there +represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the matter any longer. +We may as well give up first as last.' A more cheerful member +endeavored to dissipate the gloom of the House, and moved an +adjournment, which was carried," Paine, who knew that the Assembly had +neither money nor credit, felt that the voluntary aid of individuals +could alone be relied upon in this conjuncture. He accordingly wrote a +letter to a friend in Philadelphia, a man of influence, explaining the +urgency of affairs, and inclosed five hundred dollars, the amount of +the salary due him as clerk, as his contribution towards a relief fund. +The Philadelphian called a meeting at the coffee-house, read Paine's +communication, and proposed a subscription, heading the list with two +hundred pounds in good money. Mr. Robert Morris put his name down for +the same sum. Three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency, +were raised; and it was resolved to establish a bank with the fund for +the relief of the army. This plan was carried out with the best +results. After Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finances, he +developed it into the Bank of North America, which was incorporated +both by act of Congress and by the State of Pennsylvania. Paine +followed up his letter by a "Crisis Extraordinary." Admitting that the +war costs the Colonists a very large sum, he shows that it is trifling, +compared with the burdens the English have to bear. For this reason it +would be less expensive for the Americans to raise almost any amount to +drive the English out than to submit to them and come under their +system of taxation. + +Our ancestors read the "Crisis Extraordinary," and understood every +word of it, we may be sure. Paine's lucidity of statement is never more +remarkable than when he handles financial questions. But conviction did +not work its way down to the pocket. Few men gave who could avoid it, +and each State appeared more fearful of paying, by accident, a larger +sum than its neighbor, than of the success of the British arms. +Congress, finding it at last almost impossible to get money or even +provisions at home, resolved to resort again to the financial expedient +which has proved so often profitable to this country, namely, to borrow +in Europe. Colonel Laurens, son of the late President of Congress, was +appointed commissioner to negotiate an annual loan from France of a +million sterling during the continuation of the war. Paine accompanied +him at his request. They sailed in February, 1781, and were graciously +received by King Louis, who promised them six millions of livres as a +present and ten millions as a loan. In little more than ten years, the +American secretary, who stands respectfully and unnoticed in the +presence of his Majesty of France, will sit as one of his judges in a +trial for life! Is there anything more wonderful in the transmutations +of fiction than this? Meanwhile, the future member of the Convention, +as little dreaming of what was in store for him as the King, sailed for +Boston with his principal. They carried with them two millions and a +half in silver,--a great help to Washington in the movement southward, +which ended with the capitulation of Yorktown. While in Paris, Paine +was again seized with the desire of invading England, incognito, with a +pamphlet in his pocket, to open the eyes of the people. But Colonel +Laurens thought no better of this scheme than General Greene, and +brought his secretary safely home again. + +Cornwallis had surrendered, and it was evident that the war could not +last much longer. The danger past, the Colonial aversion to pay Union +expenses and to obey the orders of Congress became daily stronger. The +want of a "Crisis," as a corrective medicine for the body politic, was +so much felt, that Robert Morris, with the knowledge and approbation of +Washington, requested Paine to take pen in hand again, offering him, if +his private affairs made it necessary, a salary for his services. Paine +consented. A "Crisis" appeared which produced a most salutary effect. +This was followed a few days later by another, in which a passage +occurs which may be quoted as a specimen of Paine's rhetorical powers. +A rumor was abroad that England was treating with France for a separate +peace. Paine finds it impossible to express his contempt for the +baseness of the ministry who could attempt to sow dissension between +such faithful allies. "We sometimes experience sensations to which +language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive, +and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. Our feelings, imprisoned +by their magnitude, find no way out; and in the struggle of expression +every finger tries to be a tongue." It will be difficult to describe +better the struggle of an indignant soul with an insufficient +vocabulary. + +When peace was proclaimed, Paine, the untiring advocate of +independence, had a right to print his "Io Paean." The last "Crisis" +announces, "that the times that tried men's souls were over, and the +greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew gloriously and +happily accomplished." "America need never be ashamed to tell her +birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire." But it is to +the future he bids her look, rather than to the past. "The remembrance +of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most +laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began +with." "She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic +life,--not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in +her own land and under her own vine the sweet of her labors and the +reward of her toil. In this situation may she never forget that a fair +national reputation is of as much importance as independence,--that it +possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies +civil,--that it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, and +commands reverence where pomp and splendor fail." As indispensable to a +future of prosperity and dignity, he warmly recommends the Union. "I +ever feel myself hurt," he says, "when I hear the Union, that great +Palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of. +It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that +which every man should be most proud and tender of." Thus he +anticipated by seventy-five years our "Union-savers" of 1856, few of +whom dreamed that their pet phrases, or something very like them, +originated with Thomas Paine. + +The war left Paine no richer than it found him. He had made fame, but +no money, by his writings. None of the proceeds of large editions had +enriched his purse. He had an exalted ideal of an author's duty when +his work is on political subjects. Louis Blanc has written somewhere, +"_Le journalisme est un sacerdoce._" This seems to have been Paine's +thought, although he may not have expressed it so sonorously,--for +there are no phrase-makers like the French. But Paine went, we suspect, +much farther than Louis Blanc; for he held that the priest ought to +take no pay for his ministrations. And he acted up to this unusual +theory in literary ethics. If he took out a copyright, he gave it away +to some public use. As he himself said, late in life,--"I could never +reconcile it to my principles to make money by my polities or my +religion." "In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake, +I love to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of +this principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the +pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward." + +His friends and admirers did not permit him to have the honor of giving +not only his services, but his actual expenses, to the Republic. The +State of New York presented him with a confiscated Royalist estate, +near New Rochelle, three hundred acres of good land, with the necessary +fences and buildings upon it. Pennsylvania voted him five hundred +pounds, currency. And the Virginians were talking about making a +similar donation, when an unlucky pamphlet from Paine appeared, +demolishing the claim of Virginia to the Western country. This +publication changed the views of the chivalry, and Paine lost his +grant. He owned, besides, a small place in Bordentown,--a gift, we +believe, of the State of New Jersey. The other nine States passed him +over. New England had expended enough, both of men and means, for the +cause,--and the South had fine feelings, but no money. + +In the autumn of 1783, when Paine was residing at Bordentown, he +received a letter from Washington, who had fixed his quarters at Rocky +Hill, near Princeton, until he could resign his command to Congress. It +ran thus:-- + + + * * * * * + +"I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at +Bordentown,--whether for the sake of retirement or economy; be it for +either or both, or whatever it may, I shall be exceedingly happy to see +you here. + +"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this +country; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best +exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who +entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, +with much pleasure, subscribes himself + +"G. WASHINGTON." + + + * * * * * + +Such a letter of hearty approval and respect, from the greatest man of +the country, perhaps of the age, (we Americans, at least, all think +so,) rich, powerful, honored, is certainly a "handsome testimonial," +worth writing or fighting for. It was not an empty offer of service. +Washington spoke to several members of Congress in Paine's behalf, and +told them that it would be pleasing to himself, as well as right and +proper, to make a suitable provision for Paine. In 1785, Congress at +last granted him three thousand dollars, much of which they fairly owed +him for his loss on the depreciated currency in which his salary as +Secretary had been paid. Paine accepted the General's invitation, and +spent some time in his family, at Mrs. Berrian's, Rocky Hill. One +evening of his visit was devoted to setting a neighboring creek on +fire. This successful experiment, as performed by the Father of his +Country, assisted by Thomas Paine, General Lincoln, and Colonel Cobb, +is described in a tract on the Yellow Fever, written by Paine a few +years before his death, at the request of Thomas Jefferson. + +Until the spring of 1787, Paine spent his time in Philadelphia or in +Bordentown, writing occasionally on subjects which interested him, and +indulging his taste for scientific speculations in the company of +Franklin and Rittenhouse. He was a member of the American Philosophical +Society, as well as an A. M. of the University of Philadelphia. His +reputation, his wonderful memory, the shrewd originality of his +remarks, made him a welcome guest in the best society. He was no talker +or _conversationist_, (an excellent word we should like to see +legitimated,) but a quiet, observing man, who spoke to the point, +inoffensive in manner, and not unprepossessing in appearance. As one of +the lions of the country, he was much looked at, especially by +foreigners. We find a sketch of an interview with him in the Travels of +the Chevalier de Chastellux. De Lafayette and himself requested +permission to call "on that author so celebrated in America and in +Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.'" Colonel Laurens +introduced them. "His physiognomy," the Chevalier thinks, "did not +belie the spirit that reigns throughout his works. Our conversation was +agreeable and animated, and such as to form a connection between us; +for he has written to me since my departure, and seems desirous of +maintaining a constant correspondence." + +In common with most of the clever men of his day, Paine, as we have +said, cultivated a taste for mechanics and natural science. There was +an awakening of the mind, in physics as well as in politics, at that +period; and it must be confessed that the natural philosophers have +succeeded better than the constitution-makers. Paine's mechanical hobby +was an iron bridge. A single arch, of four hundred feet span, and +twenty feet in height from the chord-line, was to be thrown over the +Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The idea was suggested to him by a +spider's web, a section of which the bridge resembled; and the +principle he worked upon was, that the small segment of a large circle +was preferable to the great segment of a small circle. Paine made a +complete model of his bridge, in wrought iron and wood, at Bordentown; +but, finding that the insufficiency of capital and of skill in the +working of iron in America would prevent him from carrying out his +plan, he sailed for France to lay his model before the Academie des +Sciences. Franklin, who always liked him, gave him letters to the +celebrated Malesherbes, Le Roy, the Abbe Morellet, the Duke de la +Rochefoucauld, introducing him "as an ingenious, honest man, author of +'Common Sense,' a famous piece, published here with great effect on the +minds of people at the beginning of the Revolution." He had also a +satisfactory credential from Congress, in the shape of the following +resolution, adopted by that body in August, 1785:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labours of Mr. +Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late +Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of +Liberty and Civil Government, have been well received by the citizens +of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress." + + + + +TRIAL TRIP OF THE "FLYING CLOUD." + + +"Through in four days to San Francisco," repeated I. "Marvellous age!" + +I hastily computed the distance by an air-line, and placed the speed of +the craft at some thirty miles an hour. That seemed reasonable enough. +Indeed, the whole statement cohered marvellously well; all the parts +harmonized with each other and looked plausible, even reasonable, as I +have said, except the grand fact itself, which was too momentous for +belief. But why should it not be true? What new achievement of the +human mind ought to startle one in this nineteenth century, after +having witnessed the wonders of steam and electro-magnetism? I +determined to sift the matter, but immediately remembered that all the +knowledge I had of it had been imparted to me in the strictest +confidence. The ingenious inventors, as was clearly their right, had +reserved it to themselves to choose the time and way of making their +invention public, when it was to break on the world, some fine morning, +like the discovery of a second moon performing its orbit round the +earth. I sunk into a brown study. + +In the evening, Mr. Bonflon called again, as he had promised. He +brought with him a large roll of plans and drawings, for the purpose of +illustrating more clearly the principles and method of construction and +operation of his aerial ship. + +They were projected on a large scale, and the workmanship was superb. +Months of hard labor by a finished draughtsman must have been devoted +to their execution. "And what an additional outlay of time and brains," +thought I, "must have been required, to devise the scheme and construct +the machine itself, so as to elevate the ingenious ideal into an +absolute working reality!" These drawings, Mr. Bonflon informed me, +were duplicates of others which had been privately deposited in the +Patent-Office at Washington. + +The one which chiefly attracted my attention was that which represented +the monster steamer complete, with all its appendages and complement of +passengers, in its majestic flight through the air. Below it were the +drifting clouds. Its course lay quite above the storms and hurricanes +and conflicting wind-currents which vex the lower strata of the +atmosphere, where it comes in contact with the earth's uneven surface, +and is kept in motion by the contractions and expansions of alternate +cold and heat, and is broken and set whirling by the forests and gorges +and mountain-tops among which it is compelled to force its way. Above +all this, Mr. Bonflon assured me, as aeronauts report, there is ever a +smooth, quiet atmospheric sea. + +"But how is life to be sustained for any considerable time in that +rarefied medium?" inquired I, "when it is asserted that even in +ascending high mountains, the texture of the soft parts of the human +body becomes so loose and flabby from diminished atmospheric pressure +as to cause one, so to speak, to sweat blood,--which oozes perceptibly +from the mouth and nose and eyes, and even from under the +finger-nails?" + +Mr. Bonflon pointed to a long, narrow line which floated rearward at an +angle of about forty-five degrees from the point of its attachment to +his ship. + +"That," said he, "is an India-rubber tube several thousand feet long, +extending down into the respirable atmosphere, and keeping the cabins +always supplied with fresh and wholesome air." + +"But would the heavier nether air flow in that direction?" I asked. + +"With a little help from the engine," he replied, "a constant current, +whenever needed, is kept up; and the process of breathing is rendered +as easy and agreeable in the cabins of the 'Flying Cloud' as in one's +own parlors at home. On the upper deck, which is not inclosed, you see, +it is different. In the first trial-trip to California, Mr. M---- +insisted on remaining above on this deck for six consecutive hours, and +the result was an attack of hemorrhage from the lungs. On his going +below, however, it almost instantly ceased." + +I must now endeavor to give the reader some definite idea of this +extraordinary machine, as exhibited in the drawings. Its buoyant power +was, of course, on the principle of the balloon. But the gas-chamber, +or part to be inflated, instead of being globular in form, consisted of +two horizontal cones joined at the base; or more accurately still, it +resembled an immense barrel extended at both ends to a point, and +resting on its side. This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon, +that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in +which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong +flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened +and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber. +Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a +particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember, +was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth +in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain +the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and +three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a +considerable margin for freight. + +Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but +ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine, +and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to +render it intelligible by mere description. + +The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore +the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of +a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided +into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and +so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck. The attachment +between the two parts was by means of a network of ropes, extending +from every quarter, and from the whole circumference of the ship, +connecting with staples in the framework of the balloon, and finally +embracing its entire body in its folds. Two enormous paddle-wheels, +made of oiled silk stretched on delicate frames, and driven by a +steam-engine of the lightest structure possible, furnished the +propelling power; while at the stern, like a vast fin, played the helm, +of a similar material and construction to the paddle-wheels. + +All this was explained to me in much fuller detail than I can here +repeat, by Mr. Bonflon, who added, that the materials employed combined +lightness with strength to a much greater degree than had ever before +been achieved,--that the fuel used was of the fluid kind, a new +combination of concentrated combustibles invented by himself,--and that +the weight of the entire machine had been carefully calculated +beforehand, together with its buoyant power, and the results had +demonstrated the accuracy of the mathematics. + +I turned on Mr. Bonflon and looked him squarely in the face. He was a +modest man and blushed slightly, but did not shrink. There could be no +dishonesty there. His countenance bore the unmistakable stamp of +integrity, as well as intelligence; and his whole appearance and +bearing were those of a true man. + +Had he brought me the newspaper he promised, not yet eight days old, +from San Francisco? + +No. He had been detained down-town all day in the whirl of our New York +Babel, and had not yet been home. He would hand it in to-morrow. + +Mr. Bonflon had been introduced to me that morning by a friend on whose +acuteness and judgment I felt I had many good reasons to rely. Without +pretending any precise knowledge of the man, or, indeed, any knowledge +at all, beyond what had been gathered from the individual himself in a +very brief acquaintance of Mr. Bonflon's own seeking, he expressed a +warm interest in him personally, as also in the startling discovery he +professed to have made. + +In that interview, Mr. Bonflon had informed us in brief, that, after +ten years of patient and toilsome experiment, of disappointment, of +perishing and reviving hope, he had at length achieved the grand object +of his life. He had solved the problem of the navigation of the air. He +had proved by actual results, that the great ocean of atmosphere above +us could be ploughed as successfully and safely as the waters beneath, +and with much greater facility and pleasure. He stated that the first +trial-trip, after the completion of the ship, had been made in the +night from an obscure point in the State of Maryland, and extended +north and northeast, along the Atlantic coast, to New York,--whose glow +of light from a great height, like a phosphorescent mist, was plainly +distinguishable,--and thence to the neighborhood of Boston, and back to +the place of starting; and that a second, with equally favorable +results, had been made from the same point by a more inland route, +northwest to Buffalo and the Canada line; and he named several +well-known persons who were on board at one or the other of these +times, and related some little anecdotes illustrative of their states +of mind and apprehensions while drifting above the earth on the +occasion of these novel voyages. + +He said, further, that the President and heads of departments at +Washington were fully cognizant of the matter; and that a third grand +trial-trip, in the interest of government, had been secretly made, with +important dispatches to California, relating to the security of our +rights in the Pacific. Four days had been consumed in the passage out, +including a stoppage of a couple of hours on a fine plateau, near the +head waters of the Missouri, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and +the same in the return. They had landed in the night in a deep valley a +few miles out of San Francisco, and remained two days in that city; +which gave a period of ten days to the entire voyage, out and back. +Forty selected individuals, all bound to secresy, had participated in +the risks and excitements of the extraordinary occasion. Mr. Bonflon +was not of the number. An heroic daughter of his was. His partner, +Mons. De Aery, a French gentleman of great mechanical skill, had +managed the affair; and the craft, in the same hands, was now absent on +her second expedition across the American continent. + +Such was the sum of Mr. Bonflon's revelations of the morning. What a +discovery! How the announcement would astonish the world! How the +practical fact would overturn the world, upset commerce, and transform +the habits and relations of mankind! America, the pioneer in many +valuable discoveries and reforms, was still ahead,--still destined to +lead the van in the development of the powers and resources of Nature, +and the onward march of nations. + +Hurriedly recalling all these points to mind, I requested to know of +Mr. Bonflon how it had been possible, with so many confidants and the +prying propensities of the press, whose agents, like an invisible +police, are everywhere, to keep the matter from becoming public,--at +least, to cover the affair so completely that no hint of the existence +of his machine should have been given in any quarter, or of the vast +changes which its introduction as a power in the world could not fail +to effect. + +To this he replied, that the press had behaved very handsomely; that +the principal papers of the country had _attaches_ aboard on the first +trip to the Pacific; but that all parties--the government, the editors, +together with De Aery and himself--were agreed that the matter should +be kept strictly private, until its practicality and value should be +established beyond the possibility of question. + +I now remembered, that, several years ago, a good deal of noise had +been made about a flying-machine which had been constructed in some of +the suburbs of the city,--and that a day had been advertised when it +was to make an ascent, but, it failed. I mentioned the circumstance to +Mr. Bonflon. + +"Yes," he replied. "It was at Hoboken. De Aery and myself spent years +in the construction of that machine, and a large amount of money. On +the day when the trial of its powers was to have taken place, the +weather proved unfavorable, and we met with unexpected delays. The +spectators, who had congregated by thousands, became impatient; and the +mob, breaking in upon us, destroyed in an hour property which had cost +us five thousand dollars and the labor of years." + +I felt obliged to sympathize with Mr. Bonflon. He had met with the +usual fortune of public benefactors, and particularly of inventors. His +success, however, should it prove real, in the unexampled brilliancy of +its results, would more than compensate him for all his disappointments +and losses. He would rank as the greatest of discoverers,--as the +master mind of this master century. + +Leading him off from this one topic into general conversation, I held +him thus engaged for an hour. I was charmed with his comprehensive +intelligence, and with the scope and liberality of his views. In +everything relating to mechanics, his opinions were marked with +originality. This had evidently been his favorite field, where his +quick perceptions and powers of concentration and analysis had elevated +him to an eminence where he stood almost alone. I had never met his +equal. In plausible suggestions relative to the possibilities of the +future, he took me quite above my level, and left me floating in a maze +of glittering bewilderment. But I could discover no breaks, no +confusion in his mind, on the themes he presented. His premises were +apparently well considered, and his conclusions the fair and natural +sequences flowing from them. + +On the following day, Mr. Bonflon called on me again. In the interval, +my friend and myself had held extended consultations. My friend, while +externally calm as the surface of a summer sea, as was his wont, it was +plain for me to see, was internally deeply stirred and excited by the +extraordinary nature of Mr. Bonflon's revelations. Acknowledging a +mutual and increasing interest in the intelligent inventor, we +nevertheless parted in a wilderness of doubt. There was a mystery in +the matter,--a surprise for the world or a surprise for +ourselves,--which time, it would seem, with its busy thumb and finger, +must be left to unravel at its leisure. + +Mr. Bonflon had not brought the California paper with him. The two or +three copies only which had come into his possession had been handed +around among his confidential friends, and he had not been able to lay +his hand on one. He informed me that the "Flying Cloud" was expected to +return in three days, and, after remaining two days on the Atlantic +side of the continent, would then start on her third experimental trip +to the Pacific. At that time he expected to make one of the party +himself, and he invited me to accompany him. + +I accepted the invitation, and received from him particular +instructions as to the nature of my outfit. It was in the midst of the +heats of summer. He advised, however, a full supply of thick clothing, +on account of the increased chill and coldness of the atmosphere at +high altitudes; and, indeed, recommended a mail of flannel next the +skin. Everything else--the supply of the larder, with an excellent +cook, beds, and so forth--would be found amply provided by De Aery and +himself for the comfort and accommodation of their guests. The station, +or point of departure, Mr. Bonflon informed me, was a retired spot but +a few miles out of the city of Baltimore; and he promised to be at hand +at the proper time to accompany me in person, and see me safely on +board the "Flying Cloud." + +I saw nothing more of Mr. Bonflon for several days. Meanwhile I +arranged my affairs for a brief absence, and, as my family were all off +in the country, prepared a special letter for use, if needed, to be +dated and mailed at the last moment, notifying them of a probable gap +in my correspondence, on account of some pressing business which would +take me out of the city for a few days and keep me constantly employed. + +In three or four days I received a note from Mr. Bonflon, advising me +to hold myself in readiness; and at the proper time, he presented +himself before me. But he came to apologize. The "Flying Cloud" had +returned. The second trip had been as successfully and safely performed +as the first. Nothing had occurred to mar the pleasure of the voyage; +but, unfortunately, before coming on to New York, De Aery had filled +out the complement of guests for the third grand expedition. Even he +(Mr. Bonflon) should remain behind; but he should see that seats were +reserved for us both, without fail, for the next succeeding trip. Mr. +Bonflon took his leave; and I found myself more deeply involved in +doubt and perplexity than ever. I could hardly say that I was +disappointed, or that I was not. I had thrown myself on a wave, with no +look-out or means of judging where I was to be cast, and had formed no +opinions. As yet, everything looked fair with Mr. Bonflon. His face was +as honest as the morning sun, and it was next to impossible to doubt +him. He might be the prey of some strange phantasm, some monomania; but +the evidences did not show it. The account he had given of himself was +manly and coherent; his claims as a discoverer had been modestly +presented, and were not wholly unsupported by circumstances, or +unreasonable in themselves. Indeed, they must be regarded as coming +within the range of probabilities fully as much as, to human seeming, +had once the established, but ceaseless, wonders of steam locomotion +and electric telegraphing. + +Singularly enough,--and it illustrates the constantly shifting scenes +in the kaleidoscope of life,--within an hour, Mr. Bonflon returned with +a new message, and with the programme of the "Flying Cloud" changed, if +not reversed. He had seen De Aery again. One or two of the expected +passengers had telegraphed that untoward circumstances would compel +them to remain behind, and there would be room for us. But no time was +to be lost; the air-steamer would weigh anchor before daylight of the +following morning, and we must start for Baltimore by the next train. +De Aery and several others were already flying over the rail on their +way to Philadelphia. + +I did not allow myself to hesitate. With an unusual degree of +excitement, made up of the mingled emotions of wonder, doubt, and, I +frankly confess, apprehension, I dated and superscribed the letter to +my absent family; and, taking my carpet-bag in my hand, packed to +plethora several days before in readiness for the occasion, set out on +the strange and questionable adventure. + +The run to Baltimore was made without accident or delay. Mr. Bonflon +and myself conversed a good deal, and I found additional cause to +admire the discriminating character of his mind and the curious and +wonderful stores it contained. Some of the time we dozed, or sunk into +a mental confusion like that to which the body was subjected by the +motion of the cars, and called it sleep. My own most impressive +visions, however, were those of silent wakefulness, and were connected +with the morrow and the "Flying Cloud." + +We stopped in the chief city of Maryland only long enough to obtain +some slight refreshments, such as could be furnished readily in the +middle of the night, and proceeded at once to the wharf or station of +our sky-sailer. Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first +beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus +satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere +chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan, +floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem +of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make +obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and +plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of +her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a +great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief +against the sky. + +But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and +the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were +already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and +seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency +of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement +immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to +create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an +indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was +attended with some apprehensions and regrets. I gazed anxiously at the +receding objects below; but my feelings underwent a change as we +approached the "Flying Cloud" herself, were pulled into her gangway, +and I found myself standing on her solid decks. A brief further period +intervened, and our anchor was loosed; the tremendous machine became +instinct with life; she began to move; and, hurrah! we were under way. + +The thoughts and emotions of this bewildering moment it is impossible +to describe. Our craft moved off majestically, like some huge +water-fowl rising from the sea. Her course was westward and upward, +like the eagle with his face turned toward the palace of the sun. At +first the lights in the city of Baltimore became more numerous and +distinct, as intervening objects were surmounted and overlooked. Next +they began to fade, shrinking down into twinkling points like +fireflies, until they disappeared. Forests, hills, and mountains +followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a +hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding +the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our +course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a +landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in +our passage. + +What a sea! The ocean has its visible surface on which move the ships; +but we had none. The heavens were beneath us as well as above. We were +floating in the great circle of the systems and the suns. We were of +the universe; but were to be numbered with the constellations and the +stars. We could compare ourselves to a company of immortals quitting +the earth and traversing the electric seas which lead to brighter +homes. Or we were voyagers to the sun, or to the nearer Venus, or to +the far distant Centaurus. What a world of new thought was forced upon +us by the fancies and realities and charm and awe of our extraordinary +condition, combined with the profound consciousness we could not fail +to entertain of the effects which this crowning discovery of Messrs. +Bonflon and De Aery must produce on travel, on commerce, on art, and +the common destiny of mankind! + +I found the atmosphere of the cabins, as my friend Bonflon had +asserted, agreeable and healthful. I could also occupy the promenade +deck for half an hour with little inconvenience, so far as the levity +of the air was concerned; but the cold was severe; while the system, in +consequence of an undue expansion of its particles, solid and fluid, +from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, was rendered doubly +susceptible to its influence. The advice given by Mr. Bonflon to case +myself in flannels, with an armament at hand of outer winter clothing, +proved well-timed; and yet a period of lassitude, verging on faintness, +invariably followed every considerable exposure to the open air. + +But the pleasure of gazing on those fields of space without +obstruction, without the intervention of so much as a plate of crystal +glass, repaid me for every risk and every ill. Though it might be said +there was no scenery there, where nothing was visible but the stars, +yet far beyond the power of mountain and valley, forest and lake, +waterfall and ocean, did that scene, which was no scene, or next to +none, bind me in the spell of its fascination. The motion of our craft, +as we careered noiselessly through the shoreless and objectless void, +without sense of effort or friction, was a charm of itself,--bringing +to a flower, crystallizing into refulgent stars, the dim, obscure, +however glorious, poetry of life. Here were the wildest imaginations of +the dreamer melted in a crucible, and reproduced in living forms of +usefulness and beauty. In my own years of widely diversified +experience, what had I met with to compare with this? Nothing. The +force of steam was marvellous,--talking over a wire mysterious; but here +I was in a great ship riding among the planets and the stars. I had +likened Niagara to a vast mill-dam, because I could find no peer to set +beside it; so now, in my weakness, the sublime pageant of the "Flying +Cloud" could search out nothing higher in my recollection with which to +compare it than a wild, ride of my youth in a canoe, for a half mile or +so, down the rapids of a river. + +But morning was at hand. The rich golden glow of night, to which the +dwellers on the earth's surface are accustomed, as we passed to higher +altitudes, had given place to a thin inky blue. This was obscured by no +fleck or mist, and yet the stars shone through it faint and dim, +despoiling the firmament of its glory. The same loss of power was +manifest on the ushering in of day. The auroral flame, which ordinarily +greets us in the east with such a ruddy laugh, was now nothing better +than a wan and dismal smile; and even the sun, as he struggled up from +what seemed a bed of leaden mist, brought with him only a pallid, +lifeless twilight. It was not that his rays were impeded by cloud or +haze; he had lost his power to shine. He hung there in the heavens like +a great white shield, and looked down on us as rayless and powerless +and devoid of life as a dead man's eye. + +Having at length wearied myself with gazing, and feeling chill and weak +from the coldness and tenuity of the atmosphere, I subsided into the +comfort and companionship of the cabins below. Among the passengers I +recognized _attaches_ of the press, besides several gentlemen of +Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with whom I was somewhat +acquainted. More circumspect, or less slaves to the imagination than +myself, they had contented themselves with in-door observations. But +their enthusiasm was none the less inflamed. In astonishment they +looked at each other; in restless bewilderment they glanced out of the +windows on the desert, trackless plane traversed by the "Flying Cloud," +and spoke with a species of awe of the shock which the announcement of +what they were then witnessing would give to sober men's minds; and +suggested, in broken sentences, some of the consequences which would be +likely to flow from the grand invention. + +What with excitement and lack of sleep, we all found ourselves a little +nervous. Coffee and Havanas failed to allay the feeling; and, in the +absence of the morning papers, we resorted to whist, chess, and our +pocket supplies of the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper," and so forth, and +to the very select library provided by Messrs. Bonflon and De Aery, the +proprietors, for the use of the passengers,--and at last to our beds. +It could not be denied that we were nervous. With all the smoothness +and beauty of our running, there was a sensation, an uncertain +quivering motion, not at first noticed and not at all definable, about +our craft, that constantly, suggested the idea that we were standing on +nothing, or, at best, nothing better than dissolving quicksands, which +were liable at any moment wholly to slide away and leave us; and it +required some strength of mind to resist the vagary, and prevent it +from effecting a troublesome lodgment in the imagination. + +Thus passed the day, which fortunately, in my case, was succeeded by a +night of repose. The restlessness of mind and body once subdued, Nature +asserted her empire, and I slept profoundly until morning. Another day +and night followed, with little variation from the first; and by this +time, the strangeness and mystery of my situation had quite worn away, +and the feeling of security was established. I trod the upper deck with +all the pride, and more than the composure, of a modern monarch on his +throne. + +But the sameness of the scenery of the vast aerial ocean, in which we +were sailing alone, without consort, without ever descrying a sail, or +even keeping a lookout, without so much as ever discovering a floating +plank to remind us of a wreck, or a seaweed to tell us of the land, was +already beginning to pall on the senses, when there appeared in the +distance before us, and multiplying to the right and the left, a +succession of white, sparkling pyramids and cones, resting on the +clouds and flashing in the nether light, like crystal monuments set to +mark the boundaries of space. These were crests of the Rocky Mountains, +covered with perpetual snow. + +I gazed on them with rapture. Right in our eye, nearly due west, stood +out Long's Peak, James's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, at first small in +size, but momently swelling in dimensions; while, far to the north, +were just discernible the more lofty summits of Mount Hooker and Mount +Brown. Lying between Mount James and the Spanish Peaks, inclining to +their eastern slope, lay the green plateau, not yet visible, where we +were to land. Its position was carefully pointed out to Mr. Bonflon and +myself by Mr. De Aery, but we strained our eyes and used our glasses in +vain. No strength of sight could penetrate the clouds and haze which +covered the body of the mountains, and hid the earth, with the +exception of those lofty silver pinnacles, from our view. + +Though these high peaks, like distant masts at sea, were first seen +early in the day, the meridian of noon overtook us before we came up +with them. At length, in increasing numbers and a thousand diversified +shapes, they lay spread out before us, and soon thereafter were +directly under our feet. Our magical machine, coming to a halt, +fluttered like a great bird above them, and gave us an opportunity, +such as probably had never been enjoyed by voyagers before, to spy out +their beauty, their mystery, and their strength. + +On nearing the mountains, we had left behind us the twilight of the +void, and come again into the full flood of day. This enabled the sight +to rest upon the scene with pleasure, to examine its diversified +splendors, and penetrate its chasms and gorges, otherwise inaccessible +to man. But to describe them is impossible. Broad fields of sparkling +snow, pyramids of ice, wide fissures shining like steel +mirrors,--produced by some unimaginable convulsion, possibly a thousand +or ten thousand years ago, and large enough to ingulf a city,--with +black humps or spires of granite here and there projecting through the +white; while afar down the rocky sides of interminable swells and +precipices came up a sound of water and a blush of green, betokening +the direction in which we were to look for the generative body of +Mother Earth; all these, and much more which I cannot stop to name, +were grouped in the rough, but magnificent landscape before us. + +No cabin could confine me at such a time as this. I stood out on the +upper deck in the extreme bow of the boat; and from an unobstructed +point of view, nearly over the figure-head, in the very abandonment of +daring, feasted my senses on the wondrous glories of this +mountain-scene of enchantment. + +De Aery was at the helm. But I have scarcely introduced this +extraordinary gentleman to the reader. He was a tall, black-haired, +mercurial Frenchman, with an eye like a falcon, who, with only an +occasional Gallicism purposely indulged in, spoke American like a +native. I had every confidence in his prudence and skill in the +management of his craft; and still, as I perceived that we were +gradually settling down in the direction of the loftiest of those +snow-peaks, until scarcely fifty feet intervened between us and its +round, polished brow, to all appearance as solid as feldspar, I raised +my voice and accosted him. + +"Halloo! Captain!" said I, "are you intending to land us on this +Atlas-top?" + +"_Effectivement_," replied he. "_Mon Dieu!_ B----, come here." + +I went to him. + +"This," said he, "is the very Old Man of the Mountain. I intend to +plant the stars and stripes in the centre of his bald head." + +"Capital!" replied I. "But can you achieve it safely?" + +"Yes. I can manage my bird with as much ease as a pigeon poises himself +on his wings, or an Indian steers his canoe. See! we are approaching +the crown of the pinnacle." + +I watched the experiment with an interest not unmingled with fear. He +held in one hand a handsome American flag, of moderate size, and +occasionally, with a slight motion of his arm, and a glance of pride, +spread out its silken folds on the motionless air. Gradually the +"Flying Cloud," under his skilful hands, closed upon the bleak, +glittering summit, which, rounding off like the bald head of some +venerable giant, was, at its apex, scarcely ten feet in diameter. + +"No eagle, even, has ever set his foot here," said De Aery. "There is +not a track, or feather, or mark of any living thing to be seen. The +'Flying Cloud' will be the first to explore many mysteries and to +explode others. Not even do the winds reach this height. Boreas and the +bird of Jove,--I will vanquish them both. I will step out upon that icy +peak." + +"No, no, Captain," I expostulated. "You might lose your foothold and +perish." + +"Not at all," rejoined he, with a laugh. "I am as sure-footed as a +goat. But if you think it risky, Monsieur, I forbear. But the snow +looks solid as adamant. I fear I shall not be able to erect this flag, +unless I have a firm spot for my feet." + +By this time our craft had reached a proper position,--her stern +alongside and almost in contact with the jutting peak,--to answer the +ambitious purpose of the Frenchman. Raising the flag of the Republic in +his hand, he requested us all to do it proper honor,--to salute it with +a "three times three,"--as he should succeed in securing it in its +place. Cautiously extending the staff, he brought it in contact with +the snow, and gave it several light blows, for the purpose of +ascertaining its solidity. It seemed of almost icy texture, and emitted +a half-sharp and half-muffled sound in reply. Then, elevating the +standard aloft in both hands, he brought it down with force, as the +farmer urges a stake into the ground; not doubting, as would seem, that +a succession of such blows would be needed in order to achieve his +purpose. + +A single stroke of the shaft, however, proved more than enough. To the +surprise and dismay of us all, the firm ringing surface turned out but +a shell, and all beneath, a loose bed of sparkling snow-crystals, like +white sand. The flag sunk down and disappeared, and De Aery, losing his +balance, plunged over and went with it. + +We gazed after him in speechless horror. Before any one of us had +sufficiently recovered himself to speak, we were startled by a dull +sound, like a rushing wind, or distant, rumbling thunder; and an +immense mass of snow, many hundred feet in depth, and covering a third +of the cone, parted from its place, and, like a great, foaming wave, +broken and shapeless, rushed down the mountain's side. For the moment, +all eyes were fixed upon it. At first, it swept on without cohering, +like a cataract of sand; but, on coming in contact with the moister +snow below, it formed into a thousand balls and masses, some rolling +and some sliding, but each gathering bulk and velocity as it went. + +By the aid of our glasses we were able to sweep the rough slopes and +precipitous descents below, to the distance of many miles; and, +forgetting De Aery, we watched the development of the phenomenon with +terror. The larger slides gradually absorbed the smaller ones, as +common fish are swallowed by sharks; but those which remained, fattened +and expanded by what they fed on, assumed enormous dimensions. Choosing +different paths, they pursued their course in smoking tracks of +devastation. Rocks, precipices, forests, furnished no obstruction. +Roaring, crashing onward, as though Mars or the Sun had opened its +batteries upon us, those sliding, whirling worlds of snow swept through +valleys large enough to have furnished sites for cities, without a +check, and bore down or over-leaped all obstacles, as easily as a man +would walk over an ant-hill, or some hollow where a toad had burrowed. +Finally they were lost to sight, passing behind intervening spurs or +ridges of the mountain, or becoming hidden in the cloud-mists which lay +heavily about its base; but the sound continued to roll back upon us +for some time, like the roar of distant artillery. I could no longer +wonder at the terror with which the cry of an avalanche is said to fill +the dwellers among the Alps. + +As this absorbing pageant of the mountains disappeared, our thoughts +reverted to De Aery. Had he been carried away by the snow-slip? or was +his mangled corse below us among the black crags laid bare by that +catastrophe? Turning my gaze beneath, I discovered, far down, many +hundred feet, a moving object, scarcely bigger than a fly, and, on +bringing my glass to bear upon it, perceived that it was the Frenchman. +He was standing on a bare rib of rock, with his flag still in his hand, +and apparently unharmed. Waving the ensign to attract our attention, at +the same time he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs. But his +voice scarcely reached us, and probably would not alone have attracted +our notice. We replied with encouraging cheers; and the "three times +three," which we had intended for the American eagle, was given on the +spot to De Aery. + +But how to rescue him from his perilous condition was indeed a serious +question. The "Flying Cloud," it was obvious, with her great size and +spreading pinions, could not venture among those ticklish quicksands, +whose insecure foundations had just been so strikingly illustrated +before us. Indeed, the slightest jar might precipitate another fall of +snow, and bury the object of our solicitude five hundred feet deep in +its bosom. The sagacity of Mr. Bonflon relieved us from our dilemma. He +hoisted out the small car or tender, and, letting it down with great +care and precision, safely accomplished the object. In the space of +half an hour, De Aery, without a scratch, and, like a gallant Gaul, +rather proud of his adventure than frightened at it, was again restored +to our arms. + +Drawing off from our dangerous proximity to the "Old Man of the +Mountain," which had so nearly proved fatal to at least one of our +number, but astonished beyond measure at the novelty of our experiences +and the grandeur of the scenes we had witnessed, we retraced our course +for a short distance, and, gradually lessening the interval between us +and the earth, soon had the satisfaction of hearing the cry of "Land, +ho!" from the look-out man. The valley was in sight where we were to +take in water and enjoy a little picnic on the green grass, ere the +form and smell of Mother Earth, with her homely but blessed realities, +should be quite forgotten. + +We effected our landing in complete safety. The spot was a little, +luxurious nook among the lesser hills, with few trees, but full of wild +flowers, wild fruits, and wild grasses. Everything about it was wild, +but cheering and charming, especially to air-wanderers like us. The +foot of the white hunter, or even of the roving Indian, had perhaps +never visited it, nor foraging-parties of the buffalo or deer, for we +saw no signs of them; but birds of varied plumage and song, and troops +of squirrels, with footprints here and there of the grizzly bear, and a +drove of wild turkeys, with red heads aloft, rushing over an eminence +at our left as we approached, and an occasional whir of a rattlesnake +at our feet, sufficiently indicated the kind of denizens by which the +plateau was inhabited. + +Here, on the rich sward and delicate mosses, under the shadow of some +willows, we spread out our repast by the side of a clear +mountain-spring; and, to say nothing of old Otard and Schiedam +Schnapps, opened some bottles of Sparkling Catawba, and old Jersey +Champagne, of a remote vintage, which I have now quite forgotten. With +the flow of these beverages flowed our speech, in jovial words and +songs and raillery enough, if not in wit. De Aery, as having by a +hair's breadth just escaped with his life, and in virtue of his +extraordinary feat in leaping five hundred feet or more through a bank +of snow, now that the danger was over, was made the butt of much +pleasantry, which he bore with his usual equanimity and grace. + +When these arrowy flights at the expense of the light-hearted Frenchman +had exhausted themselves, I took occasion to inquire of him what his +sensations were during his brief burial. He replied as follows:-- + +"I thought nothing at all about it. I remember feeling chagrined +because I was making a failure, and clung tight to my flag, fearing to +lose that too. _Mon Dieu!_ It might be expected that one would feel +cold, buried up in ice; but such was not the case. I was hot. The snow +burned my face, as it came in contact with it. As to the ride, it was +pleasant enough, but rather rapid and perplexing to the breath. It was +like sinking into a pit of quicksand, where everything gives way below +one, as though the bottom of the world had fallen out. There was the +struggle of a moment to keep the fine snow out of my mouth and +nostrils, as I drew in my breath, and the next instant my feet came in +contact with the solid rock, where you discovered me. The magnificent +avalanche you describe I know nothing about. I neither heard nor saw +anything of it, only as I afterward examined the marks it had left +behind it. This leads me to suppose that I was a good deal confused at +the time, though I was not aware of it. Indeed, I have an impression of +seeming to turn somersets in my descent, and this may account for it. +But, for the honor of France, I saved my adopted country's flag." + +High-minded Gaul! We all praised and honored him, and comforted him for +his disappointment. It was a noble attempt he had made, to nail the +American banner to the head of Mount James, impelled by the loftiest of +motives,--and, like many others of its kind, had for the present +failed. At some other time he might prove more successful; or some +other might achieve the object in his place, and so appropriate his +laurels; but no one would be likely to excel him in his flying leap. In +this he had distanced even the famous traveller at Rhodes. + +Having given a couple of hours to this species of recreation, we +weighed anchor, and again got under way. Slowly and smoothly, without a +ripple or a jar, we ascended through the blue ether to our former +altitude, and floated off over those majestic mountain-tops, toward the +west. Loath to part from scenes of such impressive beauty,--scenes, +alone paralleled in our recollection by fabulous tales of Oriental +enchantment,--we gazed behind us at those flashing crests of alabaster, +until they grew small in the distance, and finally were wholly lost to +our sight. With them disappeared the last vestige of the solid earth, +and we were again afloat in space. + +The following night and day were passed like their predecessors. +Another night came, and we were over the eastern bound of the State of +California. A few hours more, without accident, would terminate our +remarkable voyage, and set us down in the city of San Francisco. All of +us were brimming high with hope. Though we did not anticipate reaching +the station before one or two o'clock in the morning, and probably +should not disembark before dawn, we were loath to retire to rest. It +was near midnight before all of us were in our berths. + +But when at length there, I found it impossible to sleep. The +excitement attendant on the beginning of the trip seemed to have +returned on me with a double force. I listened for some sound to +relieve the awful stillness which, like the wing of Death, seemed to +have settled over the "Flying Cloud"; but there was no soughing of the +wind, as at sea, and no noise to be heard, save the monotonous movement +of the engine and the paddle-wheels; and this, so evenly did they play, +was rather a motion than a sound. + +This period of restlessness was succeeded by one of strange +bewilderment, which might have been sleep, or might not Rapidly +changing scenes and fantastic figures, some of them beautiful and some +horrible, flitted before me like a dissolving panorama. A band, as +though of steel wire, seemed to encircle my brain, and to compress it +closer and closer; and the spine, for its whole length, felt as though +subjected to a like crushing pressure. + +How long this state of hallucination continued I have no means of +knowing. From it, by a great effort, I suddenly aroused myself, and +returned to my proper senses. Where I was, and all the extraordinary +events of the last few days, were clear in my recollection. But I was +weighed down with weakness, and found, on attempting to speak, that I +had no voice. + +Suspecting that I had been stricken by some terrible disease, I +attempted to rise; and, loath to disturb any of my fellow-travellers, +undertook to crawl out upon the upper deck. This, after a good deal of +effort, I accomplished. Lying, therefore,--I could not stand,--I prayed +for a breath of air to relieve my hot and oppressed brow; but in vain. +The atmosphere seemed gone. Chill and dark, the heavens spread out +above me without a twinkle or a smile. The full-moon was there, and +there was no cloud or haze to obscure her light; but she did not shine. +Her white, rayless face was a mockery to the night. The same was true +of the stars. The dazzling canopy was faded out, and Cygnus and the +Great Bear were subdued to pallid points, like patches of white-gray +paper stuck upon a wall. + +Floating by the side of the "Flying Cloud," and nearly of her size, I +discovered a dark, irregular object, and dragged myself to the edge of +the deck to investigate it more closely. The two came together, but +without damage or friction. They touched and parted, like substances +nearly at rest in still water. I put out my hand on the strange +visitor, and received a pretty severe shock, as though I had been +subjected to the action of an electric battery. At the same time, a +light, bluish flame ran over its surface, showing me more accurately +its form and dimensions. To the touch, it was solid and cold, like iron +or granite. I pressed upon it, and it yielded like a floating dish. I +tried to break off a fragment, but was unable to separate so much as a +scale. + +A moment's reflection convinced me of the nature of this apparent +island in the air. It was an immense aerolite; and with this conviction +came the solution of my own painful state. We had unconsciously passed +beyond the controlling power of the earth's gravitation, into that +region of the upper atmosphere, where, science informs us, these +meteoric stones float in equilibrium, until some accidental impulse +throws them from their balance, when they are precipitated to the +surface of the earth. I must be dying for lack of air. And the man at +the helm, where was he? He must have fallen asleep, and left our vessel +to her own buoyant fancies. And my companions! Bonflon! De Aery! All +ere this might have perished, and the "Flying Cloud," aside from +myself, be bearing into these upper altitudes nothing but a load of +death. + +Terror-struck, I dragged myself, with all the speed I could accomplish, +to the stern. There sat the helmsman at his post, but asleep or +insensible. I shook him, but he gave no signs of life. I shouted with +what little strength I had, but in vain. + +"Wake up! wake up!" I cried, "or we are lost!" + +At length he opened his eyes, but did not move. + +"Wake up!" I screamed again. "Breakers ahead, and worse. You have let +the craft run wild. We are above our level. We are all dying for lack +of air." + +"Oh, let me sleep!" he murmured. "I must sleep a little while longer. +It can't--can't be morning yet." + +By this time, fright, or the necessity of the occasion, was renewing my +strength. + +"Dick!" I shouted in his ear, "Dick, you scoundrel! you will murder us +all. Do your duty, or I will shoot you!" + +With this I discharged a barrel of my revolver above his head, which, +like my voice in my efforts at hallooing, sounded only as a faint echo +of itself, but, nevertheless, proved sufficient to give his dormant +faculties a shock. He started up, and, though still but half-conscious, +took the helm and gave it the direction I bade him. + +From him I hastened to the engineer, whom I found in a like state of +insensibility. I succeeded in arousing him; but it was necessary that +he should be made to comprehend the difficulties of our +situation,--that our craft, water-logged as it were, would float +forever where she was, for all anybody could say to the contrary, until +forced down by the power of the engine alone to lower and life-giving +atmospheric planes. To get him to understand this was not so easy. But +I succeeded in part, and, in my anxiety for my friends, rushed below to +look after their condition. + +As I anticipated, I found every one of them in a state of incipient +asphyxia. But the "Flying Cloud" was already descending into denser +air. Oxygen and pressure were performing their mystic work; and within +half an hour I had the pleasure of seeing them all restored to +consciousness and rapidly returning strength. But the renewed lights +exposed a sight almost too frightful to mention. Every man of us was +crimson from escaped blood, which seemed to have oozed forth, like a +pale-red dew, from every pore of our bodies. + +Messrs. Bonflon and De Aery, when they came to realize the danger from +which we had so narrowly escaped, were nearly dumb with horror. The +lively Frenchman exhibited a sensibility which the extremity of his +single peril, a day or two before, had failed to call up. He wept +aloud. Mr. Bonflon was circumspect and thoughtful. He did not lose his +Yankee balance; but both of them, each in his own way, overwhelmed me +with expressions of obligation. + +But the dangers of this dreadful night--a night which can never pass +from my recollection--were not yet over. We were all gathered in the +main cabin, congratulating each other, next after our escape, on our +rapidly returning strength,--happy in the thought that our trip out, +though sprinkled with danger, was so near a prosperous completion, and +almost momently expecting to hear the stroke of the bell which should +announce to us that the red light to designate our place of landing was +in sight, when, instead of the silver ring of this messenger of peace, +we were startled and horrified by an alarm of fire. + +Bonflon and De Aery rushed to the engine-room. A cloud of smoke poured +out from the door by which they disappeared. They were gone only for a +moment; for no man could remain in the hell of flames and vapors into +which they ventured and live. They came out dragging with them the +half-suffocated, scorched, and blazing engineer. How the accident +occurred, it was impossible to divine and useless to inquire. Closing +the door tightly after them to confine the flames, where confinement, +except for the briefest period, among matter so combustible, and +partitions scarcely more formidable than those of a paper bandbox, was +clearly impossible, they threw the burning engineer into our arms, and +themselves took the management of the craft. + +De Aery, in this crisis, rose from the man to the hero, almost to a +demigod. His orders rung through the startled air clear and round like +the voice of a golden bell. Bonflon seconded him with coolness and +decision. With us a moment sufficed to extinguish the burning garments +of the engineer; but by that time the flames had burst from the +engine-room, and that part of the beautiful boat was a ragged, +crackling ruin. + +Fleeing to the upper deck, and taking refuge in the bow, we became +sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful +rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level, +on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in +our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful +was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the +dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of rest! +But if it were possible to escape the flames, it was clear enough that +we must be dashed in pieces against the solid earth. + +De Aery was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to +great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to +control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played +about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke +through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething +hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had +perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the +furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet. + +"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he +shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the +flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon +and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our +number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say +which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface +of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and +the hazard they most dreaded. + +The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely +attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the +whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass +of surging fire. The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight, +to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San +Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid +illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than +astronomer has ever put on record. + +But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable +from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from +bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing +upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the +time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground, +served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser +lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most +fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we +struck in water instead of on the land. + +Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between +us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half +suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that +awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves +submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again +by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air. The flood of +fire in which we had descended was instantly extinguished; and we awoke +to a sense of our possible safety in darkness rendered doubly profound +by the contrast. + +Daylight was near at hand. By a careful adjustment of our weights we +kept the balloon from rolling, and sustained ourselves above the water +among the netting. As morning came, we discovered we had landed in a +small lake, hardly large enough to be dignified with the name, but +obviously of considerable depth. The shore was not distant: and as the +day was sultry, with a little grateful labor at swimming and towing, on +the part of a few of us, we soon reached it. There we examined into +each other's condition. Scarce one of us but was able to show damage by +fire, or from too rough contact with the fragments of the "Flying +Cloud," which preceded us in our plunge into the lake. But no bones +were broken, and no one badly flayed. The case of the engineer was the +worst; but even he was able to keep upon his feet, and pronounced in no +danger. + +No hut or field or sign of inhabitants was to be seen. With mixed +feelings, in which, for the present at least, the sense of personal +safety triumphed over all regrets, even with Messrs. Bonflon and De +Aery, at the shipwreck of so many brilliant hopes, we scuttled that +part of our craft still afloat, and sunk it in the lake; and with weary +footsteps, but unobstructed with baggage, as near as we could determine +by the aid of a compass, took the direction toward San Francisco. A +couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Senor Jose Dianza, who +received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of +robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us +on to the city of the land of gold. + +It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return. +They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous +transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus +route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our +absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and +some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their +recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing +gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly +reappeared upon the stage of action. + +We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should +remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought +a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which +covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too +good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so +near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be +suppressed. Hence, conquering my repugnance, I have decided, on my own +responsibility, to give these interesting and valuable particulars to +the world. + + + * * * * * + +DOG-TALK. + + +Exactly,--Dog-Talk. And I sit down to write some of it out, in the +middle of this pleasant month of May, lest, peradventure, if I postpone +my task for a few weeks longer, I may fall in with my memories some +time in the raging days of the dog-star, when the overwhelming sense of +dog, in which, for the true working out of these memories, I must first +dip my mind, may debar me from enjoying to the fullest extent the +bounteous tap of Croton water which tinkles with such rivulet chiming +from the silver (German) faucet into the marble (wash-hand) basin with +which one side of my apartment is adorned. Hydrophobia is one thing, +and hydrophobiaephobia is another. + +Although but the mid-time of May, as I have said, the thermometer is +reported at something not far short of eighty degrees, and that in as +much shade as can possibly be had in the street in which I write, which +is a brick street of New York, with one catalpa-tree in it,--a poor, +vegetable fakir, standing on his one leg at a distance of about three +blocks from "our corner," and sprawling out all round with his +shrivelled hands, as if to catch the passing robe of some rambling +breath of fresh air. With a trustful hope that this statement may be +accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently +inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my +memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface. + +I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not +prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of +man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more +voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow, +Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of +others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from +the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of +him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as +tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious +things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be +necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man. + +Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark, +so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more +indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally +referred to above. Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for +instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror, +and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not +one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man, +excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a +beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is. +Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the +"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us +"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would +make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything +very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing +things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is +wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles +beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs +uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands. + +Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot +concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called +reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I +think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals +stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and +master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his +nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his +ribs. Fine as the line may appear which separates instinct from the +divine gift of reason, we must see that progress, an essential +consequence of the latter, is denied to the former. It is quite +possible that the dogs which accompanied the first mariner in the first +argosy were educated to fetch and carry, or were even so far +accomplished as to sit up and beg; and it is but little more their +descendants can do at the present day. But what of Man, who weathered +safely the storm of storms in that same Ark? Compare that venerated +bark, as imagined by us from traditionary description, with the least +eligible of the ferry-boats which scud across our crowded rivers, and +we have answer enough for the present, so far as progress is concerned. + +Well, if Dog has never invented so much even as a patent rat-trap,--a +thing, you see, that might have saved him some labor,--if he persists +in disregarding the majesty of Fashion, and continues to move about in +society with the same kind of coat on his back as that worn by his +first ancestor, hatless, disaffected of shoes, and totally obtuse to +the amenity of an umbrella,--if, in fact, his only approach to +humanity, as distinguished by apparel, is his occasional adoption of a +collar precisely similar in general effect to those in which Fashion, +empress of Broadway and of a great many other ways, condemns her +wretched votaries to partial strangulation,--well, say I again, in +spite of all this, Dog is prime company. Intimately associated as I +have been from earliest boyhood with many excellent fellows of the +family, from social communion with which I am at present debarred only +by the direful necessity of dwelling in lodgings,--a necessity which, +if distasteful to Man, to Dog, oh, how fatal!--bound, I may say, as I +was for years, not by straps and chains only, but by ties of confident +friendship also, to canine comrades possessing the purest elements of +worth and humor, it is to me a task not altogether devoid of interest +to fall back on such memories as may enable me to chronicle a few +reminiscences of the nobilities and eccentricities of the race. + +Before I discourse of individual dogs of the present century, however, +with whom I have had the pleasure of being personally acquainted, let +me reproduce the following short tale of a dog from an old French +volume,--a tome fittingly adorned with ears of that noble animal +innumerable. + +Persimel St. Remi was a gentleman of fortune, whose income was derived +principally from large rented farms, the dues arising from which he +sometimes collected himself, in preference to intrusting that important +duty to a steward or agent. On his excursions for that purpose, he was +generally accompanied by a favorite little spaniel, of a kind too small +to be of any service to him as an escort, but inestimable for his +qualities as a companion. One day M. St. Remi had ridden a long way to +collect certain sums of money due him in arrears of rent, but which he +had little expectation of being able to obtain without further trouble. +To his agreeable surprise, however, his tenants paid him the whole +arrears,--an event so unexpected that he could not conceal his +exultation as he clinked the heavy bag of money on the pommel of his +saddle, when cordially taking leave of his farmers. Merle--that was the +little dog's name--was equally delighted; for his moods were always +regulated by those of his master,--such is the mysterious sympathy +between Dog and us; and ever as his master laughed cheerily to the +chink of the gold, on his homeward ride, Merle barked and bounded +alongside of him, clearly understanding that gold is a thing to be +laughed _with_ and not _at_, and that it is no laughing matter to be +without it. This is what the old French writer asserts respecting the +inward sentiments of that small dog. How he arrived at a knowledge of +them, I know not, nor is it any business of mine. Well, Persimel St. +Remi galloped on and on, until they reached the way-side well about +halfway home,--the old stone trough, with the water sparkling into it +from the grotesque spout carved out of the rock. Here he pulled bridle +to water his horse, refreshed him further by slackening the girths of +the saddle, and, unstrapping the bag of gold which was attached to the +holsters, he placed it by his side on the rock, while he splashed his +hands and face in the cool water. By-and-by he drew up the girths, +mounted his horse dreamily, for he was a man of contemplative moods, +and rode away from the way-side well, forgetful of his treasure, which +lay temptingly on the flat rock, ready to the hand of the first comer. +Not so his faithful dog, who, having in vain tried to lift the bag, +which was too heavy for him, ran swiftly after the rider, whose +attention he strove to arouse by barking violently, and careering round +and round the horse when he slackened his pace. Failing thus to attract +notice, he went so far in his zeal as to bite the horse pretty severely +in the fetlock, which caused him to swerve on one side, and wake up his +master to a vague sense of something wrong, the first idea that +occurred to him being that his dog had gone mad. Cases of hydrophobia +had lately occurred in the neighborhood, and St. Remi was convinced of +the seizure by it of his poor dog when they reached the brook which +flowed across the road. Instead of luxuriating and drinking in this, as +he usually did, the spaniel circled away to where it narrowed, and +leaped across it in his run. Then St. Remi, drawing a pistol from his +holsters, fired at and shot his faithful companion, averting his eyes +as he touched the fatal trigger, and galloping rapidly away from the +death-cry that smote upon his ear; and, as he dashed the spurs into his +reeking horse, he invoked maledictions on the money which was the cause +of this unfortunate journey. The money! but where was it? Suddenly he +pulled up his harassed steed, and the unhappy truth flashed upon him: +he had left his treasure by the way-side well, and had shot his +faithful dog for trying to remind him of it. Riding back to the well +with mad speed, he found by traces of blood upon the path that the poor +spaniel had dragged himself thither again to guard his master's gold to +the last. There he found him, stretched out beside the bag of money, +with just strength enough left to raise his head towards his master, +with a look of forgiveness, ere he died. + +The chronicler does not state what M. St. Remi did with all that +money,--though we may be safe in supposing that he very exactly knew; +but we would fain hope that he expended a moiety of it in founding a +retreat for decayed dogs, as a monument to the poor little spaniel so +faithful to him in life and in death. + +Sporting dogs,--the setter, the pointer, the fox-hound, and all the +several varieties of hound, have had their historians, from Dame +Juliana Berners to Peter Beckford, and that more recent Peter whose +patronymic was Hawker; while, on our side of the Atlantic, the late +"Frank Forester" has reduced kennel-practice to a system from which the +Nimrod of the ramrod may not profitably depart. Apart from history, +however, and from didactic argument, the individual trails of dogs +remarkable in their day have but too rarely been recorded. Certainly +the shepherd's colley has been admirably individualized by the Ettrick +Shepherd; but many a terrier--"a fellow of infinite fancy"--has passed +through the world's worry without ever seeing his name in +print,--unless, indeed, he happened to have fallen among thieves, and +found himself lamp-posted accordingly,--has passed the grizzle-muzzle +period of doghood unbiographied, and gone down to his last burrow +unsung. + +Among the regrets with which we are saddled for our omissions, not the +least of mine is now galling me for having neglected to reduce to +writing, on the spot, curious facts which fell under my immediate +notice in the course of many years' companionship with a somewhat +miscellaneous assortment of canine friends,-- + + "The little dogs and all, + Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart." + +Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring together in this paper such +stray reminiscences of doggery in general as may occur to me while I +write, illustrating the subject, as I proceed, with occasional passages +from the careers, of humble, but eccentric individuals of the race. + +Extinction has been the fate of some varieties of the dog, which have +been either superseded by the progress of machinery, or have gone to +decay in consequence of the annihilation of the animals for the chase +of which they were maintained. When there were wolves in the mosses and +caverns of Ireland, for example, there were wolf-dogs to hunt them. The +last wolf of that country--and _he_ was a wonder, from the then rarity +of the animal--was killed about one hundred and fifty years ago; and +although the breed of hound then known as the Irish wolf-dog--one of +the largest, noblest, and most courageous of the canine race--was kept +up to some extent for nearly a century later, we doubt much whether a +single pure specimen of the variety is now in existence; unless, +indeed, it may so happen that some _ultimus Romanorum_ of the tribe +still licks his patrician chops in the kennels of the Marquis of Sligo, +in the possession of which family the last litter was many years ago +supposed to be. + +Reverting to times when I was a boy, I remember me of a generation of +bandy-legged, foxy little curs, long of body, short of limb, tight of +skin, and "scant of breath," which were regarded as the legitimate +descendants of a superseded class,--the Turnspit of good old times. The +daily round of duty of that useful _aide-de-cuisine_ transpired in the +revolution of a wheel, along the monotonous journey of which he +cantered, as a squirrel does in his rolling cage, keeping in motion, by +his professional exertions, the wheels and spinners of the spit upon +which the joint was kept turning before the fire. The tight skin of +this ugly dog was evidently a provision of Nature to secure him from +entanglement with the machinery amid which his business was conducted. +Had a Scotch terrier, for instance, whiskered and plumed, descended +from his own more aristocratic circle to disport himself in that where +turnspit was the principal mover,--the kitchen-wheel,--he might have +found himself cogged, and caught up, and spitted, and associated +promiscuously with leg of mutton as roasted hare; in which capacity he +might eventually have been eaten with currant-jelly and considerable +relish, receiving more honor, perhaps, "in that connection," than had +ever in his lifetime been lavished on him as a member of society. + +But Turnspit's profession is a thing of the past, his very existence a +myth. The roasting-jack, with a wind-up weight by which the spit was +turned, cut him out first of all; other inventions further diminished +his importance. But the tea-kettle--which he somewhat resembled in +figure, by-the-by--scalded him clean off the face of creation; for the +bright steam-engine, attached nowadays to the kitchens of our principal +hotels, has given a new turn to affairs, ruling the roast after a +fashion that sets back old Turnspit into the remotest corner under the +backstairs of the Dark Ages. I have alluded to his alleged descendants, +as pointed out to my observation in boyhood; but they were an effete +and degenerate race, purposeless, and wallowing much with the pigs, +whom their grandsires would have recognized only to roast. + +In one instance only, and that on this side of the Atlantic, do I +remember having been introduced to any dog whose profession was at all +analogous to that of the turnspit of other days. Falling into +conversation with an old Dutch-Yankee farmer, in a remote and very +rural district, I made some remarks about his dog, which was a very +large, heavy one, of that no-particular-kind happily classified by the +comprehensive natural philosophers of the barn-floor as "yellow dog." +Farmer assured me that this fine fellow--whose name I am ashamed to say +I have forgotten--did all the churning of the farm-dairy by imparting +his motive power to a wheel. This piece of ingenuity, Farmer informed +me, was originally and exclusively an inspiration from the intellect +which animated his, Farmer's, proper clod; nor was he greatly +exhilarated when I narrated to him the tradition of the turnspit, whose +memory, I regret to record, he spurned as that of a "mean cuss," +destitute of that poetry which dwelleth in the pastoral associations of +the dairy. + +Although not strictly in connection with the subject of this article, I +will here relate a story told to me, on the same occasion, by that old +farmer, because it struck me as being rather a good one, and is not +particularly long. + +Seeing that I took notice of a smock-frocked rustic employed in +foddering the cattle,--a rustic whose legs and accent were to me +exclusively reminiscent of the pleasant roads and lanes of cheery +Somersetshire,--Farmer informed me that he was a newish importation, +having made his appearance about there early in the previous winter. +While snow, of such quality and in such quantity as they have it in +that region, was yet a novelty to the bumpkin, he was dispatched on +horseback, one day, to the neighboring village, strict instructions +being given him to ride carefully in the middle of the track, as, +treading in the deep snow, the horse might "ball,"--an expression +applied to taking up snow in the hollow of the hoof, which causes the +animal to stumble. An unusually long time elapsed before the messenger +made his appearance from his mission, and then he was seen making his +way painfully through the snow, leading the horse after him by the +bridle. + +"What's wrong now?" inquired Farmer, as he glanced at the animal's +knees; "been down, I guess; did Old Horse ball?" + +"Noa," replied Bumpkin, "a didn't joost bawl, but a groonted +consoomedly every toime a coom down. Oi thowt a wur a-gwoan to bawl the +last toime we coom down together, and zo oi joost stayed down and +walked 'im whoam." + +When doggy men beyond ocean talk about a terrier, they usually +pronounce it _tarrier_, and not _terrier_, as we mostly call him on +this bank of the Atlantic. There is no authority for the former +pronunciation, that I know of, beyond usage, which, however, is much +taken as a standard in England. Thus, an English merchant will talk to +you about his _clarks_, an American about his _clurks_. The French word +_terrier_--derived, of course, from _terre_--signifies not only the +dog, but a burrow in the earth; a kind of retreat in which such dogs +are supposed to pass a portion of their existence, occupied in the +subterrene branches of the chase. It means, also, a land-roll or +register. In Lower Canada, which is essentially France, I recollect the +label, _"Papier Terrier,"_ upon the door of a public-land-office. A +friend of mine, clandestinely and under cover of darkness, removed the +label, substituting for it a scurrilous one setting forth "Pasteboard +Poodle," an announcement which did not appear to convey any particular +idea whatever to the unsettled mind of the haggard provincial _chef du +bureau_, as it flashed upon him next morning in the light of the glad +young autumn day. But, reverting to pronunciation, _tare_-ier would, of +course, more correctly reverberate the sound of the French original +than either of the other usages, while it would possess the advantage +of conveying a suggestion of that proclivity for tearing, so +characteristic of the animal designated by the term. On this important +question the learned philologists wrangle. For my part, I stick to +_tarrier_, which comes "oncommon handy," as the horse-dealer hinted, +when reproved by the Cambridge student for reducing a noble animal +nearly to the level of a donkey by calling him "an 'oss." + +And of all the terrier tribe, there is no quainter little fellow than +he of the Island of Skye,--known to his friends and admirers as the +"Skye dog." This little animal, which, in length of spine, shortness of +legs, wildness of hair, and litheness of movement, resembles one of +those long, hirsute caterpillars oft-times to be observed by the happy +rambler in the country, as it promenades across his path, possesses +many distinctive traits, which separate him, in a manner, from Dog in +general, assimilating him somewhat, indeed, to the _ferce_, which find +in rapine and carnage the subsistence which Nature evidently has not +intended that they should realize in communion with man. The peculiar +odor of the fox is his, though in a mitigated degree. He loves to make +a lair under the bushes by tearing up the turf with his teeth and paws, +and to lie in it. He is of a shy and reserved disposition, and usually +more lively at night than by day. These are attributes of beasts of +prey. Unlike all other members of the terrier family, he cares nothing +about rats. He will sit down and bark in a tone of contempt at one +turned out before him in a close passage or room, declining, in fact, +to recognize rats as game, unless entered at them while very young. I +speak only of the pure, unmixed Isle-of-Skye dog, or "tassel terrier," +as he is sometimes called by rabbit-hunters,--a breed difficult to +obtain in perfection, and one which is particularly scarce in this +country. The proper game or quarry of this animal is the otter, which +he does not hesitate to follow into his very burrow in the river-banks; +nor is he afraid to attack one nearly double his size. + +Having, time after time, possessed several of these dogs, verified as +being derived from the best stock on the island, from which their +parents--who understood no language but Gaelic--were brought direct, I +have noted some of their odd, whimsical ways, a few of which I will +illustrate, taking for my exponent one very remarkable little fellow +who was a genuine type of his kind. + +This animal was one of the smallest of his family, and of a color +uncommon among them; for they are mostly either of a yellowish dun, or +of that slaty mouse-color known among dog-fanciers as "blue,"--a tint, +by the way, particularly appropriate for a dog of Skye. Sometimes they +are black; but Sambo, better known to his familiars as Sam, was of a +sooty brindle, with a very dark muzzle, and eyes burning out like black +stars from the cloud of shaggy hair that mantled upon his brow. Next to +the shortness of his legs, the length of his body was one of the most +remarkable physical freaks I remember to have observed; neither of +these attributes, however, having a chance of notice in comparison with +the quantity and denseness of his long, soft hair,--for the coat of a +true Skye dog is fleecy, rather than wiry. It was the joint result of +the shortness of his legs and the length of his beard that the fatter +appendage continually swept the ground,--an inconvenience which I once +undertook to remedy by trimming it off short with scissors. No Turk +could have more indignantly resented the process than did that small +quadruped,--his Celtic feelings being so severely wounded by it, in +fact, that he abstained from sustenance for three days, putting himself +into moral sackcloth and ashes for that period by retiring into his +penitential cell under a chest of drawers. + +When quite a pup, hardly half-grown, he played a trick unaccountable to +me at this day as it was then. Sam had the run of the house, and he +availed himself of it. On going into the breakfast-room, one morning +early, I observed a singular phenomenon in connection with a large, +cold round of beef, which was the _piece de resistance_ on the table. +It was curious to behold a round of cold beef with a tail, which it +wagged, and feathered, and beckoned with, as if to say, "Come, eat me." +The tail was the tail of Sam, whose body was concealed far down in the +interior of the tower of beef, into which he had cut his way with great +perseverance and success. But the puzzle was, how he got there; for +there was no chair within reach of the table, and he was much too small +to have jumped up on it; while the theory of the servant, who +propounded that he must have climbed up by the table-cloth, tooth over +claw, was wild, and simply entitled to the contempt of any person aware +of the difference between dog and cat. There is but one acceptable +theory on the subject,--that he was down in the caverns of the beef, +_tail and all_, before it was brought up-stairs, and so escaped notice. + +Early in life, he contracted--from evil association, perhaps--a vulgar +trick of running after carriages and barking at the horses' heels, a +trick of which I in vain tried to break him. Once, when he was about a +year old, I took him up beside me into a high _caleche_, in which we +were going some distance. The moment the horse started, Sam jumped out +to have a bark at his heels, when, to my horror, the wheel of the +vehicle, in which there were three of us, went right over the middle of +his body, cutting him, apparently, in two; but he was up in a second, +and barking at heels and wheels for half a mile before we could pull up +and get him in again. This accident appeared to decide him in the +choice of a profession, for he devoted himself energetically, from that +hour, to the pursuit and baying-at of all manner of wheeled things +propelled by horse-power. + +A rat he would never touch, although I introduced him to one before he +was a year old; he manifested neither fear of the vermin, nor surprise +at it, but simply took no interest in it. He had much pleasure in +worrying cats; but that was owing, I fancy, to a sad discomfiture he +once met with from one. Walking through a suburb one day, with Sammy +trotting before me in dreamy mood, to which he was much given, a small, +but remarkably severe cat made a sudden and very fierce dash at him +from a cottage-door, taking him so completely aback, that he tumbled, +head over tail, into a deep, dirty pool of green, stagnant water, such +as is usually to be seen in the pleasure-grounds environing a +suburbo-Hibernian shanty. His appearance, on emerging from that +cesspool, was the reverse of majestic; but the incident gave him such +an idea on the subject of cats, that he always persecuted them +remorselessly from that day; nor did he ever again walk through a +suburb in any other frame of mind than a particularly wide-awake one, +and with his tail up. + +These dogs are curiously sensitive about their dignity, and sometimes +do not recover their elasticity of spirits for several days after +having undergone a process of correction. I recollect a singular +instance of this sensitiveness displayed by Sambo, in which he also +manifested a kind of inferential power wonderfully akin to reason. + +One morning, a tumult of dogs in the street drew him to the window, out +of which he looked by jumping on a chair, just as a troop of "curs of +low degree" tore past after a rather genteel-looking dog with a kettle +tied to his tail. They whirled rapidly by in a turmoil of dust, and +clink, and cur-dog yelp, but not so rapidly as to prevent Sam from +perceiving the terrible degradation to which a gentleman-dog had been +subjected. The sight had a visible effect on his spirits, for he +immediately became quite depressed as to tail and mind, a condition +which influenced him for a day or two, after which he again appeared +comparatively cheerful, and took his place in society with his +accustomed cautious conviviality. About a month after this, he was seen +coming very slowly along a lane which led up to the back of the +house,--a course hardly ever taken by him, as he was a parlor-dog, and +considered himself entitled to the freedom of the hall-door. Creeping +on in the shadow of the wall, he arrived with a very crest-fallen +aspect at the kitchen-door, where the cause of his ignominious approach +was made manifest to those who were watching him. _He had a kettle tied +to his tail_. Now this animal must surely have argued in his own mind, +that running away with a tin kettle is a sure way of attracting +undesirable notice; also, that proceeding through a public thoroughfare +with such an appendage is injudicious, and likely to result in +trouble. The circumstance of the runaway dog and the tumult after him +had left its impression upon him; and, travelling on his experience, he +rightly judged that an unpleasant affair of the kind might best be +hushed up by quietly making one's way home through back-lanes and the +kitchen-door. + +Skye terriers, when young, are apt to have a bad trick of gnawing and +tearing up articles of wearing apparel, particularly slippers, gaiters, +and such other things as are handy to toss up and catch. The fellow I +am writing about, when very young, destroyed sundry items of my +property in that way. He occupied a buffalo-robe in my room, and I +heard him very busy one night about something, but did not pay much +attention to it, as he was often lively at night. In the morning, +however, on looking for a pair of leather gaiters, I recognized the +remains of them, after much investigation, in a mass of pulp, to which +they had been reduced by the little beast as completely as they could +have been by the most experienced boa-constrictor. This habit I soon +broke him of, by chastising him with the remnants of the worried +article, when there were any left of substance sufficient to weave into +a scourge; nor did he ever recur to it when grown up, except once, +evidencing upon that occasion a remarkable instance of hereditary +instinct. + +Some fur caps, and other articles of winter wear, had been shaken out +of their summer quarters for the purpose of beating the moths out of +them and ventilating them generally, with a view to which they were +placed upon the sill of an open window. By some means Sam obtained +access to the room, where he was discovered in the act of mauling a +valuable otter-skin cap, which he had selected out of the whole +collection for his particular amusement. This dog had never seen an +otter; but his ancestors were noted for their game qualities in the +pursuit of that animal, and their speciality must have descended to +him. + +Eventually Sambo lost all his self-respect. He became discontented and +addicted to low company, dissipating with vile curs whose owners +enjoyed anything but unblemished reputations,--a fact first notified to +me by a clergyman of my acquaintance who knew him well. The worst of +this was, that he wore a collar with my name engraved on it in full; +and it was a long time before I had an opportunity of redeeming that +misused badge. About the very last time I ever saw him, I think, he +came home with one of his eyes gouged out, a split ear, and other marks +but too suggestive of the tavern brawl. I then deprived him of his +collar; soon after which he returned to his unsettled course of life, +and I never saw him again. + +The peculiar, otter-like form of these animals, and the buoyancy given +to them by their long, floating hair, endow them with great facility +for swimming; while the small compass into which they will pack in a +canoe or skiff makes them very useful companions to the sportsman whose +propensities are for paddling about "in the melancholy marshes." I made +an excellent retriever of one of mine by carrying in my pocket a +stuffed snipe, which I would make her hunt up and fetch out of the +weeds into which I had thrown it. She would go back half a mile and +fetch this, when I had hidden it ever so cunningly in a thicket by the +way-side. I also taught her to dive, by making her, while young, fetch +up a little bag of shot from the bottom of a bathtub in my room. By +throwing this into deeper water, gradually, she would soon go down to a +great depth for it. A charge of shot, tied up in a piece of white +kid-glove, with a "neck" left to hold on by, is a good object for the +purpose, as it is readily seen in deep water, and teaches the animal, +besides, to nip gingerly,--a valuable qualification in a retriever. I +remember one of these dogs fetching up from a considerable depth the +watch of a friend of mine, which had slipped out of his pocket into a +clear, still bay, over which he was loitering in his canoe. + +From times unrecorded until about twenty years ago, the Skye terrier +awaited confidently his summons to the sphere of rank and fashion. +About that time, the day, which, as the proverb figuratively informs +us, it falls to the lot of each individual of the canine race to enjoy, +began to shine out brightly for the dog of Skye, the first rays of it +that reached him being reflected from no less a luminary than the Crown +of Great Britain; for it was among the Scottish fancies of England's +Queen to adopt as a prime favorite this hitherto obscure quadruped. +Reckoned until that time--if anybody took the trouble of computing him +at all--as one of the ugliest of his race, he at once found himself +invested with all the attributes of a canine Adonis,--a very Admirable +Crichton of dogs,--perfect in intellect, face, figure, and the Hyperion +luxuriance of his copious mane and tail. In our youth, we knew--and +hated--a small, unmitigated snob of a dog called the Pug, a kind of +work-basket bull-dog, diminutive in size, dyspeptic in temper, +disagreeable to contemplate, and distressing to be obliged to admire. +One of the missions in society of Skye Terrier--who, when going before +a high wind, bears no unapt resemblance to a mop or a wisp of tow--was +to mop up Pug, and polish him off the hearth-rug of Fashion; a mission +which he appears to have at least partially accomplished. For now the +black muzzle of Pug is but seldom to be seen protruded from +carriage-window, biding his time for a snap at the first kid-gloved +finger that wags within range of his overlapping tusks in waving +salutation to his dowager mistress,--for, of the dowagers, above all, +he was one of the chronic calamities. Oftener, now, are the well-combed +whiskers and moustaches of Skye Dog to be recognized, dropping over the +drawing-room window-sill, or framed, like a portrait by Landseer, in +the panelled sash of the barouche, out of which he gazes pensively with +the impressive speculation of the true _flaneur_;--yea, for as men of +fashion are, so are their dogs; and so also of the fighting butcher, +who ever has his counterpart in the fighting bull-dog that glowers from +his gory stall. + +This exalted value of Skye Dog, in a commercial point of view, has, of +course, given rise to the manufacture of a spurious article; whence it +comes, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the animal palmed +off on the unsophisticated as genuine has nothing of the real stuff in +his constitution, but is simply a shallow imitation, compounded +according to prescription,--one part common cur-terrier to two parts +insignificant French poodle. And so I take leave of the Skye terrier +with a _caveat emptor_ to the purchaser who does not want to be sold +while he buys. + +The sense of humor must surely exist in individual dogs; otherwise it +would puzzle me to account for the singular practical jokes played off +by a water-spaniel once possessed by me. This individual, whose name +was Muff, was a rather small-sized one, of the pure Kentish blood; +liver-colored, with a white ring on his neck, and white paws; +close-curled, wicked-eyed, deep-chested, and remarkably powerful for +his size. Professionally a retriever,--and one of great promise, +although never fully tested with the gun,--his leisure hours, which +included every one in the twenty-four, were passed in the invention and +perpetration of curiously regulated mischiefs, with all of which he +took pains to combine an element of the ludicrous. His great spree was +to run amuck into a flock of small children coming out of school. If +there was a dirty crossing hard by, over which they had to pass, he +would wait until they had got half-way, and then, going through them +like a rocket, would chuck them down into the mud, right and left, as +he sped, keeping straight on in his career until far beyond range of +pedagogue's rod. His trick of making a sudden rush at the heels of +unsuspecting persons--and he invariably selected the right sort for his +purpose--might often have got me into ugly scrapes, but for the tact +with which he invariably ignored his master on such occasions. If +pursued, he never came near me for protection, but fled wildly on, +assuming the character of a dog "on the loose," belonging to nobody in +particular, and quite able to take care of himself. He had a decided +objection to street industrials in general, including Italian +organ-grinders and image-sellers. Once I saw him crouching stealthily +after one of the latter, who was passing through an open square with a +tray of casts upon his head; and before I could get up a whistle or +call him off by name, he had darted like a javelin at the legs of the +refugee, startling him so much out of the perpendicular that the +superstructure of plastic art came to the ground with a crash, +top-dressing the sterile soil of the Campus Martius with a coat of +manufactured plaster of Paris. Marius, blubbering over the shattered +chimney-stacks of Carthage, could not have displayed a more touching +classical spectacle than did that modern Roman lamenting to and fro +among the fragments of his collapsed martyrs and ruined saints; nor +were his pangs fully assuaged even by the application of the universal +panacea to an amount more than double the value of his lost wares. + +A great difficulty in training this dog was to bring him "to heel,"--a +still greater one to keep him there when he came. If thrashed into his +proper place in his master's wake, he always resented the indignity by +biting him pretty severely in the legs with a savage whimper. This he +invariably did on first leaving the house with me, sometimes nipping me +so severely, after we had gone a short distance, that I have hesitated +whether to go back for a pistol to shoot him, or forward for a +pennyworth of biscuit to buy him off. When told to "hie away," the +extravagance of his joy knew no bounds. He would have been as +invaluable to a tailor as was to the Parisian _decrotteur_ the poodle +instructed by him to sully with his paws the shoes of the passengers; +for, in the exuberance of his gladness, he but too often rent +insufferably the vestments of the hapless pedestrians in his line of +fire. Sometimes he would turn his assaults upon me, and, springing +suddenly at my "wide-awake," take it from my head, trailing it wildly +away through the mud, and dropping it in some place where it would be +difficult to get at it without wading. Then I would have to conciliate +him to fetch it,--a favor not to be obtained without much stratagem and +diplomacy. + +One of this dog's abnormal qualities was the bull-dog one of holding on +to his antagonist in a fight. But few dogs of his size were able to +cope with him; and I once saw him, when in grips with a fierce +bull-terrier by a riverside, precipitate the result by dragging his +adversary into the water, and dipping his head under. He would jump off +the highest bridge to fetch out of the water anything thrown in for +him, never failing to bring it to his master's feet,--except once, when +he steadily declined to recover from the raging element a cane with +which I had, some time previously, administered to him a sound +thrashing for some delinquency. On the first occasion of his being +accidentally left behind at a ferry across a very wide and rapid river, +he swam out some distance after the boat; but, finding the enterprise a +rather hopeless one, soon put back again and waited for the next boat, +on board of which he took his place with a tranquil and business-like +air. This he regularly did on subsequent occasions, without risking the +swim; and when on board, he always seated himself on the upper deck and +as far forward as possible, so as to catch early glimpses of his +friends in waiting. + +Among the gifts of this clever animal, I must not forget to reckon a +perception of the truthful in Art. I had a walking-stick, upon the +crooked handle of which was carved, with tolerable skill, a pointer's +head. This piece of sculpture was a source of frequent anxiety to +Muff,--his embarrassment apparently arising from the circumstance of +his not having the gift of speech wherewith to deliver himself of an +opinion on the subject. He would sometimes get up from the sunny spot +on the carpet where he lay, walk over to the corner in which the stick +was deposited, contemplate the handle attentively, with his head on one +side, for several minutes, and then, shaking his head doubtfully, +return to his lair with a sigh. Philanthropist as well as critic, he +once saved the life of a dissipated old sergeant of dragoons, to whom +he had taken a fancy, by rushing into a house which the man had just +quitted in a state of intoxication, and so rousing the inmates by his +gestures, that they at once followed him into the road, alongside of +which the beery old _sabreur_ was found prostrate in a pool of water, +setting his face pertinaciously against that hostile element, even to +what was very near being his last gasp. + +Large dogs often appear to take a humorous view of the futile attempts +of small ones to accomplish some feat beyond their strength or stature. +A friend of mine once possessed a very large animal of a cross between +the Mount St. Bernard dog and the English mastiff, and as remarkable +for his good-nature as for his great strength and courage. Rambling out +one day, accompanied by this trusty friend, they came upon a group of +rustics engaged in the ignoble diversion of baiting a badger, an animal +much in request among English dog-fanciers as a test for the pluck of +their terriers. "Drawing a badger" is the proper sporting-phrase,--the +animal being chained to a barrel, from the recesses of which he +contends savagely with the fierce little dogs pitted against each other +to drag him out within a given time. Nero looked on at the sport with a +majestic air of contempt, as dog after dog was withdrawn from the +conflict. At length, disgusted with the failures, he watched his +opportunity until the badger made a dive from his den at a retreating +foe, when, snapping him up by the collar, he thundered away down the +road with the barrel flying after, nor ever stopped until he reached +home, nearly a mile away, where he safely deposited badger and barrel +in the immediate vicinity of his private residence in the stable-yard. + +One of the worst vices by which a dog can be beset is a propensity for +killing sheep. It is not a common vice, but, where it exists, it +appears to be inveterate and beyond all hope of reform. Shutting up the +delinquent with a dangerous ram has often been recommended as a certain +mode of disgusting him with mutton, should he survive the discipline +inflicted on him by the avenger of the blood of his race. I can recall +but one instance within my experience in which this corrective was +tested. It was in the case of a sulky dog of a breed between the red +Irish setter and something larger, but less patrician, upon whom the +thirst for blood fell at uncertain intervals, impelling him then to +devastate the very sheepfolds of which in his capacity as watch-dog he +might have been considered as _ex officio_ the guardian. This vile +malefactor had been ordered for execution, and the noose was already +coiled for his caitiff neck, when a neighbor of his master's--a great +raiser of sheep--begged for him a reprieve, kindly volunteering the use +of a truculent, but valuable ram belonging to him, for the purpose of +illustrating the homaeopathic theory above alluded to. At nightfall the +ram was brought and turned into a paddock, where he was left fettered +to the dog with a couple of yards of chain. At the dawn of morning the +ram's master approached confidently the arena of discipline, secure of +a result triumphant for his theory. But theory was a delusion in this +instance; for the red dog Tanner sat there alone and surfeited with +mutton,--though there was a good deal of the ram still left. + +It is wonderful what an amount of crime can be committed, even +by a small dog, when, like the _Chourineur_ of Eugene Sue, he is +under the glamour of blood. Of this there came to my knowledge a +well-authenticated instance, one for the truth of which I can vouch. A +settler in a remote bush-district had been to the nearest village, +which was many miles from his clearing. It was in March, and the +surface of the snow--which was quite two feet deep--was frozen to a +hard crust, as he travelled homewards in his cutter, accompanied by a +currish dog, not nearly so large as an average pointer. About +nightfall, and when some two miles from home, a herd of nine deer +crossed his track, struggling away into the woods with uncertain +plunges, as the treacherous crust gave way beneath them at every bound. +While they were yet in sight, the dog gave chase, and they all +disappeared into the dark forest together; nor did the dog return to +the call of his master, who, after whistling to him for a short time, +proceeded on his way and drove home without him. Early next morning the +cur made his appearance, glutted and gory, and looking the very picture +of dissipation. Struck by his appearance, they took the back track on +his trail, which led them to a hollow in the bush, where the snow was +much trampled and draggled with blood, and in and around which every +one of the nine deer lay dead, pulled down and throttled by one +miserable cur, who had the mastery over them, because he could run on +the surface of the snow, through which they sunk. The dog's master--at +whose shanty I once stayed when on a fishing-excursion--was much +mortified at the occurrence, as the deer-hunting season was past, and +he was one of Nature's sportsmen, a game-keeper by instinct. + +I have but one more anecdote of a dog, for the present; and that is one +for the truth of which I distinctly decline to vouch. It was imparted +to me by a calker, who owned a woolly French poodle, which remarkable +animal, he informed me, used to swim out regularly once a week,--on +Saturday evenings, I think he said,--with a large wisp of tow in his +mouth, upon the ascension of his fleas into which place of refuge, he +would "let it slide" down the current and swim back tranquilly to the +shore, there to slumber away another week in comparative comfort.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The calker's dog had probably never read Olaus Magnus, +though that worthy Archbishop wrote something very like dog-Latin; but, +as dwellers on the margin of the "Atlantic," we have too great a +respect for a prelate who believed in the kraaken and the sea-serpent, +not to refer our valued Cynophilist to the Thirty-Ninth Chapter of the +Eighteenth Book _De Gentibus Septentrionalibus_, where he will find the +same story told of the fox.--_Eds. Atlantic._] + +Having thus calked my Dog-Talk--bark, in fact--with this very tough bit +of yarn, I now trustfully commit it to the mercies of the "Atlantic." + + + + +THE RECKONING. + + +Your thought may recur with mine + To a certain place in the city, +Where you sometimes have chanced to dine; + If not, why, the more's the pity! + +Did you notice the delicate way + Whereby, with the trencher and cup, +Comes a hint of the matter of pay, + In a counter laid _blank side up_? + +Now,--not to pervert the intent + Of a courtesy gentle and rare, +Or observance so civilly meant + With disparaging things to compare,-- + +By the token your messenger brings, + Did such services never suggest +A likeness to manifold things + Of the world, and the flesh, and--the rest? + +Command whatsoever you will, + To pamper your folly or pride; +You shall find, that unfailingly, still, + The _counter_ is laid beside, + +Silently,--seemingly fair,-- + Till an angel the disk shall turn, +And the soul's great debt, the inscription there, + On her vision shall burst and burn! + + + * * * * * + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + +MATANZAS. + + +A hot and dusty journey of some six hours brought us to Matanzas at +high noon. Our companions were Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and +game-chickens, that travel extensively in these parts, sometimes in +little baskets, with openings for the head and tail, sometimes in the +hands of their owners, secured only by a string fastened to one foot +and passed over the body. They seem to be objects of tender solicitude +to those who carry them; they are nursed and fondled like children, and +at intervals are visited all round by a negro, who fills his mouth with +water, and squirts it into their eyes and under their feathers. They +are curiously plucked on the back and about the tail, where only the +long tail-feathers are allowed to grow. Their tameness in the hands of +their masters is quite remarkable; they suffer themselves to be turned +and held in any direction. But when set down, at any stage of the +journey, they stamp their little feet, stretch their necks, crow, and +look about them for the other cock with most belligerent eyes. As we +have said that the negro of the North is an ideal negro, so we must say +that the game-cock of Cuba is an ideal chicken, a fowl that is too good +to be killed,--clever enough to fight for people who are too indolent +and perhaps too cowardly to fight for themselves,--in short, the +gladiator of the tropics. + +Well, as we have said, we and they arrived at our journey's end in the +extreme heat of the day; and having shown our paper and demanded our +trunks, we beat an instantaneous retreat before the victorious monarch +of the skies, and lo! the Ensor House, dirty, bare, and comfortless, +was to us as a fortress and a rock of defence. + +Here I would gladly pause, and, giving vent to my feelings, say how +lovely I found Matanzas. But ever since Byron's time, the author is +always hearing the public say, "Don't be poetical," etc., etc.; and in +these days both writer and reader seem to have discovered that life is +too short for long descriptions,--so that, when the pen of a G. P. R. +James, waiting for the inspirations of its master, has amused itself +with sketching a greater or less extent of natural scenery, the rule of +the novel-reader is invariably, "Skip landscape, etc., to event on +thirty-second page." Nevertheless, I will say that Matanzas is +lovely,--with the fair harbor on one hand and the fair hills on the +other, sitting like a mother between two beautiful daughters, who looks +from one to the other and wonders which she loves best. The air from +the water is cool and refreshing, the sky is clear and open, and the +country around seems to beckon one to the green bosom of its shades. +"Ob, what a relief after Havana!" one says, drawing a full breath, and +remembering with a shudder the sickening puffs from its stirring +streets, which make you think that Polonius lies unburied in every +house, and that you nose him as you pass the door and window-gratings. +With this exclamation and remembrance, you lower yourself into one of +Mr. Ensor's rocking-chairs,--twelve of which, with a rickety table and +a piano, four crimson tidies and six white ones, form the furniture of +the Ensor drawing-room,--you lean your head on your hand, close your +eyes, and wish for a comfortable room, with a bed in it. A tolerable +room you shall have; but for a bed, only a cot-bedstead with a sacking +bottom,--further, nothing. Now, if you are some folks that I know, you +will be able to establish very comfortable repose on this slender +foundation, Nature having so amply furnished you that you are your own +feather-bed, bolster, sofa-cushion, and easy-chair, a moving mass of +upholstery, wanting only a frame to be set down in and supported. But +if you should be one of Boston's normal skeletons, pinched in every +member with dyspepsia, and with the mark of the beast neuralgia on your +forehead, then your skin will have a weary time of it, holding your +bones, and you will be fain to entreat with tears the merciful +mediation of a mattress. + +Now I know very well that those of my readers who intend visiting Cuba +will be much more interested in statistics of hotels than in any +speculations, poetical or philosophical, with which I might be glad to +recompense their patience. Let me tell them, therefore, that the Ensor +House is neither better nor worse than other American hotels in Cuba. +The rooms are not very bad, the attendance not intolerable, the table +almost commendable. The tripe, salt-fish, and plantains were, +methought, much as at other places. There were stews of meat, onions, +sweet pippins, and _ochra_, which deserve notice. The early coffee was +punctual; the tea, for a wonder, black and hot. True, it was served on +a bare pine table, with the accompaniment only of a bit of dry +bread,--no butter, cake, nor _dulces_. But Mr. Ensor has heard, no +doubt, that sweet things are unwholesome, and is determined, at +whatever cost to his own feelings, to keep them out of the way of his +guests, who are, for the time, his children. Then there is an excellent +English servant called John, whom, though the fair Ensor did berate +him, we must enumerate among the comforts of the establishment. There +is a dark corner about _volantes_, which they are disposed to order for +you at a very unreasonable profit; but as there are plenty of livery +stables at hand, and street _volantes_ passing all the time, it will be +your own fault, if you pay six dollars where you ought to pay three. + +The first thing to be done at Matanzas is to drive out and see the +Cumbre, a hill in the neighborhood, and from it the valley of the +Yumori. The road is an improvement on those already described,--the +ruts being much deeper and the rocks much larger; the jolting is +altogether more complete and effective. Still, you remember the +doctrine that the _volante_ cannot upset, and this blind faith to which +you cling carries you through triumphantly. The Cumbre is lofty, the +view extensive, and the valley lovely, of a soft, light green, like the +early leaves and grass of spring, dotted everywhere with the palms and +their dark clusters. It opens far, far down at your feet, and on your +left you see the harbor quiet and bright in the afternoon sun, with a +cheering display of masts and pennons. You would look and linger long, +but that the light will wane, and you are on your way to Jenks his +sugar-plantation, the only one within convenient distance of the town. +Here the people are obviously accustomed to receive visitors, and are +decently, not superfluously, civil. The _major-domo_ hands you over to +a negro who speaks English, and who salutes you at once with, +"Good-bye, Sir!" The boiling here is conducted in one huge, open vat. A +cup and saucer are brought for you to taste the juice, which is dipped +out of the boiling vat for your service. It is very like balm-tea, +unduly sweetened; and after a hot sip or so you return the cup with +thanks. A loud noise, as of cracking of whips and of hurrahs, guides +you to the sugar-mill, where the crushing of the cane goes on in the +jolliest fashion. The building is octagonal and open. Its chief feature +is a very large horizontal wheel, which turns the smaller ones that +grind the cane. Upon this are mounted six horses, driven by as many +slaves, male and female, whose exertions send the wheel round with +sufficient rapidity. This is really a novel and picturesque sight. Each +negro is armed with a short whip, and their attitudes, as they stand, +well-balanced on the revolving wheel, are rather striking. They were +liberal of blows and of objurgations to the horses; but all their cries +and whipping produced scarcely a tenth of the labor so silently +performed by the invisible, noiseless slave that works the +steam-engine. From this we wandered about the avenues, planted with +palms, cocoas, and manifold fruit-trees,--visited the sugar-fields, +where many slaves were cutting the canes and piling them on enormous +ox-carts, and came at last to a great, open field, where many head of +cattle were quietly standing. Our negro guide had not been very lavish +or intelligible in his answers to our numerous questions. We asked him +about these cattle. "Dey cows," he replied. We asked if they gave milk, +and if butter was made on the plantation. He seemed quite puzzled and +confused, and finally exclaimed,--"Dat cows no got none wife." Coming +nearer, we found that the cows were draught oxen, employed in dragging +the canes and other produce of the plantation. Jenks his garden we +found in good order, and beautiful with many plants in full blossom; +but Jenks his house seemed dreary and desolate, with no books, a +wretched print or so, dilapidated furniture, and beds that looked like +the very essence of nightmare. Nothing suggested domestic life or +social enjoyment, or anything--; but as Jenks is perfectly unknown to +us, either by appearance or reputation, we give only a guess in the +dark, and would suggest, in case it may displease him, that he should +refurnish and repaint a little, and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over +his solitary villa, remembering that Americans have imaginations, and +that visitors will be very apt to construct an unknown host from his +surroundings. + +The second thing to be done in Matanzas, if you arrive on Saturday, is +to attend military mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning. This +commences at eight o'clock; but the hour previous may be advantageously +employed in watching the arrival and arrangement of the female +aristocracy of Matanzas. These enter in groups of twos and threes, +carrying their prayer-books, and followed by slaves of either sex, who +bear the prayer-carpet of their mistresses. The ladies are wonderfully +got up, considering the early hour; and their toilettes suggest that +they may not have undressed since the ball of the night before. All +that hoops, powder, and puffery can do for them has been done; they +walk in silk attire, and their hair is what is technically termed +dressed. Some of them bring their children, bedizened like dolls, and +mimicking mamma's gestures and genuflexion in a manner more provoking +to sadness than to satire. If the dressing is elaborate, the crossing +is also. It does not consist of one simple cross, "_in nomine Patris_," +etc.; they seem to make three or four crosses from forehead to chin, +and conclude by kissing the thumb-nail, in honor of what we could not +imagine. Entering the middle aisle, which is divided from the rest by a +row of seats on either side, they choose their position, and motion to +the dark attendant to spread the carpet. Some of them evince +considerable strategic skill in the selection of their ground. All +being now in readiness, they drop on their knees, spread their +flounces, cross themselves, open their books, and look about them. +Their attendants retire a little, spread a handkerchief on the ground, +and modestly kneel behind them, obviously expecting to be saved with +the family. These are neatly, sometimes handsomely dressed. In this +status things remain until the music of the regiment is heard. With a +martial sound of trumpets it enters the church, and fills the aisles, +the officers taking place within the chancel, and a guard-of-honor of +eight soldiers ranging on either side of the officiating priest. And +now our devotions begin in good earnest; for, simultaneously with the +regiment, the _jeunesse doree_ of Matanzas has made its appearance, and +has spread itself along the two long lines of demarcation which +separate the fair penitents from the rest of the congregation. The +ladies now spread their flounces again, and their eyes find other +occupation than the dreary Latin of their missals. There is, so to +speak, a lively and refreshing time between the youths of both sexes, +while the band plays its utmost, and _Evangel_, _Kyrie_, and _Credo_ +are recited to the music of Trovatore and Traviata. That child of four +years old, dressed in white and gold flounces, and white satin boots +with heels, handles her veil and uses her eyes like mamma, eager for +notice, and delighted with the gay music and uniforms. The moment comes +to elevate the Host, thump goes the drum, the guard presents arms, and +the soldiers, instead of kneeling, bend forward, in a most +uncomfortable manner. Another thump, and all that is over; the swords +are returned to their sheaths, and soon, the loud music coming to an +end, the regiment marches out of church, very much as it marched in, +its devotional experiences being known to Heaven alone. Ladies and +lovers look their last, the flounces rise in pyramids, the +prayer-carpets are rolled up, and, with a silken sweep and rush, Youth, +Beauty, and Fashion forsake the church, where Piety has hardly been, +and go home to breakfast. To that comfortable meal you also betake +yourself, musing on the small heads and villanous low foreheads of the +Spanish soldiery, and wondering how long it would take a handful of +resolute Yankees to knock them all into--But you are not a filibuster, +you know. + + +THE PASEO--THE PLAZA--DINING OUT. + + +"As this Sunday is Carnival, you cannot do better than drive about the +city, and then go to the Plaza to see the masks. My partner's wife, +with whom you have now so comfortably breakfasted, will call for you in +her _volante_, between five and six o'clock. She will show you the +Paseo, and we will go and see the masks afterwards." + +So spoke a banker, who, though not _our_ banker, is our friend, and +whose kind attentions we shall ever recall, when we remember Cuba. So +he spoke, and so it befell. The pretty American lady, Cubanized into +paleness, but not into sallowness, called at the appointed hour, and, +in her company, we visited the principal streets, and the favorite +drive of the Matanzasts. The Paseo is shorter than that of Havana, but +much prettier. We found it gay with _volantes_, whose fair occupants +kept up an incessant bowing and smiling to their friends in carriages +and on horseback. The Cubans are generally good riders, and their +saddle-horses have the easiest and pleasantest gait imaginable. The +heat of the climate does not allow the severe exercise of trot and +gallop, and so these creatures go along as smoothly and easily as the +waves of the sea, and are much better broken to obedience. The ladies +of Matanzas seem to possess a great deal of beauty, but they abuse the +privilege of powder, and whiten themselves with _cascarilla_ to a +degree that is positively ghastly. This _cascarilla_ is formed by the +trituration of eggshells; and the oval faces whitened with it resemble +a larger egg, with features drawn on it in black and red. In spite of +this, they are handsome; but one feels a natural desire to rush in +amongst them with a feather duster, and lay about one a little, before +giving an available opinion of their good looks. + +If the Paseo was gay, the streets of the city were gay also; the +windows filled with faces and figures in full dress, with little groups +of children at the feet of the grown people, like the two world-famous +cherubs at the feet of the Madonna di San Sisto. There were crowds of +promenaders too, everywhere, interspersed with parties of maskers, who +went about screaming at the public with high, shrill voices. Leaving +the _volante_, we descend to the Plaza, where is now the height and +centre of movement. We find it flanked on all sides with little movable +kitchens, where good things are cooked, and with tables, where they are +sold and eaten. Fried cakes, fish, and meats seem the predominant bill +of fare, with wine, coffee, and fruits. The masks are circulating with +great animation; men in women's clothes, white people disguised as +negroes, and negroes disguised as whites, prodigious noses, impossible +chins and foreheads; the stream of popular fancy ran chiefly in these +channels. We met processions consisting of a man carrying a rat in a +cage, and shouting out, "Catch this rat!" followed by a perfect +stampede of wild creatures, all yelling, "Catch that rat!" at the top +of their voices. The twanging of the guitar is heard everywhere, +accompanied by the high nasal voices of the natives, in various strains +of monotony. In some spots the music is more lively, accompanied by the +shaking of a gourd filled with dry seeds, which is called _ghiera_, and +whose "chick-a-chick, chick-chick" takes the place of the more poetical +castanets;--here you find one or more couples exhibiting their skill in +Cuban dances, with a great deal of applause and chattering from the +crowd around. Beside those of the populace, many aristocratic groups +parade the Plaza, in full dress, crowned with flowers and jewels;--a +more motley scene can hardly be imagined. Looking up, one sees in +curious contrast the tall palms with which the Plaza is planted, and +the quiet, wondering stars set in the deep tropical heavens. + +But in our evening's programme, tea has been omitted; now, what +availeth a Bostonian without his tea? By eight o'clock, we are pensive, +"most like a tired child at a show,"--by half-past eight, stupid,--by +nine, furious. Two hours of folly, taken on an empty stomach, alarm us +for our constitution. A visit to the _cafe_ is suggested and adopted. +It proves to be crowded with people in fancy attire, who have laid +aside their masks to indulge in beer, orgeat, and sherbet. While our +Cuban friends regale themselves with soursop and _zapote_ ice sweetened +with brown sugar, we call for a cup of delicious Spanish chocolate, +which is served with a buttered toasted roll, worthy of all imitation. +Oh, how much comfort is in a little cup of chocolate! what an +underpinning does it afford our spiritual house, a material basis for +our mental operations! In its support, we go it a little longer on the +Plaza, see more masks, hear more guitars and "catch-this-rat!" and +finally return, in a hired _volante_, to the Ensor House, where rest +and the bedless cots await us. + +But we have friends in Matanzas, real born Cubans, who will not suffer +us to remain forever in the Ensor House. They send their _volante_ for +us, one day, and we visit them. Their house, of the inevitable Cuban +pattern, is richly furnished; the marbles of the floor are pure and +smooth, the rug ample and velvety; the wainscoting of the walls, so to +speak, is in handsome tiling,--not in mean, washy painting; the cane +chairs and sofas are fresh and elegant, and there is a fine Erard +piano. The master of the house is confined to his room by illness, but +will be happy to see us. His son and daughters speak English with +fluency. They inform us, that the epidemic colds which prevail in Cuban +winters are always called by the name of some recent untoward +occurrence, and that their father, who suffers from severe influenza, +has got the President's Message. We find Don Jose in a bedroom darkened +by the necessary closing of the shutters, there being no other way of +excluding the air. The bedsteads are of gilded iron, with luxurious +bedding and spotless mosquito-nettings. His head is tied up with a silk +handkerchief. He rises from his rocking-chair, receives us with great +urbanity, and expresses his appreciation of the American nation and +their country, which he himself has visited. After a short interview we +leave him, but not until he has placed his house and all it contains +_"a la disposicion de Usted."_ We are then shown the pretty bedroom of +the young ladies, whose toilettes are furnished in silver, the bath +lined with tiling, the study, and the dining-room, where luncheon +awaits us. We take leave, with a kind invitation to return and dine the +next day, which, upon mature deliberation, we accept. + +The _volante_ comes for us next day, with Roque, brightest of all +living _caleseros_, fixed in his boots and saddle. After a pleasant +drive we attain the house, and are received by its hospitable inmates +as before. The interval before dinner, a tolerably long one, is filled +up by pleasant chitchat, chiefly in English. The lady of the house does +not, however, profess our vernacular, and to her understanding we lay +siege in French, Italian, and laughter-provoking Spanish. Before dining +we pay a second visit to the host, who is still busy digesting the +President's Message. Obviously, the longer he has it under +consideration, the worse he finds it. He has nausea from its bragging, +his head aches with its loudness, and its emptiness fills him with +wind. We are at our wits' end to prescribe for him, and take our leave +with grave commiseration, telling him that we, too, have had it, but +that the symptoms it produces in the North are a reddening in the cheek +and a spasmodic contraction of the right arm. Now comes great dinner +on. A slave announces it, and with as little ceremony as may be we take +our places. And here we must confess that our friend the banker had +rendered us an important service. For he had said,--"Look not upon the +soup when it is hot, neither let any victuals entice thee to more than +a slight and temporary participation; for the dishes at a Cuban dinner +be many, and the guest must taste of all that is presented; wherefore, +if he indulge in one dish to his special delectation, he shall surely +die before the end." And it came to pass that we remembered this, and +walked through the dinner as on egg-shells, gratifying curiosity, on +the one hand, and avoiding satiety, on the other, with the fear of +fulness, as it were, before our eyes. For, oh, my friends! what pang is +comparable to too much dinner, save the distress of being refused by a +young woman, or the comfortless sensation, in times of economy, of +having paid away a five-dollar gold piece in place of a silver quarter +of a dollar? + +But you, Reader, would like more circumstantiality in the account of +this dinner, which united many perfections. It was handsome, but not +splendid,--orderly, but, not stately,--succulent, but not unctuous. It +kept the word of promise to the smell and did not break it to the +taste. It was a dinner such as we shall wish only to our best friends, +not to those acquaintances who ask how we do when they meet us, and +wish we were dead before we part. As for particulars, we should be glad +to impart much useful information and many choice receipts; but the +transitory nature of such an entertainment does not allow one to +improve it as one could wish. One feature we remember, which is that +the whole dinner was placed on the table at once, and so you had the +advantage of seeing your work cut out before you. None of that hope +deferred, when, after being worried through a dozen stews and +_entrees_, you are rewarded at last with an infinitesimal fragment of +the _roti_. Nor, on the other hand, the unwelcome surprise of three +supplementary courses and a dessert, when you have already dined to +repletion, and feel yourself at peace with all the world. Here, all was +fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup, +of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and +onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled +chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with +saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and +vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think, +from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a +splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored +sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have +eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then +came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New +England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge +tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made +into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course +of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own +plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a +thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance +that we should have no more. + +A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the +masks, it being still Carnival. So the _volante_ was summoned, with its +smiling, silent Roque, and the pretty daughter of the house took seat +beside us. The streets around the Plaza proved quite impassable from +the crowd, whose wild movements and wilder voices went nigh to scaring +the well-trained horses. The little lady was accustomed, apparently, to +direct every movement of her charioteer, and her orders were uttered in +a voice high and sweet as a bird-call. "_Dobla al derecho, Roque! +Roque, dobla al derecho_!" Why did not Roque go mad, and +exclaim,--"Yes, Senorita, and to heaven itself, if you bid me so +prettily!" But Roque only doubled as he was bid, and took us hither and +thither, and back to the nest of his lady-bird, where we left her and +the others with grateful regrets, and finally back to the Ensor House, +which on this occasion seemed to us the end of all things. + + +GAME-CHICKENS--DON RODRIGUEZ--DAY ON THE PLANTATION--DE-PARTURE. + + +As there are prejudices in Cuba, and elsewhere, touching the +appropriate sphere of woman, Halia was not taken to the cockpit, as she +had demanded and expected,--not to see the chickens fight, but to see +the Spaniards see it. + +Forgive her, ye Woman's-Righters, if on this occasion she was weak and +obedient! You would have gone, no doubt,--those of you who have not +husbands; but such as have must know how much easier it is to deal with +the article man in his theoretical than in his real presence. You may +succeed in showing by every convincement, that you are his natural +master and superior, and that there is every reason on earth why you +should command and direct him. "No! ---- ," says the wretch, shaking +his fist, or shrugging his shoulders; and whatever your intimate +convictions may be, the end is, that you do not. + +Propitiated by that ready obedience which is safest, dear sisters, in +these contingencies, the proprietor of Halia takes her, one morning, to +see the establishment of a man of fortune in the neighborhood, where +one hundred and forty game-chickens are kept for training and fighting. +These chickens occupy two good-sized rooms, whose walls are entirely +covered with compartments, some two feet square, in each of which +resides a cock, with his little perch and drinking-vessel. They are +kept on allowance of water and of food, lest they should get beyond +fighting-weight. Their voices are uplifted all day long, and on all +moonlight nights. An old woman receives us, and conducts us to the +training-pit, pointing out on the way the heroes of various battles, +and telling us that this cock and the other have won _mucho dinero_, +"much money." Each has also its appointed value;--this cock is worth +forty dollars, this four ounces, this one six ounces,--oh, he is a +splendid fellow! No periodal and sporadic hen-fever prevails here, but +the gallo-mania is the chronic madness of the tropics. + +The training-pit is a circular space inclosed with boards, perhaps some +twelve feet in diameter. Here we find the proprietor, Don Manuel +Rodriguez, with a negro assistant, up to the ears in business. Don +Manuel is young, handsome, and vivacious, and with an air of good +family that astonishes us. He receives us with courtesy, finds nothing +unusual in the visit of a lady, but is too much engrossed with his +occupation to accord us more than a passing notice. This is exactly as +we could wish,--it allows us to study the Don, so to speak, _au +naturel_. He is engaged at first in weighing two cocks, with a view to +their subsequent fighting. Having ascertained their precise weight, +which he registers in his pocket-memorandum, he proceeds to bind strips +of linen around their formidable spurs, that in their training they may +not injure each other with them. This being accomplished,--he all the +while delivering himself with great volubility to his black +second,--the two cocks are taken into the arena; one is let loose +there; the negro holds the other, and knocks the free fowl about the +head with it. Sufficient provocation having been given, they are +allowed to go at each other in their own fashion, and their attacks and +breathing-spells are not very unlike a bout of fencing. They flap, fly +at each other, fly over, peck, seize by the neck, let go, rest a +moment, and begin again, getting more and more excited with each round. +The negro separates them, when about to draw blood. And as for Don +Manuel, he goes mad over them, like an Italian _maestro_ over his +favorite pupil. "_Hombre, hombre!_" he cries to the negro, "what a +cock! By Heaven, what a couple! _Ave Maria santisima!_ did one ever see +such spirit? _Santisima Trinidad!_ is there such fighting in all +Matanzas?" Having got pretty well through with the calendar of the +saints, he takes out his watch;--the fight has lasted long enough. One +of the champions retires to take a little repose; another is brought in +his place; the negro takes him, and boxes him about the ears of the +remaining fowl,--brushing him above his head, and underneath, and on +his back, to accustom him to every method of attack. Don Manuel informs +us that the cock made use of in this way is the father of the other, +and exclaims, with an air of mock compassion, _Pobre padre!_ "Poor +father!" The exercise being concluded, he takes a small feather, and +cleans out therewith the throat of either chicken, which proves to be +full of the sand of the arena, and which he calls _porqueria_, "dirt." + +We leave Don Manuel about to employ himself with other cocks, and, as +before, too much absorbed to give our departure much notice. Strange to +say, Hulia is so well satisfied with this rehearsal, that she expresses +no further desire to witness the performance itself. We learn +subsequently that Don Manuel is a man of excellent family and great +wealth, who has lavished several fortunes on his favorite pursuit, and +is hurrying along on the road to ruin as fast as chickens' wings can +carry him. We were very sorry, but couldn't possibly interfere. +Meantime, he appeared excessively jolly. + +Our kind friends of the dinner were determined to pay us, in their +persons, all the debts of hospitality the island might be supposed to +contract towards strangers and Americans. Arrangements were accordingly +made for us to pass our last day in Matanzas at a coffee-plantation of +theirs, some four miles distant from town. They would send their +travelling _volante_ for us, they said, which was not so handsome as +the city _volante_, but stronger, as it had need to be, for the roads. +At eleven o'clock, on a very warm morning, this vehicle made its +appearance at the door of the Ensor House, with Roque in the +saddle,--Roque with that mysterious _calesero_ face of his, knowing +everything, but volunteering nothing until the word of command. Don +Antonito, he tells us, has gone before us on horseback;--we mount the +_volante_, and follow. Roque drives briskly at first, a slight breeze +refreshes us, and we think the road better than is usual. But wait a +bit, and we come to what seems an unworked quarry of coral rock, with +no perceptible way over it, and Roque still goes on, slowly indeed, but +without stop or remark. The strong horses climb the rough and slippery +rocks, dragging the strong _volante_ after them. The _calesero_ picks +his way carefully; the carriage tips, jolts, and tumbles; the centre of +gravity appears to be nowhere. The breeze dies away; the vertical sun +seems to pin us through the head; we get drowsy, and dream of an uneasy +sea of stones, whose harsh waves induce headache, if not seasickness. +We wish for a photograph of the road;--first, to illustrate the +inclusive meaning of the word; second, to serve as a remembrance, to +reconcile us to all future highways. + +Why these people are content to work out their road-tax by such sore +travail of mind and body appeareth to us mysterious. The breaking of +stone in state-prison is not harder work than riding over a Cuban road; +yet this extreme of industry is endured by the Cubans from year to +year, and from one human life to another, without complaint or effort. +An hour or more of these and similar reflections brings us to a bit of +smooth road, and then to the gate of the plantation, where a fine +avenue of palms conducts us to the house. Here resides the relative and +partner of our Matanzas friends, a man of intelligent and humane +aspect, who comes to greet us, with his pleasant wife, and a pretty +niece, their constant guest. This lady has made use of her retirement +for the accomplishment of her mind. She has some knowledge of French +and Italian, and, though unwilling to speak English, is able to +translate from that language with entire fluency. The plantation-house +is very pretty, situated just at the end of the palm-avenue, with all +the flowers in sight,--for these are planted between the palms;--it has +a deep piazza in front, and the first door opens into one large room, +with sleeping-apartments on either side. Opposite this door is another, +opening upon the court behind the house, and between the two our chairs +are placed, courting the draught.--_N.B._ In Cuba, no one shuns a +draught; you ride, drive, sit, and sleep in one, and, unless you are a +Cuban, never take cold. The floor of this principal room is merely of +clay, rubbed with a red powder, which, mixed with water, hardens into a +firm, polished surface. The house has but one story; the timbers of the +roof, unwhitened, forming the only ceiling. The furniture consists of +cane easy-chairs, a dining-table, and a pretty hammock, swung across +one end of the room. Here we sit and talk long. Our host has many good +books in French and Spanish,--and in English, Walter Scott's Novels, +which his wife fully appreciates. + +A walk is proposed, and we go first to visit _los negros +chiquitos,--Anglice_, "the small niggers," in their nursery. We find +their cage airy enough; it is a house with a large piazza completely +inclosed in coarse lattice-work, so that the _pequenuelos_ cannot +tumble out, nor the nurses desert their charge. Our lady friend +produces a key, unlocking a small gate which admits us. We found, as +usual, the girls of eight and upwards tending the babies, and one +elderly woman superintending them. On our arrival, African drums, +formed of logs hollowed out, and covered with skin at the end, were +produced. Two little girls proceeded to belabor these primitive +instruments, and made a sort of rhythmic strumming, which kept time to +a monotonous chant. Two other girls executed a dance to this, which, +for its slowness, might be considered an African minuet. The dancing +children were bright-looking, and not ungraceful. Work stops at noon +for a recess; and the mothers run from the field to visit the +imprisoned babies, whom they carry to their own homes and keep till the +afternoon-hour for work comes round, which it does at two P.M. We went +next to the negro-houses, which are built, as we have described others, +contiguous, in one hollow square. On this plantation the food of the +negroes is cooked for them, and in the middle of the inclosed square +stood the cooking-apparatus, with several large caldrons. Still, we +found little fires in most of the houses, and the inmates employed in +concocting some tidbit or other. A hole in the roof serves for a +chimney, where there is one, but they as often have the fire just +before their door. The slaves on this plantation looked in excellent +condition, and had, on the whole, cheerful countenances. The good +proportion of their increase showed that they were well treated, as on +estates where they are overworked they increase scarcely or not at all. +We found some of the men enjoying a nap between a board and a blanket. +Most of the women seemed busy about their household operations. The +time from twelve to two is given to the negroes, besides an hour or two +after work in the evening, before they are locked up for the night. +This time they improve mostly in planting and watering their little +gardens, which are their only source of revenue. The negroes on this +estate had formed a society amongst themselves for the accumulation of +money; and our friend, the manager of the plantation, told us that they +had on his books two thousand dollars to their credit. One man alone +had amassed six hundred dollars, a very considerable sum, under the +circumstances. We visited also the house of the mayoral, or overseer, +whose good face seemed in keeping with the general humane arrangements +of the place,--as humane, at least, as the system permits. The negroes +all over the island have Sunday for themselves; and on Sunday +afternoons they hold their famous balls, which sometimes last until +four o'clock on Monday morning. Much of the illness among the negroes +is owing to their imprudence on these and like occasions. Pneumonia is +the prevalent disease with them, as with the slaves in our own South; +it is often acute and fatal. Everything in Cuba has such a tendency to +go on horseback, that we could not forbear asking if dead men did, and +were told that it was so,--the dead negroes being temporarily inclosed +in a box, and conveyed to the cemetery on the back of a horse. Our +friend, seeing our astonishment, laughed, and told us that the poor +whites were very glad to borrow the burial-horse and box, to furnish +their own funerals. + +Dinner was served at four o'clock, quite informally, in the one +sitting-room of the house. A black girl brushed off the flies with a +paper fly-brush, and another waited on table. The dinner was excellent; +but I have already given so many bills of fare in these letters, that I +will content myself with mentioning the novelty of a Cuban +country-dish, a sort of stew, composed of ham, beef, mutton, potatoes, +sweet potatoes, _yuca_, and yams. This is called _Ayacco_, and is a +characteristic dish, like eel-soup in Hamburg, or salt codfish in +Boston;--as is usual in such cases, it is more relished by the +inhabitants than by their visitors. On the present occasion, however, +it was only one among many good things, which were made better by +pleasant talk, and were succeeded by delicious fruits and coffee. After +dinner we visited the vegetable garden, and the well, where we found +Candido, the rich negro who had saved six hundred dollars, drawing +water with the help of a blind mule. Now the philanthrope of our party +was also a phrenologist, and had conceived a curiosity to inspect the +head of the very superior negro who had made all this money; so, at his +request, Candido was summoned from the well, and ordered to take off +his hat. This being removed disclosed the covering of a cotton +handkerchief, of which he was also obliged to divest himself. Candido +was much too well bred to show any signs of contumacy; but the +expression of his countenance varied, under the observation of the +phrenologist, from wonder to annoyance, and from that to the extreme of +sullen, silent wrath. The reason was obvious,--he supposed himself +brought up with a view to bargain and sale; and when informed that he +had a good head, he looked much inclined to give somebody else a bad +one. He was presently allowed to go back to his work; and our +sympathies went with him, as it would probably take some days to efface +from his mind the painful impression that he was to be sold, the last +calamity that can happen to a negro who is in kind hands. We now +wandered through the long avenues of palm and fruit trees with which +the estate was planted, and saw the stout black wenches at their +out-door occupations, which at this time consisted chiefly in raking +and cleansing the ground about the roots of the trees and flowers. +Their faces brightened as their employers passed, and the smaller +children kissed hands. Returned to the house, we paused awhile to enjoy +the evening red, for the sun was already below the horizon. Then came +the _volante_, and with heartfelt thanks and regrets we suffered it to +take us away. + +And who had been the real hero of this day? Who but Roque, fresh from +town, with his experience of Carnival, and his own accounts of the +masked ball, the Paseo, and the Senorita's beaux? All that durst +followed him to the gate, and kissed hands after him. _"Adios, Roque! +Roque, adios!"_ resounded on all sides; and Roque, the mysterious one, +actually smiled in conscious superiority, as he nodded farewell, and +galloped off, dragging us after him. + +As we drove back to Matanzas in the moonlight, a sound of horses' feet +made us aware that Don Antonito, the young friend who had planned and +accompanied our day's excursion, was to be our guard of honor on the +lonely road. A body-servant accompanied him, likewise mounted. Don +Antonito rode a milk-white Cuban pony, whose gait was soft, swift, and +stealthy as that of a phantom horse. His master might have carried a +brimming glass in either hand, without spilling a drop, or might have +played chess, or written love-letters on his back, so smoothly did he +tread the rough, stony road. All its pits and crags and jags, the pony +made them all a straight line for his rider, whose unstirred figure and +even speech made this quite discernible. For when a friend talks to you +on the trot, much gulping doth impede his conversation,--and there is +even a good deal of wallop in a young lady's gallop. But our friend's +musical Spanish ran on like a brook with no stones in it, that merely +talks to the moonlight for company. And such moonlight as it was that +rained down upon us, except where the palm-trees spread their inverted +parasols, and wouldn't let it! And such a glorification of all trees +and shrubs, including the palm, which we are almost afraid to call +again by name, lest it should grow "stuck up," and imagine there were +no other trees but itself! And such a combination of tropical silence, +warmth, and odor! Even in the night, we did not forget that the +aloe-hedges had red in them, which made all the ways beautiful by day. +Oh! it was what good Bostonians call "a lovely time"; and it was with a +sigh of fulness that we set down the goblet of enjoyment, drained to +the last drop, and getting, somehow, always sweeter towards the bottom. + +For it was set down at the Ensor House, which we are to leave to-night, +half-regretful at not having seen the scorpion by which we always +expected to be bitten; for we had heard such accounts of it, patrolling +the galleries with its venomous tail above its head, that we had +thought a sight might be worth a bite. It was not to be, however. The +luggage is brought; John is gratified with a _peso_; and we take leave +with entire goodwill. + +I mention our departure, only because it was Cuban and characteristic. +Returning by boat to Havana, we were obliged to be on board by ten +o'clock that evening, the boat starting at eleven. Of course, the +steamer was nowhere but a mile out in the stream; and a little +cockle-shell of a row-boat was our only means of attaining her. How +different, ye good New Yorkers and Bostonians, from your afternoon walk +on board the "Bay State," with valise and umbrella in hand, and all the +flesh-pots of Egypt in--well, in remembrance! After that degree of +squabbling among the boatmen which serves to relieve the feelings of +that habitually disappointed class of men, we chose our craft, and were +rowed to the steamer, whose sides were steep and high out of water. The +arrangements on board were peculiar. The body of the main deck was +occupied by the _gentlemen's_ cabin, which was large and luxurious. A +tiny after-cabin was fitted up for the ladies. In the region of the +machinery were six horrible staterooms, bare and dirty, the berths +being furnished simply with cane-bottoms, a pillow, and one unclean +sheet. Those who were decoyed into these staterooms endured them with +disgust while the boat was at anchor; but when the paddle-wheels began +to revolve, and dismal din of clang and bang and whirr came down about +their ears, and threatened to unroof the fortress of the brain, why, +then they fled madly, precipitately, leaving their clothes mostly +behind them. But I am anticipating. The passengers arrived and kept +arriving; and we watched, leaning over the side, for Don Antonito, who +was to accompany our voyage. Each boat had its little light; and to see +them dancing and toppling on the water was like a fairy scene. At last +came our friend; and after a little talk and watching of the stars, we +betook ourselves to rest. + +Many of the Dons were by this time undressed, and smoking in their +berths. As there was no access to the ladies' cabin, save through the +larger one, she who went thither awaited a favorable moment and ran, +looking neither to the right hand nor the left. The small space was +tolerably filled by Cuban ladies in full dress.--_Mem_. They always +travel in their best clothes.--The first navigation among them was a +real balloon-voyage, with collisions; but they soon collapsed and went +to bed. All is quiet now; and she of whom we write has thrown herself +upon the first vacant bed, spreading first a clean napkin on the +extremely serviceable pillow. Sleep comes; but what is this that +murders sleep? A diminutive male official going to each berth, and +arousing its fair occupant with "Dona Teresita," or whatever the name +may be, "favor me with the amount of your passage-money." No comment is +necessary; here, no tickets,--here, no stewardess to mediate between +the unseen captain and the unprotected female! The sanctuary of the sex +invaded at midnight, without apology and without rebuke! Think of that, +_those_ passengers who have not paid their fare, and, when invited to +call at the captain's office and settle, do so, and be thankful! The +male passengers underwent a similar visitation. It is the Cuban idea of +a compendious and economic arrangement. + +And here ends our account of Matanzas, our journey thither, stay, and +return. Peace rest upon the fair city! May the earthquake and hurricane +spare it! May the hateful Spanish government sit lightly on its strong +shoulders! May the filibusters attack it with kisses, and conquer it +with loving-kindness! So might it be with the whole island-vale! + + * * * * * + + +THE FIRST AND THE LAST. + + +It was the last December of the eighteenth century. All night a fierce +northeast snow-storm had been hissing and drifting through the frozen +air, pelting angrily at the shuttered and curtained windows of the +rich, and shrieking with scornful laughter as it forced its way through +the ill-fitting casements and loose doors of the poor, clutching at +them with icy fingers as they cowered over their poor fires, and +spreading over the garret-beds in which they sought to hide from him a +premature shroud of cold white snow. + +But with morning the storm ceased, and a little before noon the sun, +peering from behind his clouds, seemed to wink with astonishment at +seeing how much had been done in his absence. + +Not only the sun, but Mr. Phineas Coffin, guardian of the "town's +poor," in the town of Newport, was astir, and, standing at the door of +the "poor-'us," bent a contemplative eye upon the progress made by two +stout youths who were clearing the snow from the sidewalks and paths +upon his premises. + +Mr. Coffin perceived that a trial of skill and speed was going on +between one of his own pioneers and a lad similarly engaged on behalf +of the next estate. About half-way between the rapidly approaching +competitors stood a rough-hewn block of stone, marking the boundaries +of the two estates. + +To first reach this, the winning-post, was evidently the emulous desire +of each. As they approached near and nearer, the snow flew from their +shovels with a force and velocity which would certainly have reminded +Mr. Coffin of a steam snow-plough, had he ever seen or heard, of such a +thing, which he most assuredly never had. + +Each boy performed prodigies of skill and valor. The "poor-'us" lad +evidently gained, and his patron did not conceal a wide smile of +satisfaction; the rival looked up, saw it, was stung with generous +rage, threw himself with fury upon his shovel, and in three enormous +plunges laid bare his own side of the post, before "poor-'us" had come +within a foot of it. + +Then, clapping his numb fingers upon his thighs, the successful +champion uttered a melodious crow, which so disgusted the spectator +that he was about to retire within doors, when his eyes fell upon a +thinly clad, timid-looking woman who was advancing along the newly +opened path, casting deprecating glances at the two boys, who from +peaceful rivalry were now proceeding to open warfare, carried on with +the ammunition so plentifully spread before them. + +Nor was the alarm of the poor woman groundless; for, as she advanced +into the battle-field, she found herself saluted upon the breast with +an immense snow-ball, which, being of loose construction, adhered to +the red broadcloth cloak of the pedestrian, forming a conspicuous and +remarkable ornament to that garment. + +"Come, stop that, you young limbs, or I'll----," shouted the chivalric +Phineas, hastily gathering, as he spoke, material for a formidable +missile, which, being completed before the sentence, was used by him as +a ready means of rounding his period, being at once more forcible and +easier to come at than the words which most men would have used. + +Besides, Nathaniel, the poorhouse lad, turning round at sound of his +master's voice, presented so fair a mark, with his gaping mouth, that, +half involuntarily, the snow-ball left Mr. Coffin's hand, and the next +instant formed the contents of Nathaniel's open mouth, leaving, +however, a liberal surplusage to ornament his cheeks, chin, and nose. +The recipient of this bulletin choked, spluttered, and pawed at his +face after the manner of a cat who has tried to eat a wasp. + +His rival did not seek to conceal the expression of his triumph and +derision, the consequence of which was, that, as soon as "poor-'us" +could see, he fell upon his antagonist, and both immediately +disappeared from view in the bosom of an enormous drift. + +"Come right along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken +woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering +and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet +extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried +heroes,--"come right along, and don't be scaart of them young uns. +They're dreffal rude, I know; but then boys will be boys." + +The woman returned no answer to this time-honored defence of youthful +enormities, but, hurrying on, reached the door, saying,-- + +"How's your health this morning, Mr. Coffin?" + +"Waal, Ma'am, I'm pooty middlln' well, thank ye," replied Phineas, +slowly, and with an evident effort at recollection; then suddenly +added, with more vivacity,-- + +"Why, it's Widder Janes,--a'n't it? Declare to goodness I didn't know +ye, with yer hood over yer face. Walk in, Miss Janes, and see my +woman,--won't ye?" + +"Waal, I dunno as I can stop," replied the widow, beginning, +nevertheless, to shake the snow from her scanty skirts, and to stamp +her numb feet, which were protected from the biting cold by a pair of +old yarn socks, drawn over the shoes. + +"I was wantin' to see ye, a minit," continued she; "but Miss Coffin +allers keeps cleaned up so slick, I don't hardly darst to come in." + +"Oh, waal," replied Phineas, with a chuckle of satisfaction at the +compliment to his wife. "Ye look nice enough for anybody's folks. Come +right in, this way." + +"I dunno how 'tis," continued the visitor, as she followed her host +through the long entry, "that Miss Coffin can allers be so forehanded +with her work, an' do sich a master sight on't, too. She don't never +seem to be in the suds, Monday nor no time." + +Mr. Coffin had reached the door of the "keeping-room" as the widow +concluded her last remark; but pausing, with his thumb upon the latch, +he turned, and, looking over his shoulder, whispered, with an emphatic +nod,-- + +"Fact is, Miss Janes, there a'n't sich a great many women jest like +Miss Coffin." + +"There a'n't no two ways about that," murmured Miss Janes, assentingly, +as the door was thrown open. + +"Walk right in. Here, Marthy, the widder Janes has called to see you +this morning." + +A quiet, middle-aged woman turned round from the table, where she was +fitting patches to a pair of pauper trousers. Her face was sweet, her +voice low, and, though she was of middle age, every one agreed that +"Miss Coffin was a real pooty woman, an' a harnsome woman too." + +"How does thee do, Keziah Janes? I am glad to see thee. Take a seat by +the fire, and warm thee after thy cold walk." + +"I can't stop a minit; but it's as cheap settin' as stannin', I do +suppose," replied the widow, with a nervous little laugh, as she seated +herself in the proffered chair upon the clean red hearth, and commenced +her business by saying,-- + +"I was wantin' to speak with you, Mr. Coffin, about poor Mr. +Widdrinton." + +"Widdrinton,--who's he?" inquired Phineas. + +"Waal," commenced the widow, settling herself in her chair, and +assuming the air of one who has a story to narrate. "You know I have my +thirds in the house my poor husband left. It wa'n't sold, as it had +ought to ben,--for Samooel (that's _his_ brother) never's ben easy that +I should have the rooms I have; but they're what was set off for me, +an' so he can't help himself; on'y he's allers a-thornin.' when he gits +a chance. + +"But that a'n't nyther here nor there. What I was a-comin' to was this. +Ruther better 'n a year ago, a man come to me and wanted to know ef I +used all my rooms. I told him I hadn't no use for the garrit, 'cept to +dry my yarbs in (for I think yarbs are drefful good in case o' +sickness, Miss Coffin,--don't you?) An' then he said he wanted a place +to sleep in, an' his breakfast an' supper, an' wanted to know if I +would take him so. + +"Waal, I thought about it a spell, an' I concluded I was too old to +mind the speech o' people, and I hadn't no other objection, so I said +he might come,--an' he did, that very day. + +"Waal, at fust he had some kind o' work to do writin', an' he seemed to +git along very comf'table,--at least, fur's I know,--for I was out +tailorin' all day mostly, same as I be now; but last fall the writin' +seemed to gin out all to oncet, an' he begun to kerry off his furnitoor +an' books to sell, an' finally he paid up all he was owin' of me, an' +told me he didn't want no more meals, but would find himself. + +"Waal, I told him, that, seein' things wuz as they wuz with him, I +shouldn't take no rent for the garrit, an' I could dry my yarbs there +jest as well as ef he warn't there; an' he looked kind o' red, and held +his head up a minit, an' then he thanked me, an' said, 'God bless you!' +an' said he'd pay me, ef he got any more work. + +"Waal, he didn't git no more; an' after the furnitoor an' the books, +his cloze begun to go. + +"Then I begun to be afeard he didn't have nothin' to eat, an' oncet in +a while I'd kerry him up a mess o' vittles; but it allers seemed +drefful hard for him to take 'em, an' fin'ly he told me not to do so no +more, an' said suthin' to himself about devourin' widders. So I didn't +darst to go up agin, he looked so kind o' furce an' sharp, till, last +night, I reck'n'd the snow would sift in through the old ruff, an' I +went up to offer him a comf'table for his bed. I knocked; but he didn't +make no answer, so I pushed the door open an' went in. It was a good +while sence I'd seen the inside o' the room,--for when he heerd me +comin' up, he'd open the door a crack an' peek out while he spoke to +me; so when I got inside the room and looked about, I was all took +aback an' gawped round like a fool, an' no wunder nyther; for of all +the good furnitoor and things he'd brought, there wa'n't the fust thing +to be seen, save and 'xcept a kind o' frame covered with cloth stannin' +ag'inst the wall, an' an old straw-bed on the floor, with him on it, +an' a mis'able old comf'table kivered over him." + +"And this bitter weather, too! Oh, Keziah, what did thee do?" asked +Mrs. Coffin, in a tearful voice. + +"Why, I went up to the bedside, (ef you may call it so,) an' said, sez +I, 'Why, Lor' sakes, Mr. Widdrinton,'----an' then I hild up, for I +ketchcd a sight of his face, an' I thought he wuz gone for sartin. He +wuz as cold an' as white as that 'ere snow, an' it warn't till I'd felt +of his heart an' foun' that it beat a little that I thought of sich a +thing as his comin' to. But as soon as I found he'd got a breath o' +life in him, I didn't waste much time till I'd got him wropped up in a +hot blanket with a jug o' water to his feet, an' some hot tea inside on +him. Then he come to a little, an' said he hadn't eat nor drank for two +days an' nights." + +"Oh, Keziah!" sobbed Mrs. Coffin; while her husband, plunging his hands +deep into his breeches-pockets, and elevating his eyebrows till they +were lost in his shaggy hair, exclaimed,-- + +"Good Je-hosaphat!" which was the nearest approach to an oath in which +he ever indulged. + +"An' so," pursued the widow, after enjoying for a moment the +consternation of her audience,--"an' so I thought I had better come an' +see ef he couldn't be took in here; not that I wouldn't do for him, an' +be glad to, fur as I could, but he a'n't in a state to be left alone, +an' you know my trade takes me away consid'able from home,--an' which, +if I don't foller it, why, when I git a little older, I shall have to +come here myself, an' be a burden on your hands an' the town's." + +"We would take good care of thee, if thee did come, Keziah," said Mrs. +Coffin, in whom the habitual equanimity of the "Friend" had conquered +the emotion of the woman. "Though I do not deny that it is pleasanter +and better for thee to support thyself, as thee always has done." + +"I don't doubt you would be good to me, Miss Coffin, an' thank ye, +Ma'am, kindly for a-sayin' of it; but you know innerpendance is sweet +to all on us." + +"Surely, surely, Keziah; and now, Phineas, I suppose thee will see at +once about this poor man, won't thee?" + +"Yes, Marthy, yes. I'll go right off and see one of the selectmen; and +I reckon, by the time you git a bed ready for him, we shall be along." + +Phineas accordingly bustled out of the room; and Mrs. Janes, after +lingering a few moments, took her leave and returned to her charge, +inwardly congratulating herself on having so new and interesting a +piece of intelligence with which to lighten her next day's "tailoring." + +Mrs. Coffin, left alone, stood for a moment considering, and then, +opening a door, called gently,-- + +"Faith!" + +"Yes, mother," replied a voice whose soft tones seemed the echo of her +own. A moment after, a slender, dark-eyed girl, about twenty years of +age, entered the room, and said cheerfully,-- + +"What is it, mother?" + +"I have somewhat to tell thee, Faith." + +And the Quakeress repeated, in calm, unemphatic language, the story +narrated by Mrs. Janes. + +"The poor man will soon be here, Faith," continued she, "and I wanted +to ask what thee thinks should be done with him. Thee knows there is no +room that can have a fire in it, except the one where Polly and Susan +sleep, and they are both too sick to be moved into the cold"-- + +"He shall have my room, mother," said Faith, quietly. + +"Thy room, child?" + +"Yes, mother; and I will sleep here on the couch. I should like it very +much indeed; for you know I never have been able to be quite the +orderly and regular girl you have tried to make me." + +"Thee is a good girl," said the mother, quietly. + +"Not half so good a girl as I ought to be, with so good a mother," +replied Faith, throwing her arms about her mother's neck and kissing +her fondly. + +The elder woman returned the caress with an involuntary warmth, which, +pure and natural though it might be, was yet at variance with the +strict rule of her sect, which had taught her to avoid everything like +compliment or caress, as savoring of the manners of the "world's +people." + +She therefore, after one kiss, gently repelled the girl, saying,-- + +"Nay, Faith, but it sufficeth. Go, then, if thee will, and make ready +thy chamber for this sick man, while I prepare him some broth." + +An hour later, a pung or box-sleigh drew up at the poor-house door, +from which was lifted a long, gaunt figure, carefully enveloped in +blankets and cloaks. As he was taken from the sleigh, he feebly +murmured a few words, to which Phineas Coffin replied kindly,-- + +"Don't be scart,--it's all safe, and Nathaniel will fetch it right in +after us." + +"What! this 'ere?" queried the youth called Nathaniel, while he lifted +from the sleigh, somewhat contemptuously, a long flat something, +carefully enveloped in a cotton case. + +"Yes. Fetch it along this way," replied Phineas; and Nathaniel followed +the chair, in which the sick man was carried, into the pretty little +maiden chamber which Faith had so quietly relinquished to one who she +thought needed it more than herself. + +Mother and daughter stood ready to receive their new charge, and see +him comfortable in the warm, soft bed which they had prepared for him. + +"Thee will soon get rested now, friend, and go to sleep,--won't thee?" +said Mrs. Coffin, in her gentle voice, as she turned down the sheet a +little more evenly. + +"Where is it?" panted the exhausted sufferer, trying to look beyond his +kind nurse into the room. + +"What does thee mean, friend?" + +"It is this thing, mother," said Faith, bringing it forward, and +leaning it against the wall at the foot of the bed. "He brought it with +him," continued she, in a low voice; "and father says, he didn't seem +to care half so much about his own comfort as to have _that_ safe." + +"It is my--property,--all I have--left. I won't be--parted from it. +You--sha'n't take it--away," gasped the sick man, in an excited tone. + +"Thee shall not be parted from it, friend," said Mrs. Coffin, +soothingly. "Surely we would not deprive thee of what is thine own, and +what thee seems to value so much. Now if thee will try to go to sleep, +I will stay with thee the while, and when thee wakes give thee some +broth to strengthen thee." + +"Let--let _her_ stay.--Go away,--the rest of you," whispered the feeble +voice, while the weary eyes rested upon Faith's grave, sweet face. + +"Thee means my daughter? Faith, does thee wish to stay? or had thee +rather I should?" + +"I will stay, mother, if he wishes it." + +"Very well, daughter. When thee is weary, come down, and I, or one of +the women, will take thy place." + +Mrs. Coffin left the room, and Faith, her sewing in her hand, was about +seating herself by the fire, when the voice of the stranger summoned +her to the bedside. + +Turning, she found his hollow and gleaming eyes fixed sternly upon her, +while a long, lean finger was pointed alternately at her and the frame +leaning against the wall. + +"Girl!" + +"Can I do something for you?" asked Faith, kindly. + +"Don't you look at it--or let any one--else, while I'm--asleep." + +"I certainly will not." + +"Promise!" + +"I do promise." + +"Swear!" + +"Nay, friend, that would be wrong," replied the girl, unconsciously +adopting the phraseology of the Quakers, while expressing a sentiment +learned from them; for though Faith had been brought up outwardly in +the creed of her father, she had, without being aware of it, adopted +many of the tenets to which her mother held. + +"I will promise you very solemnly, however," continued she, "that I +will neither look at yonder thing nor allow any one else to do so; and +you will be wrong to doubt my word." + +"I don't.--What is your name?" + +"Faith." + +"A good omen. Mine is--Ichabod." + +"Ichabod Widdrinton?" + +"Ichabod. Call me so,--all of you." + +"Very well, if it is your name, we will. Now you must go to sleep." + +"Sit there,--where I can see you." + +Faith complied with this request, although uncertain whether it was not +prompted by a distrust of her promise. The stranger soon slept, and his +young nurse then made a more attentive survey of his features than she +had yet done. He seemed not over forty years of age, and would, in +health, have been considered a handsome man,--although the fine silky +hair, thin beard, sensitive nostril, and delicate mouth could never +have expressed much of strength or resolution. + +The traces of disease and starvation were painfully apparent; but it +seemed to the thoughtful Faith that behind these she could perceive in +the sorrowful, downward curve of the lips, in the lines of the hollow, +throbbing temples, in the gloomy light of the dark eyes, symptoms of a +long corroding care, which, though secretly, had done its work of +devastation more surely and more ruthlessly than the more apparent +foes. + +"How he must have suffered!" murmured she. It seemed as if the tone of +gentle pity had penetrated the light slumber, and reached the heart of +the sick man,--for, opening his eyes, he smiled upon the girl, a wan, +sad smile, which was at once an assent and a benison. + +From that moment, until the welcome end of that sad life, Ichabod would +patiently endure no tendance but Faith's; and she, with the calm and +silent self-abnegation of her order, (for Florence Nightingale is but a +type, and there are those all about us who lack but her opportunities,) +devoted herself to him. + +Her mother sometimes remonstrated, and begged her to yield her place in +the sick-chamber to her or to one of the pauper women; but Faith, whose +grave sweetness concealed more determination than a stranger would have +guessed, would simply say,-- + +"Dear mother, what is a little fatigue to one as well as I am, compared +with the pleasure of making this poor stranger's death-bed happy and +quiet?--which it certainly would not be, if he was crossed in his fancy +for seeing me about him." And the conscientious mind of the mother was +forced to yield assent to this simple logic. + +A few weeks thus passed, and then the sick man became a dying man. The +pauper inmates of the house were all willing and anxious to watch +beside him through the long nights, but Ichabod received all their +attentions very ungraciously; nor was it till Faith told him, in her +kind, decided way, that she could not stay with him at night, that he +consented to allow the others to do so. + +At last there came the evening when the physician said to Mrs. Coffin, +as he entered the room where she sat with her husband,-- + +"He won't last till morning,--'tis impossible." + +"Then thee had better watch beside him, Phineas. It is not fitting that +Faith should do so." + +"Certain. I'll go right up, and send her down," replied Phineas, +readily. + +But when the arrangements for the night were made known to Ichabod, he +caught hold of Faith's dress, as she stood at his bedside bidding him +good-night, and gasped out,-- + +"No, no!--you!--I must have--you!--I shall die--die to-night!--And--and +I want to tell--to tell you something.--Stay,--stay, Faith!--it's the +last--last time, and I--I shall never trouble any one--any more." + +"Let me stay, mother; father, do!" pleaded Faith, looking from one to +the other. "I should be very unhappy, always, if I was obliged to deny +him this last request. I shall not be afraid, mother; and Betty can +sleep in the chair by the fire, if you wish it, so as to be at hand, if +"---- + +"Well, child, if thee feels a call to do so, and it will make thee +unhappy to be denied, I will hold my peace. But thee must certainly +have Betty here, and promise to send her to call me, if Ichabod should +be worse,--won't thee?" + +Faith gave the required promise, and in a short time the chamber was +prepared for night. The old woman (whose skill in the last awful rites +which man pays to man caused her always to be selected for such +occasions) slept soundly beside the glowing fire, the dying man dozed +uneasily, and Faith, shading the light from his eyes, opened the +large-print Bible, which her mother, careful both for the well-being of +her daughter's immortal soul and temporal eyesight, had recommended for +her night's perusal. + +The hours passed slowly on, unmarked by change, until Faith had counted +three solemn strokes from the old clock in the entry, when the sick man +suddenly awoke. + +As Faith came to his bedside, to offer him the draught for which he +always asked on awakening, she was struck with a change in his face. +The eyes were at once calmer and brighter, the look of uneasy pain had +disappeared, and the thin lips wore almost a smile. + +"Dear Faith," said he, in a gentle voice, which yet was stronger and +more unbroken than any she had heard from him before, "how good you +have been to me! I am dying; but do not call any one yet. I want to +talk to you a little, first. Put another pillow under my head, and +raise me,--so. Now light your other candle, stir the fire to a brighter +blaze, and then uncover--it." + +Faith, pale and quiet, did as she was bid, stirred the fire, till its +ruddy glow brightened every nook of the little white-washed chamber, +and made the old crone beside it wince and mutter in her sleep. Having +shielded her from its fierce light, she then, with trembling fingers, +opened a little penknife which lay upon the table, and cut the twine +with which the cover was sewed at the back. The last stitch severed, +the cloth fell with a solemn rustle at her feet, and disclosed--a +picture. + +Faith examined it with much attention and some curiosity. It was the +full-length figure of a man, dressed in rich robes of office, his +powdered hair put back from his forehead, his left hand resting on the +pommel of his sword, and his right clasping a roll of parchment. The +expression of his face was grave, majestic, and noble; and yet between +those handsome features and the attenuated face of the dying pauper +Faith soon perceived one of those resemblances, strong, yet +indefinable, which are so apparent to some persons, so undiscoverable +by others. + +"A noble gentleman, Faith,--was he not?" said Ichabod, at length. "And +they say his picture does not do him justice. He was an English +gentleman of property and station,--the heir of a good fortune and +honorable name; but he left all to come here and help found this new +country,--this glorious land of freedom and conscience,--where every +man has perfect liberty--to starve in his own fashion. + +"He came and was a great man among them. He built the finest house in +the village of Boston, and then came hither, where they made him +governor and named a bay after him. + +"He went home for a visit to England, and there he had this picture +painted by the court-painter of those days, and brought it back with +him as a present to his wife. + +"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a +very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as +they say in storybooks. + +"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small +portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried. + +"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family +found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the +traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches +of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an +end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the +family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They +met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short +conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name, +alive. + +"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by +uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it +more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the +glory has departed.' + +"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered +their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their +first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and +which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and +despair. + +"The husband soon died. Man breaks, woman bends, beneath the crushing +weight of such a life. My mother lived, a dark and silent woman, till +five years ago. Then she died, too, and I inherited my ancestor's +portrait and the curse of the Withringtons. + +"I tried to work, to earn my bread, as men all about me were doing. But +no,--the fate was upon me, the curse pursued me. Everything failed +which I attempted. I sunk lower and lower, until the name and the +picture, which had been my pride, became a shame and a reproach to me. +I abandoned the one and concealed the other, resolved to reveal neither +until the moment arrived when death should wipe out the squalor of +life, conquer fate, and expiate the curse. + +"Quick, Faith, quick! The hour has come. Take the knife you just +held,--cut the canvas from its frame,--cut it in fragments,--lay it on +the blazing fire. We will perish together,--the First and--the Last." + +"Nay, Ichabod, give it to me," said Faith, shrinking from the proposed +holocaust "I will always keep it, and value it." + +"Would you see me fall dead at your feet, while attempting to do for +myself what you refuse to do for me?" asked the dying man, with +feverish ardor, and half rising, as if to leave his bed. + +"No, no,--I will do it, since it must be so," exclaimed Faith, eagerly. +"Lie down again and watch me." + +Ichabod sunk back upon his pillows, and gazed with eyes of fitful light +upon the girl, while she, opening the keen knife, cut slowly and +laboriously round the margin of the stout canvas, which shrieked +beneath the blade, as if the spirit of the effigy which it bore were +resisting the fearful doom which threatened it. + +At last the canvas was entirely released, and Faith silently held it up +before the eyes of the dying man, upon whose face had come a dull, +leaden blankness, and whose eyes were painful to watch as they +struggled to pierce the film which was gathering over them. + +"Burn," he hoarsely murmured. + +With a sigh, Faith cut the picture into strips, and laid them gently, +reverently, upon the coals heaped in the large fireplace. + +The greedy flames leaped up to grasp their prey, and Faith turned sick +and faint as she watched them fasten upon that noble face, which seemed +to contract and shrivel in its anguish as they seized upon it. + +She gazed a moment, painfully fascinated, then turned toward the +bed,--but as her eyes fell upon Ichabod's face, she started back, and, +rousing the old woman from her slumber, sent to summon her mother. + +Mrs. Coffin came immediately,--but when she entered the little chamber, +the last fragment of the canvas was shrivelling in the flames, the last +sigh of the dying man was parting from his white lips. + +They had perished together,--the First--and the Last. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +You will know, perhaps, in the course of half an hour's reading, what +has been haunting my hours of sleep and waking for months. I cannot +tell, of course, whether you are a nervous person or not. If, however, +you are such a person,--if it is late at night,--if all the rest of the +household have gone off to bed,--if the wind is shaking your windows as +if a human hand were rattling the sashes,--if your candle or lamp is +low and will soon burn out,--let me advise you to read the "Critical +Notices" or some other paper contained in this number, if you have not +already devoured them all, and leave this to be read by daylight, with +cheerful voices round, and people near by who would hear you, if you +slid from your chair and came down in a lump on the floor. + +I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did, I am willing to +confess, when I entered the dim chamber. Did I not tell you that I was +sensitive and imaginative, and that I had lain awake with thinking what +were the strange movements and sounds which I heard late at night in my +little neighbor's apartment? It had come to that pass that I was truly +unable to separate what I had really heard from what I had dreamed in +these nightmares to which I have been subject, as before mentioned. So, +when I walked into the room, and Bridget, turning back, closed the door +and left me alone with its tenant, I do believe you could have grated a +nutmeg on my skin, such a "goose-flesh" shiver ran over it. It was not +fear, but what I call nervousness,--unreasoning, but irresistible; as +when, for instance, one looking at the sun going down says, "I will +count fifty before it disappears"; and as he goes on and it becomes +doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets strangely flurried, +and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and hell as the +issues depending on the completion or non-completion of the fifty he is +counting. Extreme curiosity will excite some people as much as fear, or +what resembles fear, acts on some other less impressible natures. + +I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little +conjurer's room. Or, again, there may be nothing in this poor invalid's +chamber but some old furniture, such as they say came over in the +Mayflower. All this is just what I mean to find out while I am looking +at the Little Gentleman, who has suddenly become my patient. The +simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most +mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace objects in +disguise. + +I wonder whether the boys that live in Roxbury and Dorchester are ever +moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the rocks +and fragments of "puddingstone" abounding in those localities. I have +my suspicions that those boys "heave a stone" or "fire a brick-bat," +composed of the conglomerate just mentioned, without any more tearful +or philosophical contemplations than boys of less favored regions +expend on the same performance. Yet a lump of puddingstone is a thing +to look at, to think about, to study over, to dream upon, to go crazy +with, to beat one's brains out against. Look at that pebble in it. From +what cliff was it broken? On what beach rolled by the waves of what +ocean? How and _when_ imbedded in soft ooze, which itself became stone, +and by-and-by was lifted into bald summits and steep cliffs, such as +you may see on Meetinghouse-Hill any day,--yes, and mark the scratches +on their faces left when, the boulder-carrying glaciers planed the +surface of the continent with such rough tools that the storms have not +worn the marks out of it with all the polishing of ever so many +thousand years? + +Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in spring-time, take from it +any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time. Some +little worm-shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are fastened +to the stick: eggs of a small snail-like shell-fish. One of these +specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an opaque mass +in its centre. And while you are looking, the opaque mass begins to +stir, and by-and-by slowly to turn upon its axis like a forming +planet,--life beginning in the microcosm, as in the great worlds of the +firmament, with the revolution that turns the surface in ceaseless +round to the source of life and light. + +A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their +mysteries, this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified slag, +or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces. Mysteries are common +enough, at any rate, whatever the boys in Roxbury and Dorchester think +of "brickbats" and the spawn of creatures that live in roadside +puddles. + +But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly plain, +when we can get at them so as to turn them over. How many ghosts that +"thick men's blood with cold" prove to be shirts hung out to dry! How +many mermaids have been made out of seals! How many times have +horse-mackerels been taken for the sea-serpent! + +----Let me take the whole matter coolly, while I see what is the matter +with the patient. That is what I say to myself, as I draw a chair to +the bedside.--The bed is an old-fashioned, dark mahogany four-poster. +It was never that which made the noise of something moving. It is too +heavy to be pushed about the room.--The Little Gentleman was sitting, +bolstered up by pillows, with his hands clasped and their united palms +resting on the back of the head,--one of the three or four positions +specially affected by persons whose breathing is difficult from disease +of the heart or other causes. + +Sit down, Sir,--he said,--sit down! I have come to the hill Difficulty, +Sir, and am fighting my way up. His speech was laborious and +interrupted. + +Don't talk,--I said,--except to answer my questions.--And I proceeded +to "prospect" for the marks of some local mischief, which you know is +at the bottom of all these attacks, though we do not always find it. I +suppose I go to work pretty much like other professional folks of my +temperament. Thus:-- + +Wrist, if you please.--I was on his right side, but he presented his +left wrist, crossing it over the other.--I begin to count, holding +watch in left hand. One, two, three, four,----What a handsome +hand!--wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle.--One, two, three, +four, five, six, seven,----Can't see much, it is so dark, except one +white object.--One, two, three, four,----Hang it! eighty or ninety in +the minute, I guess.--Tongue, if you please.--Tongue is put out. Forget +to look at it, or, rather, to take any particular notice of it;--but +what _is_ that white object, with the long arm stretching up as if +pointing to the sky, just as Vesalius and Spigelius and those old +fellows used to put their skeletons? I don't think anything of such +objects, you know; but what should _he_ have it in his chamber for?--As +I had found his pulse irregular and intermittent, I took out a +stethoscope, which is a pocket-spyglass for looking into men's chests +with your ears, and laid it over the place where the heart beats. I +missed the usual beat of the organ.--How is this?--I said,--where is +your heart gone to?--He took the stethoscope and shifted it across to +the right side; there was a displacement of the organ.--I am +ill-packed,--he said;--there was no room for my heart in its place as +it is with other men.--God help him! + +It is hard to draw the line between scientific curiosity and the desire +for the patient's sake to learn all the details of his condition. I +must look at this patient's chest, and thump it and listen to it. For +this is a case of _ectopia cordis_, my boy,--displacement of the heart; +and it isn't every day you get a chance to overhaul such an interesting +malformation. And so I managed to do my duty and satisfy my curiosity +at the same time. The torso was slight and deformed; the right arm +attenuated,--the left full, round, and of perfect symmetry. It had run +away with the life of the other limbs,--a common trick enough of +Nature's, as I told you before. If you see a man with legs withered +from childhood, keep out of the way of his arms, if you have a quarrel +with him. He has the strength of four limbs in two; and if he strikes +you, it is an arm-blow _plus_ a kick administered from the shoulder +instead of the haunch, where it should have started from. + +Still examining him as a patient, I kept my eyes about me to search all +parts of the chamber, and went on with the double process, as +before.--Heart hits as hard as a fist,--_bellows-sound over mitral +valves_ (professional terms you need not attend to).--What the deuce is +that long case for? Got his witch grandmother mummied in it? And three +big mahogany presses,--hey?--A diabolical suspicion came over me which +I had had once before,--that he might be one of our modern +_alchemists_,--you understand,--make gold, you know, or _what looks +like it_, sometimes with the head of a king or queen or of Liberty to +embellish one side of the piece.--Don't I remember hearing him shut a +door and lock it once? What do you think was kept under that lock? +Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses. +One can tell a man's business, if it is a handicraft, very often by +just taking a look at his open hand.--Ah! Four calluses at the end of +the fingers of the right hand. None on those of the left. Ah, ha! What +do those mean? + +All this seems longer in the telling, of course, than it was in fact. +While I was making these observations of the objects around me, I was +also forming my opinion as to the kind of case with which I had to +deal. + +There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's life: brain, +blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out, +followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all +three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the +fluid ceases to supply the other centres of flame, and all is soon +stagnation, cold, and darkness. The "tripod of life" a French +physiologist called these three organs. It is all clear enough which +leg of the tripod is going to break down here. I could tell you exactly +what the difficulty is;--which would be as intelligible and amusing as +a watchmaker's description of a diseased timekeeper to a ploughman. It +is enough to say, that I found just what I expected to, and that I +think this attack is only the prelude of more serious consequences, +--which expression means you very well know what. + +And now the secrets of this life hanging on a thread must surely come +out. If I have made a mystery where there was none, my suspicions will +be shamed, as they have often been before. If there is anything +strange, my visits will clear it up. + +I sat an hour or two by the side of the Little Gentleman's bed, after +giving him some henbane to quiet his brain, and some foxglove, which an +imaginative French professor has called the "Opium of the Heart." Under +their influence he gradually fell into an uneasy, half-waking slumber, +the body fighting hard for every breath, and the mind wandering off in +strange fancies and old recollections, which escaped from his lips in +broken sentences. + +----The last of 'em,--he said,--the last of 'em all,--thank God! And +the grave he lies in will look just as well as if he had been straight. +Dig it deep, old Martin, dig it deep,--and let it be as long as other +folks' graves. And mind you get the sods flat, old man,--flat as ever a +straight-backed young fellow was laid under. And then, with a good tall +slab at the head, and a footstone six foot away from it, it'll look +just as if there was a man underneath. + +A man! Who said he was a man? No more men of that pattern to bear _his_ +name!--Used to be a good-looking set enough.--Where's all the manhood +and womanhood gone to since his great-grand-father was the strongest +man that sailed out of the town of Boston, and poor Leah there the +handsomest woman in Essex, if she was a witch? + +----Give me some light,--he said,--more light,--I want to see the +picture. + +He had started either from a dream or a wandering reverie. I was not +unwilling to have more light in the apartment, and presently had +lighted an astral lamp that stood on a table.--He pointed to a portrait +hanging against the wall.--Look at her,--he said,--look, at her! +Wasn't that a pretty neck to slip a hangman's noose over? + +The portrait was of a young woman, something more than twenty years +old, perhaps. There were few pictures of any merit painted in New +England before the time of Smibert, and I am at a loss to know what +artist--could have taken this half-length, which was evidently from +life. It was somewhat stiff and flat, but the grace of the figure and +the sweetness of the expression reminded me of the angels of the early +Florentine painters. She must have been of some consideration, for she +was dressed in paduasoy and lace with hanging sleeves, and the old +carved frame showed how the picture had been prized by its former +owners. A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was +that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George +Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the +artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I +suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of +young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good +evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I +should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she +had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some +devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers, +with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his +pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight +suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to +leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly +maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses? + +She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I +are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted +me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the +board-fences. They said the doctors would want my skeleton when I was +dead.--You are my friend, if you are a doctor,--a'n't you? + +I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak. I want to lie +still,--he said,--after I am put to bed upon the hill yonder. Can't you +have a great stone laid over me, as they did over the first settlers in +the old burying-ground at Dorchester, so as to keep the wolves from +digging them up? I never slept easy over the sod;--I should like to lie +quiet under it. And besides,--he said, in a kind of scared whisper,--I +don't want to have my bones stared at, as my body has been. I don't +doubt I was a _remarkable case_; but, for God's sake, oh, for God's +sake, don't let 'em make a show of the cage I have been shut up in and +looked through the bars of for so many years! + +I have heard it said that the art of healing makes men hardhearted and +indifferent to human suffering. I am willing to own that there is often +a professional hardness in surgeons, just as there is in +theologians,--only much less in degree than in these last. It does not +commonly improve the sympathies of a man to be in the habit of +thrusting knives into his fellow-creatures and burning them with +red-hot irons, any more than it improves them to hold the +blinding-white cautery of Gehenna by its cool handle and score and +crisp young souls with it until they are scorched into the belief of +--Transubstantiation or the Immaculate Conception. And, to say the +plain truth, I think there are a good many coarse people in both +callings. A delicate nature will not commonly choose a pursuit which +implies the habitual infliction of suffering, so readily as some +gentler office. Yet, while I am writing this paragraph, there passes by +my window, on his daily errand of duty, not seeing me, though I catch a +glimpse of his manly features through the oval glass of his chaise, as +he rides by, a surgeon of skill and standing, so friendly, so modest, +so tender-hearted in all his ways, that, if he had not approved himself +at once adroit and firm, one would have said he was of too kindly a +mould to be the minister of pain, even if it were saving pain. You +may be sure that some men, even among those who have chosen the task of +pruning their fellow-creatures, grow more and more thoughtful and truly +compassionate in the midst of their cruel experience. They become less +nervous, but more sympathetic. They have a truer sensibility for +others' pain, the more they study pain and disease in the light of +science. I have said this without claiming any special growth in +humanity for myself, though I do hope I grow tenderer in my feelings as +I grow older. At any rate, this was not a time in which professional +habits could keep down certain instincts of older date than these. +This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed +rapacity of Science, which he feared would have her "specimen," if his +ghost should walk restlessly a thousand years, waiting for his bones to +be laid in the dust, touched my heart. But I felt bound to speak +cheerily.--We won't die yet awhile, if we can help it,--I said,--and +I trust we can help it. But don't be afraid; if I live longest, I will +see that your resting-place is kept sacred till the dandelions and +buttercups blow over you. He seemed to have got his wits together by +this time, and to have a vague consciousness that he might have been +saying more than he meant for anybody's ears.--I have been talking a +little wild, Sir, eh?--he said.--There is a great buzzing in my head +with those drops of yours, and I doubt If my tongue has not been a +little looser than I would have it, Sir. But I don't much want to live. +Sir; that's the truth of the matter; and it does rather please me to +think that fifty years from now nobody will know that the place where I +lie doesn't hold as stout and straight a man as the best of 'em that +stretch out as if they were proud of the room they take. You may get me +well, if you can, Sir, if you think it worth while to try; but I tell +you there has been no time for this many a year when the smell of fresh +earth was not sweeter to me than all the flowers that grow out of it. +There's no anodyne like your good clean gravel, Sir. But if you can +keep me about awhile, and it amuses you to try, you may show your skill +upon me, if you like. There is a pleasure or two that I love the +daylight for, and I think the night is not far off, at best.--I believe +I shall sleep now; you may leave me, and come, if you like, in the +morning. Before I passed out, I took one more glance round the +apartment. The beautiful face of the portrait looked at me, as +portraits often do, with a frightful kind of intelligence in its eyes. +The drapery fluttered on the still outstretched arm of the tall object +near the window;--a crack of this was open, no doubt, and some breath +of wind stirred the hanging folds. In my excited state, I seemed to see +something ominous in that arm pointing to the heavens. I thought of the +figures in the Dance of Death at Basle, and that other on the panels of +the covered Bridge at Lucerne; and it seemed to me that the grim mask +who mingles with every crowd and glides over every threshold was +pointing the sick man to his far home, and would soon stretch out his +bony hand and lead him or drag him on the unmeasured journey towards +it. The fancy had possession of me, and I shivered again as when I +first entered the chamber. The picture and the shrouded shape; I saw +only these two objects. They were enough. The house was deadly still, +and the night-wind, blowing through an open window, struck me as from a +field of ice, at the moment I passed into the creaking corridor. As I +turned into the common passage, a white figure, holding a lamp, stood +full before me. I thought at first it was one of those images made to +stand in niches and hold a light in their hands. But the illusion was +momentary, and my eyes speedily recovered from the shock of the bright +flame and snowy drapery to see that the figure was a breathing one. It +was Iris, in one of her statue-trances. She had come down, whether +sleeping or waking, I knew not at first, led by an instinct that told +her she was wanted,--or, possibly, having overheard and interpreted the +sound of our movements,--or, it may be, having learned from the servant +that there was trouble which might ask for a woman's hand. I sometimes +think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they +cannot see or hear, are in suffering. How surely we find them at the +bedside of the dying! How strongly does Nature plead for them, that we +should draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last +upon their faithful breasts! + +With white, bare feet, her hair loosely knotted, dressed as the +starlight knew her, and the morning when she rose from slumber, save +that she had twisted a scarf round her long dress, she stood still as a +stone before me, holding in one hand a lighted coil of wax-taper, and +in the other a silver goblet. I held my own lamp close to her, as if +she had been a figure of marble, and she did not stir. There was no +breach of propriety then, to scare the Poor Relation with and breed +scandal out of. She had been "warned in a dream," doubtless suggested +by her waking knowledge and the sounds which had reached her exalted +sense. There was nothing more natural than that she should have risen +and girdled her waist, and lighted her taper, and found the silver +goblet with "_Ex dono pupillorum_" on it, from which she had taken her +milk and possets through all her childish years, and so gone blindly +out to find her place at the bedside,--a Sister of Charity without the +cap and rosary; nay, unknowing whither her feet were leading her, and +with wide, blank eyes seeing nothing but the vision that beckoned her +along.--Well, I must wake her from her slumber or trance. I called her +name, but she did not heed my voice. + +The Devil put it into my head that I would kiss one handsome young girl +before I died, and now was my chance. She never would know it, and I +should carry the remembrance of it with me into the grave, and a rose +perhaps grow out of my dust, as out of Lord Lovel's, in memory of that +immortal moment! Would it wake her from her trance? and would she see +me in the flush of my stolen triumph, and hate and despise me ever +after? Or should I carry off my trophy undetected, and always from that +time say to myself, when I looked upon her in the glory of youth and +the splendor of beauty, "My lips have touched those roses and made +their sweetness mine forever"? You think my cheek was flushed, perhaps, +and my eyes were glittering with this midnight flash of opportunity. On +the contrary, I believe I was pale, very pale, and I know that I +trembled. Ah, it is the pale passions that are the fiercest,--it is the +violence of the chill that gives the measure of the fever! The +fighting-boy of our school always turned white when he went out to a +pitched battle with the bully of some neighboring village; but we knew +what his bloodless cheeks meant,--the blood was all in his stout +heart,--he was a slight boy, and there was not enough to redden his +face and fill his heart both at once. + +Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the +internal conflicts in the heart of a quiet person something more than +juvenile and something less than senile, as to whether he should be +guilty of an impropriety, and, if he were, whether he would get caught +in his indiscretion. And yet the memory of the kiss that Margaret of +Scotland gave to Alain Chartier has lasted four hundred years, and put +it into the head of many an ill-favored poet, whether Victoria or +Eugenie would do as much by him, if she happened to pass him when he +was asleep. And have we ever forgotten that the fresh cheek of the +young John Milton tingled under the lips of some high-born Italian +beauty, who, I believe, did not think to leave her card by the side of +the slumbering youth, but has bequeathed the memory of her pretty deed +to all coming time? The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a +cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer. + +There is one disadvantage which the man of philosophical habits of mind +suffers, as compared with the man of action. While he is taking an +enlarged and rational view of the matter before him, he lets his chance +slip through his fingers. Iris woke up, of her own accord, before I had +made up my mind what I was going to do about it. + +When I remember how charmingly she looked, I don't blame myself at all +for being tempted; but if I had been fool enough to yield to the +impulse, I should certainly have been ashamed to tell of it. She did +not know what to make of it, finding herself there alone, in such +guise, and me staring at her. She looked down at her white robe and +bare feet, and colored,--then at the goblet she held in her hand,--then +at the taper; and at last her thoughts seemed to clear up. + +I know it all,--she said.--He is going to die, and I must go and sit by +him. Nobody will care for him as I shall, and I have nobody else to +care for. + +I assured her that nothing was needed for him that night but rest, and +persuaded her that the excitement of her presence could only do harm. +Let him sleep, and he would very probably awake better in the morning. +There was nothing to be said, for I spoke with authority; and the young +girl glided away with noiseless step and sought her own chamber. + +The tremor passed away from my limbs, and the blood began to burn in my +cheeks. The beautiful image which had so bewitched me faded gradually +from my imagination, and I returned to the still perplexing mysteries +of my little neighbor's chamber. All was still there now. No plaintive +sounds, no monotonous murmurs, no shutting of windows and doors at +strange hours, as if something or somebody were coming in or going out, +or there was something to be hidden in those dark mahogany presses. Is +there an inner apartment that I have not seen? The way in which the +house is built might admit of it. As I thought it over, I at once +imagined a Bluebeard's chamber. Suppose, for instance, that the narrow +bookshelves to the right are really only a masked door, such as we +remember leading to the private study of one of our most distinguished +townsmen, who loved to steal away from his stately library to that +little silent cell. If this were lighted from above, a person or +persons might pass their days there without attracting attention from +the household, and wander where they pleased at night,--to Copp's-Hill +burial-ground, if they liked,--I said to myself, laughing, and pulling +the bed-clothes over my head. There is no logic in superstitious +fancies any more than in dreams. A she-ghost wouldn't want an inner +chamber to herself. A live woman, with a valuable soprano voice, +wouldn't start off at night to sprain her ankles over the old graves of +the North-End cemetery. + +It is all very easy for you, middle-aged reader, sitting over this page +in the broad daylight, to call me by all manner of asinine and anserine +unchristian names, because I had these fancies running through my head. +I don't care much for your abuse. The question is not, what it is +reasonable for a man to think about, but what he actually does think +about, in the dark, and when he is alone, and his whole body seems but +one great nerve of hearing, and he sees the phosphorescent flashes of +his own eyeballs as they turn suddenly in the direction of the last +strange noise,--what he actually does think about, as he lies and +recalls all the wild stories his head is full of, his fancy hinting the +most alarming conjectures to account for the simplest facts about him, +his common-sense laughing them to scorn the next minute, but his mind +still returning to them, under one shape or another, until he gets very +nervous and foolish, and remembers how pleasant it used to be to have +his mother come and tuck him up and go and sit within call, so that she +could hear him at any minute, if he got very much scared and wanted +her. Old babies that we are! + +Daylight will clear up all that lamplight has left doubtful. I longed +for the morning to come, for I was more curious than ever. So, between +my fancies and anticipations, I had but a poor night of it, and came +down tired to the breakfast-table. My visit was not to be made until +after this morning hour;--there was nothing urgent, so the servant was +ordered to tell me. + +It was the first breakfast at which the high chair at the side of Iris +had been unoccupied.--You might jest as well take away that +chair,--said our landlady,--he'll never want it again. He acts like a +man that's struck with death, 'n' I don't believe he'll ever come out +of his chamber till he's laid out and brought down a corpse.--These +good women do put things so plainly! There were two or three words in +her short remark that always sober people, and suggest silence or brief +moral reflections. + +----Life is dreadful uncerting,--said the Poor Relation,--and pulled in +her social tentacles to concentrate her thoughts on this fact of human +history. + +----If there was anything a fellah could do,--said the young man John, +so called,--a fellah'd like the chance o' helpin' a little cripple like +that. He looks as if he couldn't turn over any handier than a turtle +that's laid on his back; and I guess there a'n't many people that know +how to lift better than I do. Ask him if he don't want any watchers. I +don't mind settin' up any more 'n' a cat-owl. I was up all night twice +last month. + +[My private opinion is, that there was no small amount of punch +absorbed on those two occasions, which I think I heard of at the +time;--but the offer is a kind one, and it isn't fair to question how +he would like sitting up without the punch and the company and the +songs and smoking. He means what he says, and it would be a more +considerable achievement for him to sit quietly all night by a sick man +than for a good many other people. I tell you this odd thing: there are +a good many persons, who, through the habit of making other folks +uncomfortable, by finding fault with all their cheerful enjoyments, at +last get up a kind of hostility to comfort in general, even in their +own persons. The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is +hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. Look at old misers; first +they starve their dependants, and then themselves. So I think it more +for a lively young fellow to be ready to play nurse than for one of +those useful but forlorn martyrs who have taken a spite against +themselves and love to gratify it by fasting and watching.] + +----The time came at last for me to make my visit. I found Iris sitting +by the Little Gentleman's pillow. To my disappointment, the room was +darkened. He did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept +nearly closed. It was good enough for me;--what business had I to be +indulging my curiosity, when I had nothing to do but to exercise such +skill as I possessed for the benefit of my patient? There was not much +to be said or done in such a case; but I spoke as encouragingly as I +could, as I think we are always bound to do. He did not seem to pay any +very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life +and more than her own life were depending on the words I uttered. She +followed me out of the room, when I had got through my visit. + +How long?--she said. + +Uncertain. Anytime; to-day,--next week,--next month,--I answered.--One +of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or +slow. + +The women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. But +Iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and +kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she'd +be killin' herself; if she begun at that rate, and haf to give up, if +she didn't want to be clean beat out in less than a week. + +At the table we were graver than common. The high chair was set back +against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her +nearest neighbor's on the right. But the nest morning, to our great +surprise, that good-looking young Marylander had very quietly moved his +own chair to the vacant place. I thought he was creeping down that way, +but I was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous +parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. There was +no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair, as they sat +side by side. But whatever the young girl may have thought of her new +neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little +friend who had been taken from her side. There are women, and even +girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. One might as well reason with +a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the +construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from +their own way of doing their own work. It was not a question with Iris, +whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of +things to play the part of a nurse. She was a wilful creature that must +have her way in this matter. And it so proved that it called for much +patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the +kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share +in the household where accident had thrown her. She had that genius of +ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked +even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet +footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to +the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep, +or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with. + +Day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she +kept her place by the pillow.--That girl will kill herself over me, +Sir,--said the poor Little Gentleman to me, one day,--she will kill +herself, Sir, if you don't call in all the resources of your art to get +me off as soon as may be. I shall wear her out, Sir, with sitting in +this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you +leave me to the care of Nature without dosing me. + +This was rather queer pleasantly, under the circumstances. But there +are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the +larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to +them as death and death as life.--How am I getting along?--he said, +another morning. He lifted his shrivelled hand, with the death's-head +ring on it, and looked at it with a sad sort of complacency. By this +one movement, which I have seen repeatedly of late, I know that his +thoughts have gone before to another condition, and that he is, as it +were, looking back on the infirmities of the body as accidents of the +past. For, when he was well, one might see him often looking at the +handsome hand with the flaming jewel on one of its fingers. The single +well-shaped limb was the source of that pleasure which in some form or +other Nature almost always grants to her least richly endowed children. +Handsome hair, eyes, complexion, feature, form, hand, foot, pleasant +voice, strength, grace, agility, intelligence,--how few there are that +have not just enough of one at least of these gifts to show them that +the good Mother, busy with her millions of children, has not quite +forgotten them! But now he was thinking of that other state, where, +free from all mortal impediments, the memory of his sorrowful burden +should be only as that of the case he has shed to the insect whose +"deep-damasked wings" beat off the golden dust of the lily-anthers, as +he flutters in the ecstasy of his new life over their full-blown summer +glories. + +No human being can rest for any time in a state of equilibrium, where +the desire to live and that to depart just balance each other. If one +has a house, which he has lived and always means to live in, he pleases +himself with the thought of all the conveniences it offers him, and +thinks little of its wants and imperfections. But once having made up +his mind to move to a better, every incommodity starts out upon him +until the very ground-plan of it seems to have changed in his mind, and +his thoughts and affections, each one of them packing up its little +bundle of circumstances, have quitted their several chambers and nooks +and migrated to the new home, long before its apartments are ready to +receive their bodily tenant. It is so with the body. Most persons have +died before they expire,--died to all earthly longings, so that the +last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already +deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity with which the great +majority of dying persons await this locking of those gates of life +through which its airy angels have been going and coming, from the +moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have been often +called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always there is +a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on the +smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk-tooth. The roots which +hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its +place. Some of the dying are weary and want rest, the idea of which is +almost inseparable in the universal mind from death. Some are in pain, +and want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the +legend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. Some are stupid, mercifully +narcotized that they may go to sleep without long tossing about. And +some are strong in faith and hope, so that, as they draw near the next +world, they would fain hurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster +over the sands when the foremost travellers send word along the file +that water is in sight Though each little party that follows in a +foot-track of its own will have it that the water to which others think +they are hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all +ages and for human beings of every creed which recognized a future, +that those who have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert +have dreamed at least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its +murmurs as they lay dying. + +The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the +future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is +extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not +insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness, +on the strength of that odious fore-knowledge often imparted by +science, before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call +_death_, has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness. +There is a singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate +of his own vital force. His physician knows the state of his material +frame well enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less +impaired or disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold +out so much longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while, +though by the logic of disease he ought to die without any delay. + +The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his +remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was +a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various +modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The +landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had +saved somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me +to carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to +the title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more +than twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to +"A Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned +before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and +forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he +said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate. +Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the +late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was +something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was +a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of talents. Could +not always agree with his statements,--thought he was a little +over-partial to this city, and had some free opinions; but was sorry to +lose him,--and if--there was anything--he--could----. In the midst of +these kind expressions, the gentleman with the _diamond_, the +Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way, +bow the old boy was likely to cut up,--meaning what money our friend +was going to leave behind. + +The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish +snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the +Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult +him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r +intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young +man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his +chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and +they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out. + +The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one +quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man +down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such +encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to +knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do +happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be +angry, and get up and give you a thrashing. + +So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the +yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm +round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble +art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having +completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side +of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens +that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as +much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter +than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary +was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against +his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone, +judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat +backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little, +the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered +between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to +grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with +that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so +frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and +negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the +spot by "knocking the man down." + +We are in the habit of handling our faces so carefully, that a heavy +blow, taking effect on that portion of the surface, produces a most +unpleasant surprise, which is accompanied with odd sensations, as of +seeing sparks, and a kind of electrical or ozone-like odor, +half-sulphurous in character, and which has given rise to a very vulgar +and profane threat sometimes heard from the lips of bullies. A person +not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this +surprise. The Koh-i-noor, exasperated by his failure, and still a +little confused by the smart hit he had received, but furious, and +confident of victory over a young fellow a good deal lighter than +himself, made a desperate rush to bear down all before him and finish +the contest at once. That is the way all angry greenhorns and +incompetent persons attempt to settle matters. It doesn't do, if the +other fellow is only cool, moderately quick, and has a very little +science. It didn't do this time; for, as the assailant rushed in with +his arms flying everywhere, like the vans of a windmill, he ran a +prominent feature of his face against a fist which was travelling in +the other direction, and immediately after struck the knuckles of the +young man's other fist a severe blow with the part of his person known +as the _epigastrium_ to one branch of science and the _bread-basket_ to +another. This second round closed the battle. The Koh-i-noor had got +enough, which in such cases is more than as good as a feast. The young +fellow asked him if he was satisfied, and held out his hand. But the +other sulked, and muttered something about revenge.--Jest as y' +like,--said the young man John.--Clap a slice o' raw beefsteak on to +that mouse o' yours 'n' 't'll take down the swellin'. (_Mouse_ is a +technical term for a bluish, oblong, rounded elevation occasioned by +running one's forehead or eyebrow against another's knuckles.) The +young fellow was particularly pleased that he had had an opportunity of +trying his proficiency in the art of self-defence without the gloves. +The Koh-i-noor did not favor us with his company for a day or two, +being confined to his chamber, _it was said_, by a _slight feverish +attack_. He was chop-fallen always after this, and got negligent in his +person. The impression must have been a deep one; for it was observed, +that, when he came down again, his moustache and whiskers had turned +visibly white--_about the roots_. In short, it disgraced him, and +rendered still more conspicuous a tendency to drinking, of which he had +been for some time suspected. This, and the disgust which a young lady +naturally feels at hearing that her lover has been "licked by a fellah +not half his size," induced the landlady's daughter to take that +decided step which produced a change in the programme of her career I +may hereafter allude to. + +I never thought he would come to good, when I heard him attempting to +sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man +begins to attack the State-House, when he gets bitter about the +Frog-Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. Poor Edgar +Poe died in the hospital soon after he got into this way of talking; +and so sure as you find an unfortunate fellow reduced to this pass, you +had better begin praying for him, and stop lending him money, for he is +on his last legs. Remember poor Edgar! He is dead and gone; but the +State-House has its cupola fresh-gilded, and the Frog-Pond has got a +fountain that squirts up a hundred feet into the air and glorifies that +humble sheet with a fine display of provincial rainbows. + +--I cannot fulfil my promise in this number. I expected to gratify your +curiosity, if you have become at all interested in these puzzles, +doubts, fancies, whims, or whatever you choose to call them, of mine. +Next month you shall hear all about it. + +--It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As I paused at +the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the +wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:--no, this was the voice +of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in +her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them. + + + + +HYMN OF TRUST. + + +O Love Divine, that stooped to share + Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear, +On Thee we cast each earthborn care, + We smile at pain while Thou art near! + +Though long the weary way we tread, + And sorrow crown each lingering year, +No path we shun, no darkness dread, + Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near! + +When drooping pleasure turns to grief, + And trembling faith is changed to fear, +The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf + Shall softly tell us, Thou art near! + +On Thee we fling our burdening woe, + O Love Divine, forever dear, +Content to suffer, while we know, + Living and dying, Thou art near! + + + * * * * * + +ART. + +PICTURES AT SEVILLE AND MADRID. + + +_Seville, January, 1859_. + +I do not know whether I ought not to take you to the Museo on so bright +a morning, although I should like better to stroll with you on the +Paseo by the pretty river across which I look to the faintly seen hills +of Ronda, with the rich palm-trees in the foreground, and a great stone +pine in the middle distance, which would recall to us the Campagna and +Italy. Many people have said to me, "You cannot judge of Murillo till +you see him at Seville,"--they, of course, having been at Seville. This +is so far true, that his best picture is undoubtedly in the Cathedral +here; but in all other ways, Murillo is perfectly to be seen in other +cities. _You_ know, therefore, just what the pictures and the Museo +have to say to you. They speak of a most clever artist, who evidently +consulted Nature conscientiously, and who perceived and understood very +often many phases of her grace and beauty. The most masterly of his +fifteen or twenty pictures in the gallery is the one of Saint Thomas of +Villanueva giving Alms to the Poor; and it is, certainly, charmingly +arranged, with great breadth of effect and clever drawing,--on a cool +scale of color throughout. The Saint is in a black robe, relieved +against a light background of gray wall. The beggar who is receiving +alms is capitally understood, and carries the light broadly through the +picture. A charming little boy leans against his mother in the +left-hand corner, in half shadow, and shows her the coin in his hand. A +few other heads fill up the right-hand of the picture behind the Saint. +A red drapery, of a dull color, and a touch of brown-red here and +there, warm the agreeable grayness of the rest of the canvas. I like +much, also, a "Conception," in many respects like the usual picture +which Murillo repeated so often; but the Virgin in this one is +represented as very young,--about twelve or fourteen years old,--and +the whole effect is most silvery and delicate. + +But the Saint Antonio in the Cathedral is, I should say, his great +picture. It is very simple, and full of feeling. The Saint, half +kneeling, stretches forward to the vision of the Christ-Child, which +descends in a glory of cherubim toward him. The great mass of light +falls directly upon the kneeling figure and the upturned face, and +throws strong shadows on the ground. One is reminded, in some of the +angel-figures, of the brilliant light and shadow on the little flying +cherubs in the "Assumption," at Venice. Here all is silvery, where in +Titian all burns with the glory of a Venetian sunset. But this picture +of Murillo seems to me what one must call an eminently "happy" picture. +It gives one the idea that the painter enjoyed painting it, for the +expressive movement of the Saint is most admirably given, and the +extreme simplicity of every part of the picture is most agreeable; so +that we are ready to give great praise to Murillo for what he did, and +to say that he was earnest and tried to represent what he really felt. +And when we say that, we say a great deal; do we not? But we cannot, +for a moment, compare him to the great Venetians. He did not attempt +what they did, because he did not feel it at all; and, as a painter, he +is not comparable to them. One sees that he executed with rapidity and +a sort of dash, as it were. The Venetian concealed his execution, as +Nature does, and attempted to render the most subtile things which he +knew his art alone _could_ give, in their full force and beauty. As a +painter, therefore, he cannot be compared with men who wrought from so +different a principle. And when we think of the lovely elevation and +noble thought in the great Venetians, we must quietly rest grateful for +those great blessings,--grateful and happy that they exist, and that +we, in some measure at least, understand and appreciate their meaning. +Is it not delightful to think of them and know them in their precious +old corners and over their dear old altars? + + +_Madrid, March, 1859_. + + +You see that we have at last left Andalusia, and are here in what is +like a bit of Paris,--shops, dress, carriages, and now and then the +smell of asphalt pavement being renewed. Still, mantillas are the +coverings for the female head, and peasants in costumes drive mules and +donkeys through the crowds in the busy streets, and one is still in +Spain. We came, you know, for the gallery, and the first glimpse of it +showed us that we have enough to do to see that, during our proposed +stay of a month. I must tell you just a few things about the pictures, +and give you a peep at Madrid through my eyes, since you are not here +to use your own. + +Murillo is here the same as everywhere else. I very much prefer his +pictures in Seville. Velasquez, however, is to be really seen nowhere +so well as here. I do not know how many pictures there are here by him, +but a great quantity, it seems to me: Philips without number, in +childhood, youth, and age; Dons with curled moustaches; Queens with +large hoops and disfigured heads; an actor, full of life and character, +one of his very best. But his greatest picture, and really a wonder, is +his portrait of himself painting the little Infanta, who is in the +foreground of the picture with two young girls, her court ladies, her +dwarf, and a diminutive page. It is quite like a photograph, in clear, +broad effect of light and dark. From the other side of the room, full +of truth and vigor,--as you approach it, you find it is dashed in with +a surety of touch and a breadth truly extraordinary,--no details, no +substance even; painted with one huge brush, it would almost seem, all +is vigorous, dashing, clever, the triumph of _chic_, as shown by a +master hand. The dog in the immediate foreground is capital, the page +pushing him playfully with his foot. The dwarf stands next, full of a +sort of quaint truth, with her big head and heavy chin. The mass of +light falls on the Infanta, who takes a cup of something, chocolate, I +suppose, from one of the kneeling girls, while the other makes a +reverence on the other side. Beyond are a nun and a _guarda-damas_, and +in the mirror at the other end of the room are most cleverly indicated +the portraits of Philip and his wife. Velasquez stands on the left of +the picture, behind the Infanta, painting, with his canvas turned back +toward us as we look into the room. The black figure of an attendant +has passed out of the apartment and is going up a stair against a clear +white wall. The skilful way in which you are led into the picture is +astonishing, and the whole thing is quite by itself as a piece of +painting. There is no attempt at anything subtile or even delicate in +the treatment, speaking from the point of view of a result achieved by +paint on canvas,--no texture, no difference of handling, no imitation; +all is _paint_, admirably put on, for the effect across the room. I +think we must set Velasquez quite by himself as a truthful and surely +most gifted portrait-master. With a peculiar gift,--genius, I think we +might say,--certainly he is like no one else, and nobody else is like +him. Then there is his equestrian portrait of Philip IV., of which you +may remember the sketch in the Pitti Gallery,--also one of the Duke of +Olivarez, fresh, dashing, and spirited. But I prefer the portrait of +--some actor, I am sure,--full of character, against a gray wall +background,--one of those faces one is sure one has seen somewhere in +Spain, and he is declaiming evidently with the most capital action.--So +much for Velasquez. + +But I hardly dare attempt to tell you of the glory of the great Titian, +who seems almost newly revealed, in many _perfect_ works. Nothing can +equal the superb style of a portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara; it is like +nothing but Nature,--a splendid, dark, manly face and figure, standing +and looking thoughtfully at you, or rather, beyond you, caressing in an +absent way a little silky dog who puts his paw up to attract his +master's notice. The glowing flesh, the superbly painted dress of deep +blue with fine arabesques of gold,--the delicate hand lying on the +soft, silky hair of the dog, with its turquoise ring on the second +joint of one of the fingers,--you can imagine it, can you not? Next him +stands Philip II., pale, elegant, and repulsive, in gorgeous armor worn +over festal, glittering white satin. Charles V. is on the other side; +and I hardly know which of these portraits is the finest as a work of +Art, for all are _perfect_. Charles is standing, with a noble dog +leaning up against his hand; there is something _simpatica_ in his gray +eyes, his worn face, and even in his protruding jaw, it is so admirably +rendered, and gives such a firm character to the face. His costume is +_elegantisimo_, white satin and gold,--with a tissue-of-gold doublet, +and a cassock of silver-damask, with great black fur collar and lining, +against which is relieved the under-dress; he wears his velvet cap and +plume, and a deep emerald satin curtain hangs on his right hand. These +portraits are just about as wonderful as any you may remember,--in his +best style and in capital condition. But I know you would say that the +great portrait of Charles on horseback is more grand. It is a sort of +heroic poem; he looks like Sir Galahad, or Chivalry itself, going forth +to conquer wrong and violence. His eager, worn face looks out from the +helmet so calmly and so steadily, the flash of his armor, which gleams +like real metal, the coal-black horse, which comes forward out of the +landscape shaking his head-piece of blood-red plumes against the golden +sunset sky and champing the golden bit, the grasp of the lance by the +noble rider: well, painting can do no more than that. It is history, +poetry, and the beauty of Nature recreated by the grand master. An +entirely different phase of his character is seen in his Ariadne Asleep +surrounded by the Bacchanals. This is full of antique Grecian feeling; +and such a subtile, delicious piece of painting! Ariadne is in the +foreground, full of warm, breathing life, her arm thrown over her +lovely head, and her golden hair falling over the vase of gold and onyx +on which she rests; a river of red wine runs through the emerald grass; +two beautiful girls have just put by their music and instruments, and +one turns her exquisite face toward us to speak to the other reclining +on the grass. The one who turns to us is the beauty of the Louvre, or +some one very like her, in full Venetian loveliness. In her bosom are +one or two violets and a paper with _Titianus_ written on it. The bit +of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the +middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying +great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny +hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam +on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity. +It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking +on the green among flowers and fruits. A figure full of action and +passion holds up a glass to the statue of the goddess in one corner. +The children are kissing each other and carrying about baskets of +fruit; these baskets are hung with rich pearls and rubies and gems of +all kinds. The green, fresh trees wave against a summer sky, and the +work is full of tender, sensitive elegance and love. It shows to me an +entirely new side of Titian in its extreme delicacy and sweetness. +Nobody can ever speak of a "want of refinement" in Titian, if they +thought so before, after seeing these pictures. Then there is the +Herodias, the same as the girl in Dresden who holds up the +casket,--wonderfully delicate and beautiful; and several other +portraits and pictures, which I cannot tell you of, even if you are not +already tired. I ought, however, to say that Paul Veronese has a very +fine Venus and Adonis here, full of sunlight and summer beauty, and +Christ Teaching the Doctors, nobly serious in character and admirable +in treatment; also two sketches of Cain and of Vice and Virtue, very +full of feeling for his subject. The Cain has his back toward you. His +wife and child look up at him entreatingly. There is a fine, solemn +horizon with a gleam of twilight. There are several Tintorets, but no +favorable specimens,--a portrait is the best. There is also a Giovanni +Bellini, which brings back the Venetian altar-pieces, quiet and lovely; +and a Giorgione, like the large one in the Louvre, in many ways; a +Madonna and Infant, with a fine female Saint and a noble Saint George. + +These are some of the glorious treasures which the Spaniards own. If we +could only have some of these! or if, while we or our country are +committing the sin of coveting the Spanish possessions, we would only +covet something worth the having! I confess, I should delight to take +away one or two fine jewels of pictures that nobody here would miss. + +I had almost forgotten to mention the great Raphael, the "Spasimo." It +is in his Roman style, with much that is, to me, forced in the action +and expression. The head of Christ, however, is beautiful, and +exquisitely drawn. Beside the Spasimo, there is a little picture of the +Virgin and Child, with Saint Joseph, in Raphael's early manner, very +lovely, and reminding one of the "Staffa" Madonna, at Perugia. It is +faint in color, and most charming in careful execution. + +Then there are the finest Hemmlings I have ever seen,--finer than those +at Munich: lovely Madonnas, meek and saintly; superb adoring Kings, all +glowing with cloth-of-gold and velvets and splendid jewels; beautiful +quiet landscapes, seen through the arches of the stable; and angels, +with wings of dazzling green and crimson. The real love with which +these wonderful pictures are caressed by the careful, thoughtful artist +makes them most precious. Every little flower is delicately and +artistically done, and everything is invested with a sort of sacred +reverence by this earnest Pre-Raphaelite. One or two Van Eycks have the +same splendor and depth of feeling. These pictures look as if they were +painted yesterday, so clear and brilliant are their colors. + +It is a pleasant circumstance, that some of the great Venetian pictures +in the gallery here were gained for Spain by the judgment and taste of +Velasquez. When he went to Italy with a commission from Philip IV., +which it must have delighted him to execute, "to buy whatever pictures +were for sale that he thought worth purchasing," he spent some time in +Venice, and there bought, among other things, the Venus and Adonis of +Paul Veronese, and several of the works of Tintoretto. The Titians had +come to Spain before, and it was from the study of them, perhaps, that +Velasquez learned to paint so well. At any rate, we know what he +thought of Titian; for Mr. Sterling gives an extract from a poem by a +Venetian, Marco Boschini, which was published not long after +Velasquez's journey to Italy, in which part of a conversation is given +between him and Salvator Rosa, who asked him what he thought of +Raphael. You will like to see it, if you have not Sterling by you. + +"Lu storse el cao cirimoniosamente, +E disse: 'Rafael (a dirve el vero, +Piasendome esser libero e sinciero) +Stago per dir che nol me piase niente.' + +"'Tanto che,' repliche quela persona, +'Co' no ve piase questo gran Pitor, +In Italia nissun ve da in l' umor, +Perche nu ghe donemo la corona.' + +"Don Diego repliche con tal maniera: +'A Venetia se trova el bon e 'l belo; +Mi dago el primo luogo a quel penelo; +Tician xe quel che porta la bandiera.'" + +Here is a translation:-- + +The master, with a ceremonious air, +Bowed, and then said, "Raphael, truth to tell, +For to be free and honest suits me well, +Pleases me not at all, I must declare." + +"Since, then," replied the other, "you so frown +On this great painter, in Italy is none +By whom, indeed, your favor can be won; +For upon him we all bestow the crown." + +Don Diego thereupon to him replies, +"At Venice may be found the good and fair; +I give the first place to the pencil there; +Titian is he who carries off the prize." + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +1. _Dictionary of Americanisms_. A Glossary of Words and Phrases +usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. By JOHN RUSSELL +BARTLETT. Second Edition, greatly improved and enlarged. Boston: +Little, Brown, & Company, 1859. pp. xxxii., 524. + +2. _A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the +Thirteenth Century_. By HERBERT COLERIDGE. London: Truebner & Company. +1859. pp. iv., 104. + +3. _Outlines of the History of the English Language_, for the Use of +the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools. By +GEORGE L. CRAIK, Professor of History and of English Literature in +Queen's College, Belfast. Third Edition, revised and improved. London: +Chapman & Hall. 1859. pp. xii., 148. + +4. _The Vulgar Tongue_. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases, +used in London from 1839 to 1859; Flash Songs, Essays on Flash, and a +Bibliography of Canting and Slang Literature. By DUCANGE ANGLICUS. +Second Edition, improved and much enlarged. London: Bernard Quaritch. +1859. pp. 80. + +5. _A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words_, etc., etc. +By a London Antiquary. London: John Camden Holten. 1859. pp. lxxxviii., +160. + +6. _On the English Language, Past and Present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX +TRENCH, D.D. New Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Blakeman & +Mason. 1859. pp. 238. + +7. _A Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses +different from their present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New +York: Redfield. 1859. pp. xi., 218. + +8. _Rambles among Words; their Poetry, History, Wisdom_. By WILLIAM +SWINTON. New York. Scribner. 1859. pp. 302. + + +The first allusion we know of to an Americanism is that of Gill, in +1621,--"_Sed et ab Americanis nonnulla mutuamur, ut_ MAIZ _et_ KANOA." +Since then, English literature, not without many previous wry faces, +has adopted or taken back many words from this side of the water. The +more the matter is looked into, the more it appears that we have no +peculiar dialect of our own, and that men here, as elsewhere, have +modified language or invented phrases to suit their needs. When Dante +wrote his "De Vulgari Eloquio," he reckoned nearly a thousand distinct +dialects in the Italian peninsula, and, after more than five hundred +years, it is said that by far the greater part survive. In England, +eighty years ago, the county of every member of Parliament was to be +known by his speech; but in "both Englands," as they used to be called, +the tendency is toward uniformity. + +In spite of the mingling of races and languages in the United States, +the speech of the people is more uniform than that of any European +nation. This would inevitably follow from our system of common-schools, +and the universal reading of newspapers. This has tended to make the +common language of talk more bookish, and has thus reacted unfavorably +on our literature, giving it sometimes the air of being composed in a +dead tongue rather than written from a living one. It gladdens us, we +confess, to see how goodly a volume of _Americanisms_ Mr. Bartlett has +been enabled to gather, for it shows that our language is alive. It is +only from the roots that a language can be refreshed; a dialect that is +taught grows more and more pedantic, and becomes at last as unfit a +vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin. This is the danger which +our literature has to guard against from the universal Schoolmaster, +who wars upon home-bred phrases, and enslaves the mind and memory of +his victims, as far as may be, to the best models of English +composition,--that is to say, to the writers whose style is faultlessly +correct, but has no blood in it. No language, after it has faded into +_diction_, none that cannot suck up feeding juices from the +mother-earth of a rich common-folk-talk, can bring forth a sound and +lusty book. True vigor of expression does not pass from page to page, +but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the lips are +limbered by downright living interests and by passions in the very +throe. Language is the soil of thought; and our own especially is a +rich leaf-mould, the slow growth of ages, the shed foliage of feeling, +fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth-change, that the +vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself anew with living +green. There is death in the Dictionary; and where language is limited +by convention, the ground for expression to grow in is straitened also, +and we get a _potted_ literature, Chinese dwarfs instead of healthy +trees. + +We are thankful to Mr. Bartlett for the onslaught he makes in his +Introduction upon the _highfaluting_ style so common among us. But we +are rather amused to find him falling so easily into that _Anglo-Saxon_ +trap which is the common pitfall of those half-learned men among whom +we should be slow to rank him.[A] He says, "The _unfortunate tendency_ +to _favor_ the Latin at the _expense_ of the Saxon _element_ of our +_language_, which _social_ and _educational causes_ have long _tended_ +to foster in the mother _country_, has with us _received_ an +_additional_ _impulse_ from the great _admixture_ of _foreigners_ in +our _population_." (p. xxxii.) We have underscored the words of Latin +origin, and find that they include _all_ the nouns, all the adjectives +but two, and three out of five verbs,--one of these last (the auxiliary +_have_) being the same in both Latin and Saxon. Speaking of the +Bostonians, Mr. Bartlett says, "The great _extent_ to which the +_scholars_ of New England have carried the _study_ of the _German +language_ and _literature_ for some years back, _added_ to the _very +general neglect_ of the old _master-pieces_ of English _composition_, +have [has] had the _effect_ of giving to the writings of many of them +an _artificial, unidiomatic character_, which has an _inexpressibly +unpleasant effect_ to those who are not _habituated_ to it." (p. xxv. +We again underscore the un-Saxon words.) Now if there be any short cut +to the Anglo-Saxon, it is through the German; and how far the +Bostonians deserve the reproach of a neglect of old English +masterpieces we do not pretend to say, but the first modern reprint of +the best works of Latimer, More, Sidney, Fuller, Selden, Browne, and +Feltham was made in Boston, under the care of the late Dr. Alexander +Young. We have no wish to defend Boston; we mean only to call Mr. +Bartlett's attention to the folly of asking people to write in a +dialect which no longer exists. No man can write off-hand a page of +Saxon English; no man with pains can write one and hope to be commonly +understood. At least let Mr. Bartlett practise what he preaches. When a +deputation of wig-makers waited on George III. to protest against the +hair-powder-tax, the mob, seeing that one of them wore his own hair, +ducked him forthwith in Tower-Ditch,--a very Anglo-Saxon comment on his +inconsistency. We should not have noticed these passages in Mr. +Bartlett's Introduction, had he not, after eleven years' time to weigh +them in, let them remain as they stood in his former edition, of 1848. + +In other respects the volume before us greatly betters its forerunner. +That contained many words which were rather vulgarisms than +provincialisms, and more properly English than American. Almost all +these Mr. Bartlett has left out in revising his book. Once or twice, +however, he has retained as Americanisms phrases which are proverbial, +such as "born in the woods to be scared of an owl," "to carry the foot +in the hand," and "hallooing before you're out of the woods." But it +will be easier to follow the alphabetical order in our short list of +_adversaria_ and comments. + +ALEWIFE. We doubt if Mr. Bartlett is right in deriving this from a +supposed Indian word _aloof_. At least, Hakluyt speaks of a fish called +"old-wives"; and in some other old book of travels we have seen the +name derived from the likeness of the fish, with its good, round belly, +to the mistress of an alehouse. + +BANK-BILL. Is not an Americanism. It is used by Swift, Pope, and +Fielding. + +BOGUS. Mr. Bartlett quotes a derivation of this word from the name of a +certain _Borghese_, said to have been a notorious counterfeiter of +bank-notes. But is it not more probably a corruption of _bagasse_, +which, as applied to the pressed sugarcane, means simply something +worthless? The word originally meant a worthless woman, whence our +"baggage" in the same sense. + +[Footnote A: This, perhaps, was to be expected; for he calls Dr. +Latham's _English Language_ "unquestionably the most valuable work on +English philology and grammar--which has yet appeared," (p. xxx., +note,) and refers to the first edition of 1841. If Mr. Bartlett must +allude at all to Dr. Latham, (who is reckoned a great blunderer among +English philologers,) he should at least have referred to the second +edition of his work, in two volumes, 1855.] + +CHAINED-LIGHTNING. More commonly chain-lightning, and certainly not a +Western phrase exclusively. + +CHEBACCO-BOAT. Mr. Bartlett says, "This word is doubtless a corruption +of _Chedabucto_, the name of a bay in Nova Scotia, from which vessels +are fitted out for fishing." This is going a great way down East for +what could be found nearer. _Chebacco_ is (or was, a century since) the +name of a part of Ipswich, Massachusetts. + +TO FALL a tree Mr. Bartlett considers a corruption of to _fell_. But, +as we have commonly heard the words used, to _fell_ means merely to cut +down, while to fall means to make it fall in a given direction. + +TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative +language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the +prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit +for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German +_untergehen_ (fig.), to perish. + +HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_, +except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has +befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern +sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr. +Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard +the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in +England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon +than _bonnet_ and _gown_. + +IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I +left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among +us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made +better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled +_Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was +published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result +of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the +title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find, +"Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were +_improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract +has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should +have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use +long before with the same meaning. + +To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And +Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good +scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and +_imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:-- + + "Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_ + Donna piu su." + +LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an +herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_. + +LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon, +and used wherever English is spoken. + +LOAFER. We think there can be no doubt that this word is German. +_Laufen_ in some parts of Germany is pronounced _lofen_, and we once +heard a German student say to his friend, _Ich lauf'_ (lofe) _hier bis +du wiederkehrst_: and he began accordingly to saunter up and down,--in +short, to _loaf_ about. + +TO MULL. "To soften, to dispirit." Mr. Bartlett quotes +_Margaret_,--"There has been a pretty considerable _mullin_ going on +among the doctors." But _mullin_ here means stirring, bustling in an +underhand way, and is a metaphor derived from _mulling wine_. _Mull_, +in this sense, is probably a corruption of _mell_, from Old Fr. +_mesler_, to mix. + +TO BE NOWHERE (in the sense of failure) is not an Americanism, but +_Turf_-Slang. + +SALLY-LUN, a kind of cake, is English. + +TO SAVE, meaning to kill game so as to get it, is not confined to the +Far West, but is common to hunters in all parts of the country. + +SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of +Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a +vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had +what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and +Hector Boece. + +SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and +Western." Used also in New York. + +SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low). + +TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of +his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is, +perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary. + +TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self." +It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital +metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the +Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces +in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _etaler_. + +STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is +surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently +explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in +the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their +shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious. + +SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of +the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in +almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the +name. + +A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett. + +A CARRY: portage. _Passim_. + +CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England. + +CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England. + +COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of +certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the +archaic form, _Quo' he_. + +TO COTTON TO. + +DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to +acknowledging ignorance. + +GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England. + +LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts. + +LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair. + +LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means +weak-willed. Massachusetts. + +MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water. +Massachusetts. + +OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England. + +OLD DRIVER: } euphemistic for the +OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil. + +ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger. + +ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New +England. + +SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be +suited, for couldn't be suited. + +STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it +from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of +the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in +Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be +called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it. + +STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins. + +SWALE: a hollow. New England. English also; see Forby. + +TORMENTED: euphemistic, as "not a _tormented_ cent." New England. + +WELL-SWEEP. + +We have gone through Mr. Bartlett's book with the attention which a +work so well done deserves, and are thoroughly impressed with the +amount of care and labor to which it bears witness. We have quarrelled +with it wherever we could, because it cannot fail to become the +standard authority in its department. Its value will increase from year +to year. For instance, the Spanish words, in which it is especially +rich, are doomed to undergo strange metamorphoses on Anglo-Saxon lips; +for it is the instinct of the unlearned to naturalize words as fast as +possible, and to compel them to homebred shapes and sounds. There is +often an unwitting humor in these perversions,[A] and they are always +interesting as showing that it is the nature of man to use words with +understanding, however appearances might lead us to an opposite +conclusion. + +[Footnote A: We remember once hearing a man say of something, that it +was written in a "very grand delinquent [grandiloquent] style,"--a +phrase certainly not without modern application. We have heard also +Angola-Saxons and Angular-Saxons,--the latter, at least, not an unhappy +perversion.] + +The least satisfactory part of Mr. Bartlett's book is the Appendix, in +which he has got together a few proverbs and similes, which, it seems +to us, do no kind of justice to the humor and invention of the people. +Most of them have no characteristic at all, except coarseness. We hope +there is nothing peculiarly American in such examples as these:--"Evil +actions, like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all"; and +"Vice is a skunk that smells awfully rank when stirred up by the pole +of misfortune." These have, beside, an artificial air, and are quite +too long-skirted for working proverbs, in which language always "takes +off its coat to it," if we may use a proverbial phrase, left out by Mr. +Bartlett. We confess, we looked for something racier and of a more +_puckery_ flavor. One hears such now and then, mostly from the +West,--like "Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog"; "I take my +tea _bar-foot_," the answer of a backwoodsman, when asked if he would +have cream and sugar. Some are unmistakably Eastern; as, "All deacons +are good,--but there's odds in deacons"; "He's a whole team and the dog +under the wagon"; "That's first-rate and a half"; "Handy as a pocket in +a shirt" (ironical). Almost every county has some good die sinker in +language, who mints phrases that pass into the currency of a whole +neighborhood. We picked up two such the other day, both of the same +coinage. The county-jail (the only stone building where all the +dwellings were of wood) was described as "the house whose underpinning +comes up to the eaves"; while the place unmentionable to ears polite +was "where they don't rake up the fires at night." A man, speaking to +us once of a very rocky clearing, said, "Stone's got a pretty heavy +mortgage on that farm"; and another, wishing to give us a notion of the +thievishness common in a certain village, capped his climax +thus:--"Dishonest! why, they have to take in their stone walls o' +nights." Any one who has driven over a mountain-stream by one of those +bridges made of _slabs_ will feel the force of a term we once heard +applied to a parson so shaky in character that no dependence could be +placed on him,--"A slab-bridged kind o' feller!" During some very cold +weather, a few years ago, we picked a notable saying or two. "The fire +don't seem to git no kind o' _purchase_ on the cold." "They say Cap'n +M'Clure's gone through the Northwest Passage." "Has? Think likely, and +left the door open, too!" Elder Knapp, the once noted itinerant +preacher, had a kind of unwashed poetry in him. We heard him say +once,--"Do you want to know when a Unitarian" (we think it was) "will +get into heaven? When hell's froze over, and he can skate in!" We quote +merely for illustration, and do not mean to compare the Elder with +Taylor or South. + +The element of exaggeration has often been remarked on as typical of +American humor. In Dr. Petri's "Compact Handbook of Foreign Words,"[A] +(from which Mr. Bartlett will be surprised to learn that _Hoco-pocos_ +is a nickname for the Whig party in the United States,) we are told that +the word _humbug_ "is commonly used for the exaggerations of the +North-Americans." One would think the dream of Columbus half-fulfilled, +and that Europe had found in the West the near way to Orientalism, at +least of diction. But it seems to us that a great deal of what is set +down as mere exaggeration is more fitly to be called intensity and +picturesqueness, symptoms of the imaginative faculty in full health and +strength, though producing, as yet, only the raw material.[B] +By-and-by, perhaps, the world will see it worked up into poem and +picture, and Europe, which will be hard-pushed for originality ere +long, may thank us for a new sensation. The French continue to find +Shakspeare exaggerated, because he treated English just as our folk do +when they speak of "a steep price," or say that they "freeze to" a +thing. The first postulate of an original literature is, that a people +use their language as if they owned it. Even Burns contrived to write +very poor English. Vulgarisms are often only poetry in the egg. The +late Horace Mann, in one of his Addresses, commented at some length on +the beauty of the French phrase _s'orienter_, and called on his young +hearers to practise it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience +whose problem had not always been to find out what was "_about east_" +and shape his course accordingly. The Germans have a striking proverb; +_Was die Gans gedacht, das der Schwan vollbracht_; What the goose but +thought, that the swan fullbrought; or, to de-Saxonize it a little, +_pace_ Mr. Bartlett, What the goose conceived, that the swan +achieved;--and we cannot help thinking, that the life, invention, and +vigor shown in our popular speech, and the freedom with which it is +shaped to the need of those who wield it, are of the best omen for our +having a swan at last. + +[Footnote A: _Gedraengtes Handbuch der Fremdwoerter_, etc., etc., +Leipzig, 1852.] + +[Footnote B: Take, for instance, the "negro so black that charcoal made +a chalk-mark on him," or the "shingle painted to look so like stone +that it sank in water,"--itself overpersuaded by the skill of the +painter. We overheard the following dialogue last winter. +(Thermometer,--12 deg..) "Cold, this morning."--"That's _so_. Hear what +happened to Joe?"--"No, I didn't."--"Well, the doctors had ben givin' +him one thing another with merc'ry in't, and he walked out down to the +Post-Office and back, and when he come home he kind o' felt somethin' +hard in his boots. Come to pull 'em off, they found a lump o' +quicksilver in both on 'em."--"Sho!"--"Fact; it had shrunk clean down +through him with the cold." This rapid power of dramatizing a dry fact, +of putting it into flesh and blood, and the instantaneous conception of +Joe as a human thermometer, seem to us more like the poetical faculty +than anything else. It is, at any rate, humor, and not mere quickness +of wit,--the deeper, and not the shallower quality. Humor tends always +to overplus of expression; wit is mathematically precise. Captain Basil +Hall denied that our people had humor; but did he possess it himself? +for, if not, he would never find it. Did he always feel the point of +what was said to himself? We doubt, because we happen to know a chance +he once had given him in vain. The Captain was walking up and down the +_piazza_ of a country tavern while the couch changed horses. A +thunderstorm was going on, and, with that pleasant European air of +indirect self-compliment in condescending to American merit, which is +so conciliating, he said to a countryman lounging near, "Pretty heavy +thunder, you have here." The other, who had taken his measure at a +glance, drawled gravely, "Waal, we _du_, considerin' the number of +inhabitants."] + +Even persons not otherwise interested in the study of provincialisms +will find Mr. Bartlett's book an entertaining one. The passages he +quotes in illustration are sometimes strangely comic. Here is one: "To +SAVE. To make sure, i.e., to kill game, or an enemy, whether man or +beast. _To get_ conveys the same meaning.... The notorious Judge W---- +of Texas ... once said in a speech at a barbecue, (after his political +opponent had been apologizing for taking a man's life in a duel,)-- + +"'The gentleman need not make such a fuss about _getting_ such a +rascal; everybody knows that I have shot three, and two of them I +_saved_.'" + +We have but one fault to find with Mr. Bartlett's Dictionary, and that +it shares with all other provincial glossaries. No accents are given. +No stranger could tell, for example, whether _hacmatack_ should be +pronounced hac'matack, hacma'tack, or hacmatack'. The value of Mr. +Wright's otherwise excellent dictionary is very much impaired by this +neglect. Ignorance of the pronunciation enhances tenfold the difficulty +of tracing analogies or detecting corruptions. The title of Mr. +Coleridge's volume (the second on our list) is enough to give scholars +a notion of its worth. It is the first instalment of the proposed +comprehensive English Dictionary of the Philological Society, a work +which, when finished, will be beyond measure precious to all students +of their mother-tongue. At the end of the volume will be found the Plan +of the Society, with minute directions for all those who wish to give +their help. Cooperation on this side the water will be gladly welcomed. + +Of Dean Trench's two volumes, one is new, and the other a revised +edition. No one has done more than he to popularize the study of words, +which is only another name for the study of thought. His new book has +the same agreeable qualities which marked its forerunners, maintaining +an easy conversational level of scholarly gossip and reflection, the +middle ground between learning and information for the million. Without +great philological attainments, and without any pretence of such, he +gives the results of much good reading. + +Mr. Craik's book is a compact and handy manual. + +The SLANG Dictionaries are both as ill-done as possible, and the author +of the smaller one deserves to be put under the pump for taking the +name of the illustrious Ducange, one of those megatheria of erudition +and industry that we should look on as an extinct species, but for such +men as the brothers Grimm. The larger book has the merit of including a +bibliography of the subject, for which the author deserves our thanks, +though in other respects showing no least qualification for the task he +has undertaken. We trust there are not many "London Antiquaries" so +ignorant as he. One curious fact we glean from his volume, namely, the +currency among the London populace of certain Italian words, chiefly +for the smaller pieces of money. What a strident invasion of +organ-grinders does this seem to indicate! The author gives them thus: +"Oney saltec, a penny; Dooe saltee, twopence; Tray saltee, threepence," +etc., and adds, "These numerals, as will be seen, are of mongrel +origin,--the French, perhaps, predominating."! He must be the gentleman +who, during the Exhibition of 1851, wrote on his door, "No French +spoken here." _Dooe saltee_ and _tray saltee_ differ little but in +spelling from their Italian originals, _due soldi_ and _tre soldi_. On +another page we find _molto cattivo_ transmogrified into "_multee +kertever_, very had." Very bad, indeed! For one more good thing beside +the Bibliography, we are indebted to the "London Antiquary." In his +Introduction he has reprinted the earliest list of _cant_ words in the +language, that made by Thomas Harman in Elizabeth's time. We wish we +could only feel sure of the accuracy of the reprint. In this list we +find already the adjective _rum_ meaning _good, fine_,--a word that has +crept into general use among the lower classes in London, without ever +gaining promotion. The fate of new words in this respect is curious. +Often, if they are convenient, or have knack of lodging easily in the +memory, they work slowly upward. The Scotch word _flunky_ is a case in +point. Our first knowledge of it in print is from Fergusson's Poems. +Burns advertised it more widely, and Carlyle seems fairly to have +transplanted it into the English of the day. As we believe its origin +is still obscure, we venture on a guess at it. French allies brought +some words into Scotland that have rooted themselves, like the +Edinburgh _gardyloo_. _Flunky_ is defined in Fergusson's glossary as "a +better kind of servant." This is an exact definition of the Scotch +_hench-man_, the most probable original of which is _haunch-man_ or +body-guard. Turn haunch-man into French and you get _flanquier_; +corrupt it back into Scotch and you have _flunky_. Whatever liberties +we take with French words, the Gauls have their revenge when they take +possession of an English one. We once saw an Avis of the police in +Paris, regulating _les chiens et les boule dogues_, dogs and bull-dogs. + +Vocabularies of vulgarisms are of interest for the archaisms both of +language and pronunciation which we find in them. The dictionaries say +_coverlet_, as if the word were a diminutive; the rustic persists in +the termination _lid_, which points to the French _lit_, bed. On the +other hand, he still says _hankercher_, having been taught so by his +betters, though they have taken up the final _f_ again. Sewel, in the +Introduction to his Dutch Dictionary, 1691, gives _henketsjer_, and +Voltaire, forty years later, _hankercher_, as the received +pronunciation. Sewel tells us also that the significant _l_ was still +sounded in _would_ and _should_, as it still is by the peasantry in +many parts of England. + +Mr. Swinton's book, the last on our list, is an entertaining one, and +gives proof of thought, though sometimes smothered in fine writing. It +is written altogether too loosely for a work on philology, one of the +exactest of sciences. But we have a graver fault to find with Mr. +Swinton, and that is for his neglect to give credit where he is +indebted. He seems even desirous to conceal his obligations. The +general acknowledgment of his Preface is by no means enough, where the +debt is so large. The great merit of Dr. Richardson's Dictionary being +the number of illustrative passages he has brought together, it is +hardly fair in Mr. Swinton so often to make a show of learning with +what he has got at second hand from the lexicographer. Dr. Trench could +also make large reclamations, and several others. There is beside an +unpleasant assumption of superiority in the book. An author who says +that _paganus_ means village, who makes _ocula_ the plural of _oculus_, +and who supposes that _in petto_ means _in little_, is not qualified to +settle Dr. Webster's claims as a philologer, much less to treat him +with contempt. The first two blunders we have cited may be slips of the +pen or the press, but this cannot be true of the many wrong etymologies +into which Mr. Swinton has fallen. We hope that in another edition he +will correct these faults, for he shows a power to appreciate ideas +which is worth more than mere scholarship, vastly more than the +reputation of it among the unscholarly. + +_A History and Description of New England, General and Local._ By A. J. +COOLIDGE and J. B. MANSFIELD. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. In +Two Volumes. Vol. I. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin +J. Coolidge, 1859. pp. xxv., 1023. + +This is a book of great labor, being nothing less in plan than a +condensed town-history of New England. In spite of all efforts to the +contrary, one is forced to admit that there is very little poetry in +American history. It is a record of advances in material prosperity, +and scarce anything more. The only lumps of pure ore are the _Idea_ +which the Pilgrims were possessed with and its gradual incarnation in +events and institutions. Beyond this all is barren. There is a fearful +destitution of the picturesque elements. It is true that our local +historians commonly avoid all romance as if it were of the Enemy; but +if we compare their labors with "The Beauties of England and Wales," +for example, the work certainly of uninspired men, we shall be +convinced that the American Dryasdust suffers from poverty of material. +There is no need to remind us of Hawthorne; but he is such a genius as +is rare everywhere, and could conjure poetry out of a country +meeting-house. + +In books of this kind we see evidence of what is called the +"enterprise" of our people on every page,--one almost hears the hum of +the factory-wheels, as he reads,--but that is all. It is not to be +wondered at that foreigners fail to find our country interesting, and +that the only good book of American travels is that of De Tocqueville, +who deals chiefly with abstract ideas. It is possible to conceive minds +so constituted that they may reach before long the end of their +interest in the number of shoes, yards of cotton, and the like, which +we produce in a year. The only immortal Greek shoemaker is he who had +the good luck to be snubbed by Apelles, and Penelope is the only +manufacturer in antiquity whose name has come down to us. + +One thing in the narrative part of this volume is striking,--the +continual recurrence of massacre by the French and Indians. This is +something to be borne in mind always by those who would understand the +politics of our New England ancestors. We confess that we were +surprised, the other day, to see a journal so able and generally so +philosophical as the London "Saturday Review" joining in the outcry +about the treatment of the Acadians. If our forefathers were ever wise +and foreseeing, if they ever showed a capacity for large political +views, it is proved by their early perception that the first question +to be settled on this continent was, whether its destiny should be +shaped by English or Keltic, by Romish or Protestant ideas. By what +means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another +question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history +written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans +doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_. + +The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils +honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way +of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the +enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are +to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak +highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it +is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply +the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating +cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the +pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only +been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no +bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the +same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the +heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the +coast, _and Pemaquid in particular._" Of a certain tavern we are told +that the daughters of the landlord were "genteel, sprightly, +intelligent young ladies, ambitious of display and of setting a rich +and elegant table." This is no doubt true, but surely History should +sift her tacts with a coarser sieve. + +In spite of these faults, the book is one which all New Englanders will +find interesting, and we hope that in their second volume the authors +will balance their commendable profusion of industry with a +corresponding economy of fine writing. + +_An Oration, delivered before the Municipal Authorities of the City of +Boston, July_ 4, 1850. By GEORGE SUMNER, etc, etc, Boston. 1859. pp. +125. + +The opposition in the Common Council to the order (usual on such +occasions in Boston) to print the oration of Mr. Sumner, and the series +of assaults it has encountered front the administration press, have +given it a considerable, though secondary, importance. Intrinsically a +performance of great merit, those on whom the weight of his arguments +and learning fell disclosed their sense of its power by the anger of +their debate and their efforts to repel it. + +Its value, as containing a fresh and instructive contribution to the +knowledge of our Revolutionary history, derived from original sources +of inquiry, explored by Mr. Sumner in person, would alone have rescued +from neglect any ordinary Fourth-of-July oration. + +The services and aids of Spain, material and moral, pecuniary and +diplomatic, to the American Revolutionary cause,--the introduction, +through the fortunes of Captain John Lee of Marblehead, of the American +question into the policy and polities of Spain,--the effect of the +arrival of our National Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, on the +fate of that gallant New England cruiser, then detained as a pirate, +for his heroic exploits under our infant and unknown flag,--the +incidents of vast and varied labor and accomplishment in our behalf, +connected with the name and administration of the eminent Spanish +minister and statesman, Florida Blanca,--the weaving and spreading out +of that network of influences and circumstances, in the toils of which +France and Spain entangled Great Britain, until she found herself +confronted by much of the physical and all the moral power of the +Continent, and from which all extrication was made hopeless, until the +American Colonies should be free,--the origin of "the armed +neutrality," and the shock it gave to the naval power of England, in +the very crisis of the hopes of American liberty,--are presented in a +narrative, clear, condensed, and original. + +From the aspect of peace and freedom in which our country so happily +reposes, going on prospering and increasing, "by confidence in +democratic principles, by faith in the people, and by the spirit of +mutual forbearance and charity," the orator turns to that Europe to +which our fathers there looked for succor, now "echoing to the clang of +arms, and hostile legions arrayed for combat." + +A tribute to Italy, for the gifts, poured out from her treasures of +art, science, medical skill, and political knowledge, of literature and +philosophy, to all the uses and adornments of human life, introduces a +reference to the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, which are shown +to have been based on these great principles:--That all authority over +the people emanates from the people,--should return to them at stated +intervals,--and that its holders should be accountable to the people +for its use. "To those Republics," it is added, "we also owe the +practical demonstration of the great truth, that no state can long +prosper or exist where intelligent labor is not held in honor, and that +labor cannot be honorable where it is not free." + +Mr. Sumner's defence of democratic republican ideas,--of the fitness of +the European peoples for self-government,--his repulse of those +unbelieving theorists who would consign the French and the Italians to +the eternal doom of oppression,--are manly, powerful, and unanswerable. +His hearty love of genuine democratic principles, as taught by the old +republican school of statesmen and philosophers, and his zealous pride +of country, which always made him one of the most intensely American, +in thought, word, and deed, of all the Americans who have ever +sojourned in the Old World, shine forth from every page of the Oration. +And in the honest ardor of his defence of the natural and political +rights of man, as they were taught by Turgot, by Montesquieu, by +Jefferson, not content with declamation or rhetoric, he ploughs deep +into the reasoning by which they were demonstrated or defended, and +ranges wide over the fields of learning by which they were illustrated. +Careful for nothing but for the truth itself, he refutes the errors of +a French writer who had charged practical ingratitude on the part of +America towards de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of +France to these Colonies, and arraigns and exposes the historical +mistakes of Lord Brougham and of President Fillmore, unfavorable to +Republican France and to Continental liberty. + +The crimes of Austria are shown to have been made possible by the moral +support Austria has received from the government of England. The fruits +of the reverses suffered by Hungary, and by other nationalities +struggling for independence and popular liberty, are exhibited in the +sacrifices since endured by England in the war in the Crimea, and in +the embarrassments of the present hour. + +Among our own duties and responsibilities to the great and world-wide +cause of liberty,--discussed thus far in its relations to Europe,--Mr. +Sumner proceeds to present the grand duty we owe, not less to ourselves +than to Europe, of giving to the struggling nations an example of +government true to the memories of our National Anniversary, and to the +fundamental ideas of civil freedom "implied in an independent, but +rigidly responsible judiciary, and a complete separation of the +legislative and judicial functions." + +From Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall, and Story,--to say nothing +of English and French jurists,--Mr. Sumner brings authority to define +and illustrate the true place of the judicial office in the political +system of a free government. And here, fidelity to those principles of +liberty he had explained and defended, fidelity to the "good old cause" +itself, at home and in the grand forum of the nations, demanded and +received the frank avowal, that "a recent scene in the Supreme Court of +the United States has shown that Jefferson was no false prophet, and +has furnished at the same time a serious warning to all who prefer a +government based upon law to either despotism or anarchy." + +The clear and sharp, merciless and logical veracity with which he +discriminates between the solemn judgment of a tribunal and a stump +speech from the bench,--the startling narration of decisions and +statutes, practice and precedent, condensed into a few of the closing +pages of the Oration, with which the discussion read by Chief Justice +Taney in the famous case of Dred Scott is confronted and exposed,--are +among the greater merits of this elaborate and able discourse. It must +have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a +large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of +an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of +self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for +his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience +and many of his countrymen. + +It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery +that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of +republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the +model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good +government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station, +quality, and character of the active offender. + +And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land, +and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary +between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce, +and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is +tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political +_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America. + +Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the +humblest comprehension. The chief justice and a majority of his +associates held that Dred Scott, who sued his master for his freedom in +the Federal court, had been already legally declared to be the slave of +that same master by the highest court of the State of Missouri, in +which State Scott resided at the time. They held that this decision of +the Missouri court was binding on all other tribunals; and that the +Federal court had no authority to reverse it, even if wrong. + +The _merits_ of the cause then before the court were thus conclusively +disposed of, whether the decision be regarded as bearing on the main +issue between the parties, or on the plea in abatement filed by the +defendant, avowing that Scott was not a _citizen_ of Missouri,--an +averment, if true, fatal to his standing in the Federal court,--since +its jurisdiction of the cause depended on the citizenship of the +litigants. In a word, if he was a _slave_, he was no _citizen_, If he +was the slave of Sanford, his doom was fixed, his dream of rights +dissolved. If the decision of the Missouri court was finally binding, +the functions of the Federal tribunal were at an end. + +What, then, was the pertinency of going on to argue the effect of the +Ordinance of 1787 over Scott while a resident in Illinois, or of the +Missouri Compromise on him during his residence in Wisconsin, or the +effect of his color, race, or ancestral disabilities upon a cause +controlled finally and beyond appeal by the authority of a decision +already made and recorded? + +Mr. Buchanan made hot haste to use this _pronunciamento_ of his chief +justice, issued only a few hours after his inauguration as President, +and withheld until after the election of 1856 had taken place. He +proclaimed--on its authority as a judicial exposition of a point of +constitutional law--the existence of slavery in the Territory of +Kansas. And he endeavored to make it efficient and powerful by +practical application in the administration of the government of the +Territory, and by interpolating these bastard dogmas, dropped from the +Federal bench, into the creed of the political party of which he was +the official chief. + +These _dicta_ of Mr. Chief Justice Taney made Dred Scott neither more +nor less a _slave_, neither more nor less a _citizen_, than he had been +without their utterance. But they aided the purpose of subjugating +Kansas, of opening all American territory to slavery, of Africanizing +the continent by reopening the slave-trade, of breaking down barriers +which State legislation has interposed against the introduction of +slaves, and of putting the propagandists of slavery in full possession +of every power. + +We gladly record our sense of the skill, learning, and intrepidity with +which Mr. Sumner fulfilled his task of presenting, defining, and +defending, within the brief limits of a single oration, the cause of +Liberty,--Liberty,--American, European, universal. + + + * * * * * + +_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan & +Co. 8vo. pp. 381. + +The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a +trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may +follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has +been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its +present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or +the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of +which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized +society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means +of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty +in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in +the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so +revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's +experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one +productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class +that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so +indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this +kind which could be studied and talked about. Dumas _fils_' "Dame aux +Camelias" is a great melodramatic story; but it is so exceptional in +its incidents and episodical in its character, that its heroine is +quite worthless as a specimen for examination and analysis; and it is, +beside, so very French as to be almost valueless in this regard, for +that reason alone. What it would be well to have written is the story +of an abandoned woman, told simply and without any reserve, except that +of decency, and purely from a woman's point of view. But, except by a +woman, and at the cost of the experience to be recounted, this is +manifestly possible only to genius. The author of "Out of the Depths" +has not attained the _desideratum_; but has yet approached so near it, +that we fear the right man, or, possibly, woman, may be deterred from +the attempt to do better. If so, there is a good subject--good for the +making of a grand psychological, physiological, and dramatic +study--lost. + +The subject of this professed autobiography, Mary Smith, is the +daughter of a gardener on a large English estate. Her family is much +noticed and favored by the ladies of the mansion, and she, who is +handsome and intellectual, soon acquires tastes and an education above +her position; and as she is vain and selfish and of a voluptuous +temperament, the consequence seems inevitable. Her first fault, +however, is committed with her betrothed husband, a young gentleman, +destined for the Church, by whose sudden death, at a time when his life +was more than ever essential to her happiness, she is left an outcast, +a creature to be spurned from the door of those upon whose tender care +Nature and themselves had given her unextinguishable claims. She finds +shelter and kind treatment with two girls who belong, though not +ostensibly, to the class into which she is about to fall, and soon she +appears as the mistress of a foolish young nobleman, for whom she has +not the least affection. At last he wearies of and parts with her, and +she finds a second companion and protector in an eminent barrister, who +takes pleasure in cultivating her literary tastes. Her unfaithfulness +to him results in a separation, and she passes into the hands of a +third keeper, who abandons her on occasion of his approaching marriage. +Infuriated at his desertion, she intrudes upon him at a social party at +his private chambers, and behaves so outrageously that she is handed +over to the police, and her name appears in public as that of an +infamous and disorderly woman. From this point she rapidly descends to +the lowest rank of her unfortunate class. On her way, a strong hand is +put out to save her. It is that of a gigantic young clergyman, who +allows her to think that she has decoyed him to her room, but who +really goes there to endeavor to turn her from her course of life. She +scorns his exhortations, and attempts to browbeat him; but she finds +him ready for a row upon the spot. He offers to fight her crowd of +bullies singlehanded, and when she locks the door upon him, twists the +lock off, hasp and all, with a turn of his wrist. Although they +part,--he none the worse, she none the better, for the interview,--it +is not without fruits; for he leaves her his address, and when, after +being reduced to the lowest depths of degradation and brought to the +last endurable pinch of suffering, she determines, at the death-bed of +a repentant companion, to reform at any cost, and does set her face +upward, and is beaten back and trodden under foot by the righteously +uncharitable of her own sex, she thinks of her big clergyman, seeks him +out, and by his instrumentality is taken into the country, and made the +mistress of a school in his parish. Here the friends of her youth find +her, forgive her, and cherish her; and she receives a proposal of +marriage from an estimable and wealthy farmer, who persists in his +suit, even after she has told him of her former life, and after the +small-pox, caught on a ministration of mercy, has harrowed all the +beauty from her face. But rapid consumption supervenes, and relieves +the author from the embarrassing position into which he had brought +himself. + +This is all the story that Mary Smith has to tell; and it will be seen, +that, so far as the incidents are concerned, it is commonplace enough. +It is not distinguished by one novel incident, or one fresh character, +except, perhaps, the muscular divine. Even in the grouping and +narration of its old incidents it exhibits no dramatic power, and +little skill of characterization in the portraiture of its personages. +And not only does a matter-of-fact air pervade the narrative, but the +tale is told with such reticence of fact as well as of feeling, that it +reveals but little of the real life of a London courtesan, and leaves +the reader almost as ignorant as he was when he took up the book of +what it is that makes the horror of such existence; all of which might +have been imparted without any violation of the decorum proper to such +a book, and which, therefore, should not have been withheld. The book, +too, is much too goody-goody. There is too much preaching throughout +it, and in certain parts a suddenness in the kneeling down to pray that +is quite startling. This stupid sort of goodness helps much to defeat +the purpose of the work. Even the strong minister, although his is not +the old-fashioned way, seems to have more beef on his bones than brains +in his head, or he would not answer to a desperate exclamation of Mary +Smith,--"Don't say that. God only knows what is best for us all; even +you, and all like you, may begin to live for the good of society, +without being its bane." This is very true,--as true as Justice +Shallow's original observation, that "we must all die." But the idea of +attempting to impress a degraded woman of the town by telling her that +she, and all like her, might be brought to live _for the good of +society!_ + +But in spite of these faults, the book has one great merit, which is +not too common; it seems to be the truthful story of a real life. This +impression is partly the result of a peculiarity of style which is very +difficult to express otherwise than by saying that the use of language +seems to indicate that the writer is of the condition of life in which +Mary Smith professes to have been born, and has acquired a knowledge of +language and literature in the manner in which she relates that she +acquired hers. There is no vulgarity, but a certain air of constrained +propriety, and an absence of any elegance, or grace, or indications of +a slow and unconsciously acquired acquaintance with the phraseology of +cultivated society. If this be really assumed, the author has exhibited +a delicate refinement in the art of writing not surpassed in any work +of imagination known to us. Another ground for the seeming actuality of +the story, to those who have any knowledge of the class to which its +heroine belongs, is the cause to which she attributes her fall. This +was not seduction; for she confesses, what hardly one in a thousand of +her sisters in shame will fail to confess, if they speak the truth, +that she was not seduced;--and neither was it poverty; for her father +was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a +young lady of wealth and station;--but it was her vanity and her +unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as +regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life; +and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate of +prudence; just as to a man whose great purpose is the getting of money, +honesty is but the best policy. After she has met the man who brings +her fate with him, (it might as well have been any other of his class,) +she writes,--"The one great pleasing and wretched hope of my mind was +that I should see him again; for it is so pleasant to believe that any +man in a higher station should take an interest in me." And again she +speaks of "exultation at the prospect which opened before me of being +raised out of the station in life from which I sprang by birth"; and +again, of her "desire of being a lady." This vanity it is, this desire +to dress and live like the women above them, and have intercourse with +the men above them, which leads the greater number of our fallen women +to their ruin, or, rather, sends them to it with their eyes open; and +for the rest, when Mary Smith, living in her own fine house, the petted +mistress of the wealthy Mr. Plowden, was unfaithful to him, it was not +for love of fine clothes or fine society. It is not long since our +whole country was shocked by the dire results of a similar abandonment +to vanity and wantonness, about which the usual amount of commonplace +and cant was uttered. It is time that the very truth was told about +this matter, in sad earnestness and singleness of purpose. We hoped to +find the whole truth in "Out of the Depths"; but, finding only a part +of it, we can greet it only with a partial welcome. + +_Reply to the "Statement of the Trustees" of the Dudley Observatory._ +By BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, JR. Albany: Printed by Charles Van +Benthuysen. 1859. 8vo. pp. 366. + +The question between Dr. Gould and the Trustees of the Albany +Observatory was not one of merely private or passing interest. It +concerned not only all men of science, but all men of honor. It +concerned all who like pluck, and who, in a quarrel, instinctively take +sides with one against many. It was of interest to men of science, +because the question was between show and reality, between newspaper +notoriety and the quiet advancement of real and enduring knowledge. It +concerned men of honor, because it was of some consequence to know +whether public sentiment in America would justify, nay, tolerate even, +the printing of confidential letters, and not only the printing, but +the garbling of them to suit the ends of personal spite. It concerned +lovers of fair-play, because it was to be settled whether it is right +to accuse a man of peculation whom you wish to convict of disagreeable +manners. + +Dr. Gould's pamphlet is a thorough vindication of himself. It is so not +only as to graver charges, but incidentally, by its perfect quietness +of tone, it answers the accusation of bad temper. The hitting is none +the less severe that it is done with scientific precision, and the +astronomer shows his ability to make his antagonists "see stars" in a +less comfortable way than through a telescope. There is a grim humor, +too, as well as dignity, in the Cool way in which Dr. Gould +recapitulates all the charges made against him,--especially where he +condenses them in the Index. Better pamphlet-fighting has not been seen +since Bentley. The hardship of the matter is, that people are commonly +more ready to believe slander than to trouble themselves with reading a +refutation of it. It gave us particular satisfaction to see that the +American Association for the Advancement of Science had shown its sense +of the merits of the quarrel by electing Dr. Gould vice-president of +their body. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Black Diamonds, gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South. By Edward A. +Pollard, of Virginia. New York. Pudney and Russell. 12mo. pp. 122. 50 +cts. + +Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders; or the Cogitations +and Confessions of an Aged Physician. By William A. Alcott, M.D. +Boston. John P. Jewett & Co. 12mo. pp. 384. $1.00. + +Modern Philology; its Discoveries, History, and Influence, Tabular +Views, and an Index. By Benjamin W. Dwight. New York. A.S. Barnes & +Burr. 8vo. pp. 354. $1.75. + +The Mississippi Bubble; a Memoir of John Law. By Adolphe Thiers, Author +of "The Consulate and Empire." To which are added Authentic Accounts of +the Darien Expedition and the South Sea Scheme. Translated and edited +by Frank S. Fiske. New York. W.A. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 338. $1.00. + +The Use and Abuse of Tobacco. By John Lizar. From the Eighth Edinburgh +Edition. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 16mo. pp. 136. 50 cts. + +Alcohol; its Place and Power. By James Miller. From the Nineteenth +Glasgow Edition. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 16mo. pp. 178. 50 +cts. + +Life of Colonel David Crockett, written by Himself. Philadelphia. G. G. +Evans. 12mo. pp. 405. $1.00. + +The Diseases of Cattle. By George H. Dadd. Boston. John P. 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A., Professor of +English Literature, University College, London. Author of "The Life and +Times of John Milton." Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 312. 75 cts. + +Fiji and the Fijians. By Thomas Williams and James Calvert, late +Missionaries in Fiji. Edited by George Stringer Rowe. New York. D. +Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 540. $2.50. + +Presidential Candidates; containing Sketches, Biographical, Personal, +and Political, of Prominent Candidates for the Presidency in 1860. By +D. W. Bartlett. New York. A. B. Burdick. 12mo. pp. 360. $1.00. + +Out of the Depths; the Story of a Woman's Life. New York. W. A, +Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.00. + +A Commentary, Explanatory, Doctrinal, and Practical, on the Epistle to +the Ephesdans. By R. E. Pattison, D. D., late President of Waterville +College. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 244. 85 cts. + +Rhymes of Twenty Years. By Henry Morford. New York. II. Dexter & Co. +12mo. pp. 214. $1.00. + +A Manual of Naval Tactics; together with a Brief Critical Analysis of +the Principal Modern Naval Battles. By James H. Ward, Commander U. S. +N. With an Appendix, being an Extract from Sir Howard Douglas's "Naval +Warfare with Steam." New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 312. $2.50. + +Essays, Lectures, etc., upon Select Topics in Revealed Theology. By +Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D., late Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology +in Yale College. New York. Clark, Austin, & Smith. 8vo. pp. 425. $1.50. + +The Character and Portraits of Washington. By H. T. Tuckerman. +Illustrated with all the Prominent Portraits, Proofs on India Paper, +and a Fine Plate of the Washington Monument, by Crawford, at Richmond, +Va., from a Photograph of a Drawing, by Ehninger. New York. G. P. +Putnam. 4to. $6.00. + +The Works of William Shakespeare. Edited by Richard Grunt White. Vols. +VI., VII., VIII. Histories. Boston. Little, Brown, & Co. 12mo. pp. 564, +468, 453. per vol. $1.50. + +The Good News of God. Sermons by Charles Kingsley, Hector of Eversley. +New York. Burt, Hutchinson, & Abbey. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.00. + +Beulah, By Augusta J. Evens. New York. Derby & Jackson 12mo. pp. 510. +$1.25. + +History of the Life and Times of James Madison. By William C. Rives. +Volume I. Boston. Little, Brown, & Co. 8vo. pp. 660. $2.25. + +Life of Hannibal. By Thomas Arnold, D. D. New York. Sheldon & Co. 18mo. +pp. 320. 50 cts. + +Life of Thomas a Becket. By Henry Hart Milman, D. D., Dean of St. +Paul's. New York. Sheldon & Co. 18mo. pp. 246. 50 cts. + +The Logic of Political Economy; and other Papers. By Thomas De Quincey. +Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 387. 75 cts. + +Paul the Preacher; or a Popular and Practical Exposition of his +Discourses and Speeches, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. By +John Eadie, D. D., LL. D. New York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp. +453. $1.25. + +The Teacher's Assistant, or Hints and Methods in School Discipline and +Instruction; being a Series of Familiar Letters to one entering upon +the Teacher's Work. By Charles Northend, A. M. Boston. Crosby, Nichols, +& Co. 12mo. pp. 583. $1.00. + +Parties and their Principles; a Manual of Political Intelligence, +exhibiting the Origin, Growth, and Character of the National Parties. +With an Appendix, containing Valuable and General Statistical +Information. By Arthur Holmes. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. +394. $1.00. + +Four Years Aboard the Whale-Ship. Embracing Cruises in the Pacific, +Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans, in the Years 1855-59. By +William B. Whitecar, Jr. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. +413. $1.00. + +The History of the Whig Party. By R. Mackintosh Ormsby. Boston. Crosby, +Nichols, & Co, 12mo. pp. 377. $1.00. + +Rills from the Fountain of Life; or, Sermons to Children. By Rev. +Richard Newton, D. D., Rector of St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia. New +York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 220. 75 cts. + +Life in Jesus; a Memoir of Mrs. Mary Winslow, arranged from her +Correspondence, Diary, and Thoughts. By her Son, Octavius Window, D. D. +New York. R. Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 426. $1.00. + +Almost a Heroine. By the Author of "Charles Auchester," "Counterparts," +etc., etc. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 399. $1.00. + +Life in Tuscany. By Mabel Shaman Crawford. From the London Edition. New +York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. 339. $1.00. + +Germaine. By Edmond About. Boston. J. E. Tilton & Co. 12mo. pp. 341. +$1.00. + +The Puritans; or, the Church, Court, and Parliament of England, during +the Reigns of Edward Sixth and Queen Elizabeth. By Samuel Hopkins. 3 +vols. Vol. I. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 8vo. pp. 549. $2.50. + +The New American Cyclopaedia; a Popular Dictionary of General +Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Volume VII. +Edward--Fueros. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 786. $3.00. + +The Poetical Works of Winthrop Mackworth Praed. New and enlarged +Edition. 2 vols. New York. Redfield. 12mo. pp. 310, 304. $2.00. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 4, NO. 25, NOVEMBER, 1859 *** + +This file should be named 704a510.txt or 704a510.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 704a511.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 704a510a.txt + +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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FELICE FORESTI. + + +Late in the autumn of 1836, an Austrian brig-of-war cast anchor in the +harbor of New York; and seldom have voyagers disembarked with such +exhilarating emotions as thrilled the hearts of some of the passengers +who then and there exchanged ship for shore. Yet their delight was not +the joy of reunion with home and friends, nor the cheerful expectancy +of the adventurous upon reaching a long-sought land of promise, nor the +fresh sensation of the inexperienced when first beholding a new +country; it was the relief of enfranchised men, the rapture of devotees +of freedom, loosened from a thrall, escaped from _surveillance_, and +breathing, after years of captivity, the air where liberty is law, and +self-government the basis of civic life. These were exiles; but the +bitterness of that lot was forgotten, at the moment, in the proud +consciousness of having incurred it through allegiance to freedom, and +being destined to endure it in a consecrated asylum. In that air, when +first respired, on that soil, when first trod, they were unconscious of +the lot of strangers: for there the vigilant eye of despotism ceased to +watch their steps; prudence checked no more the expression of honest +thought or high aspiration; manhood resumed its erect port, mind its +spontaneous vigor; nor did many moments pass ere friendly hands were +extended, and kindly voices heard, and domestic retreats thrown open. +Their welfare had been commended to generous hearts; and the simple +facts of their previous history won them respectful sympathy and +cordial greeting. + +Prominent amid the excited group was a tall, well-knit figure, whose +high, square brow, benign smile, and frank earnestness bespoke a man of +moral energy, vigorous intellect, and warm, candid, tender soul. Traces +of suffering, of thought, of stern purpose were, indeed, apparent; but +with and above them, the ingenuousness and the glow of a brave and +ardent man. This was ELEUTARIO FELICE FORESTI,--subsequently, and for +years, the favorite professor of his beautiful native language and +literature in New York,--the favorite guest and the cherished friend in +her most cultivated homes and among her best citizens,--the Italian +patriot, which title he vindicated by consistency, self-respect, and +the most genial qualities. The vocation he adopted, because of its +availability, only served to make apparent comprehensive endowments and +an independent spirit; the lady with whom he read Tasso, beside the +chivalrous music of the "Jerusalem Delivered," learned to appreciate +modern knighthood; and the scholar to whom he expounded Dante, from the +political chart of the Middle Ages, turned to an incarnation of +existent patriotism. Not only by the arguments of Gioberti, the graphic +pictures of Manzoni, and the terse pathos of Leopardi, did he +illustrate what Italy boasts of later genius; but through his own +eloquent integrity and magnetic love of her achievements and faith in +her destiny. The savings of years of patient toil were sacrificed to +the subsistence of his poor countrymen who came hither after bravely +fighting at Rome, Venice, Milan, and Novara, to have their fruits of +victory treacherously gathered by aliens. Infirmity, consequent upon +early privation and the unhealed wounds of long-worn chains, laid the +stalwart frame of the brave and generous exile on a bed of pain. He +uttered no complaint, and whispered not of the fear which no courage +can quell in high natures, that of losing "the glorious privilege of +being independent": yet his American friends must have surmised the +truth; for, one day, he received a letter stating that a sum, fully +adequate for two years' support, remained to his credit on the books of +a merchant,--one of those mysterious provisions, such as once redeemed +a note of Henry Clay's, and of which no explanation can be given, +except that "it is a way they have" among the merchant princes of New +York. By a providential coincidence, surgical skill, at this juncture, +essentially improved his physical condition; but it became +indispensable, at the same time, that he should exchange our rigorous +clime for one more congenial; and he sailed five years ago for Italy, +taking up his residence in Piedmont, where dwell so many of the eminent +adherents of the cause he loved, and where the institutions, polity, +and social life include so many elements of progress and of faith. It +was now that those who knew him best, including some of the leading +citizens of his adopted city, applied to the Executive for his +appointment as United States Consul at Genoa. There was a singular +propriety in the request. Having passed and honored the ordeal of +American citizenship, and being then a popular resident of the city +which gave birth to the discoverer of this continent,--familiar with +our institutions, and endeared to so many of the wise and brave in +America and Italy,--illustrious through suffering, a veteran disciple +and martyr of freedom,--he was eminently a representative man, whom +freemen should delight to honor; and while it then gratified our sense +of the appropriate that this distinction and resource should cheer his +declining years, we are impelled, now that death has canonized +misfortune and integrity, to avail ourselves of the occasion to +rehearse the incidents and revive the lessons of his life.[1] + +[Footnote 1: It is to be lamented that Foresti had not anticipated our +purpose with that consecutive detail possible only in an autobiography. +"_Le Scene del Carcere Duro in Austria_," writes the Marquis +Pallavicino, "non sono ancora la storia del Ventuno. Un uomo potrebbe +scriverla e svelare molte infamie tuttavia occulte del governo +Austriaco. Quest' uomo è Felice Foresti. Il quale abbandonò gli agi +Americani per combattere un' altra volta, guerriero canuto, le gloriose +battaglie dell' Italico risorgimento. Il martire scriva: e la sua +penna, come quella d' un altro martire,--Silvio Pellico,--sarà una +spada nel cuoro dell' Austria."--Notes to _Spielbergo e Gradisca_.] + +Underlying the external apathy and apparently frivolous life of the +Italian peninsula, there has ever been a resolute, clear, earnest +patriotism, fed in the scholar by memories of past glory, in the +peasant by intense local attachment, and kindled from time to time in +all by the reaction of gross wrongs and moral privations. Sometimes in +conversation, oftener in secret musing, now in the eloquent outburst of +the composer, and now in the adjuration of the poet or the vow of the +revolutionist, this latent spirit has found expression. Again and +again, spasmodic and abortive _émeutes_, the calm protest of a +D'Azeglio and the fanaticism of an Orsini, sacrifices of property, +freedom, and life,--all the more pathetic, because to human vision +useless,--have made known to the oppressor the writhings of the +oppressed, and to the world the arbitrary rule which conceals injustice +by imposing silence. The indirect, but most emphatic utterance of this +deep, latent self-respect of the nation we find in Alfieri, whose stern +muse revived the terse energy of Dante; and in our own day, this +identical inspiration fired the melancholy verse of Leopardi, the +letters of Foscolo, the novels of Guerrazzi, and the tender melody of +Bellini. Recent literature has exhibited the conditions under which +Italian Liberals strive, and the method of expiating their +self-devotion. The novels of Ruffini, the letters of the Countess +d'Ossoli, the rhetoric of Gavazzi, and the parliamentary reports of +Gladstone, the leading reviews, the daily journals, intercourse with +political refugees, and the personal observations of travel, have, more +or less definitely, caused the problem called the "Italian Question" to +come nearer to our sympathies than any other European exigency apart +from practical interests. Moreover, the complicated and dubious aspect +of the subject, viewed by transatlantic eyes, has, within the last ten +years, been in a great measure dispelled by experimental facts. That +Italy needs chiefly to be _let alone_, to achieve independence and +realize a noble development, civic, economical, and social, every +intelligent traveller who crosses the Austrian frontier and enters the +Sardinian state, knows. + +A greater contrast, as regards productive industry, intellectual +enterprise, religious progress, comfort, and happiness, no adjacent +countries ever exhibited; constitutional freedom, an unrestricted +press, toleration, and public education on the one hand, and foreign +bayonets, espionage, and priestcraft on the other, explain the anomaly. +In Venice the very trophies of national life are labelled in a foreign +tongue, the _caffès_ of Milan resound with Teutonic gutturals, and +under the arcades of Bologna every other face wears the yellow beard of +the North; yet the family portraits in the vast palace-chambers, the +eyes and dialect of the people, the monumental inscriptions, announce +an indigenous and superseded race; their industry, civil rights, +property, and free expression in art, literature, and even speech, +being forcibly and systematically repressed: while in the mountains of +Savoy, the streets of Turin, and the harbor of Genoa, the stir and +zest, the productiveness, and the felicity of national life greet the +senses and gladden the soul. Statistics evidence what observation +hints; Cavour wins the respect of Europe; D'Azeglio illustrates the +inspiration which liberty yields to genius; journalism ventilates +political rancor; debate neutralizes aggressive prejudice; physical +resources become available; talent finds scope, character +self-assertion; Protestantism builds altars, patriotism shrines; and +genuine Italian nationality has a vital existence so palpably +reproachful of circumjacent stagnation, ruin, and wrong, that no laws +or material force can interpose a permanent obstacle to its indefinite +extension and salutary reign. + +In his first youth, Foresti imbibed the creative spirit breathed into +the social and civic life of Italy by Napoleon's victories and +administration; it was at that vivid epoch when the military, +political, artistic, and literary talent of the land, so long repressed +and thwarted by superstition and despotism, broke forth, that his +studies were achieved. We have only to compare what was done, thought, +and felt in the Peninsula, during the ten years between the coronation +of Bonaparte at Milan and his overthrow at Waterloo, with the +subsequent dearth of national triumphs in every sphere, and with the +inert, apprehensive, baffled existence of the Italians in the grasp of +reinstated and reinforced imbecile, yet tyrannic governments, to +appreciate the feelings of a young, well-born, gifted citizen, when +suddenly checked in a liberal and progressive career, and remanded, as +it were, from the bracing atmosphere of modern civilization and +enlightened activity, to the passive, silent endurance of obsolete +feudalism. It was the inevitable and deliberate protest against this +wicked and absurd reaction which gave birth to the political +organization of the _Carbonari_; wherein the noblest men and the wisest +princes of that day enrolled themselves; and the inefficiency of whose +far-reaching, secret, and solemn aims can be accounted for only by the +fatal error of trusting in the magnanimity of an order born to +hereditary power, and overlooking, in their municipal fraternities, the +vast importance of the more scattered, but not less capable and +patriotic agricultural class. + +Foresti was born at Conselice in the Ferrarese. Few American travellers +linger in Ferrara. Fresh from the more imposing attractions of Florence +or Venice, this ancient Italian city offers little in comparison to +detain the eager pilgrim; and yet to one cognizant of its history and +alive to imaginative associations, this neglect might increase the +charm of a brief sojourn. It is pleasant to explore the less hackneyed +stories of history and tradition, to enjoy an isolated scene fraught +with grand or tender sentiment, to turn aside from the trampled highway +and the crowded resort, to listen to some plaintive whisper from the +Past amid the deserted memorials of its glory and grief. Such a place +is Ferrara. The broad and regular streets and the massive palaces +emphatically declare its former splendor; and its actual decadence is +no less manifest in the grass-grown pavement of the one and the +crumbling and dreary aspect of the other. It requires no small effort +of fancy, as we walk through some deserted by-way, wherein our +footsteps echo audibly at noonday, to realize that this was the +splendid arena where the House of Este so long held sway, limited in +extent, but in its palmy days the centre of a brilliant court, a famous +school of pictorial art, the seat of a university whose fame drew +scholars from distant Britain, and whose ducal family gave birth to the +Brunswick dynasty, whence descended the royalty of England. The city +dates its origin from the fifth century, when its marshy site gave +refuge from the pursuing Huns, and the ambition of its rulers gradually +concentrated around the unpromising domain those elements of +ecclesiastical prestige, knightly valor, artistic and literary +resources which enriched and signalized the Italian cities of the +Middle Ages. Enlightened, though capricious patronage made this +halting-place between Bologna and Venice, Padua and Rome, the nucleus +of talent, enterprise, and diplomacy, the fruits whereof are permanent. +But there are two hallowed associations which in a remarkable degree +consecrated Ferrara and endeared her to the memory of later +generations: she gave an asylum to the persecuted Christian Reformers, +and was the home and haunt of poets. It is this recollection which +stays the feet and warms the heart of the transatlantic visitor, as he +roams at twilight around the venerable castle "flanked with towers," +traces the dim fresco in a church Giotto decorated, reads "Parisina" in +Byron's paraphrase near the dungeons where she and her lover were +slain, or gazes with mingled curiosity and love on the chirography of +St. Chrysostom, the original manuscripts of Tasso, Ariosto, and +Guarini, or the inscription of Victor Alfieri in the Studio Publico. It +is because Calvin was here sheltered, and Olympia Morata found sympathy +and respect,--because the author of "Jerusalem Delivered" here loved, +triumphed, and despaired, and the author of the "Orlando Furioso" so +assiduously labored for his orphaned family, the exacting Cardinal +Ippolito, and the cause of learning, and strung a lyre which has for +centuries vibrated in the popular heart and fancy,--because, in a word, +Ferrara contains the prison of Tasso, and the home of Ariosto, who +called her "_città bene avventurosa_," as did Tassoni the "_gran donna +del Po_,"--that the desolate old city is revived to the imagination, +with its hundred thousand people, its gay courtiers and brave knights, +the romance of its feats of minstrelsy and arms whereat noble beauties +and immortal bards assisted, and Art, Chivalry, Learning, Church, and +State held festival with the Muses to adorn and perpetuate the +transient pageant, the loveliness, and the rule,--otherwise since +consigned to the monotonous record of vanished pomp and arbitrary sway. + +When Napoleon fell, Foresti was a student at the University of Bologna, +whence he returned to his native capital, after obtaining the degree of +Doctor of Laws. His earliest forensic labors, like those of our young +advocates, were in the defence of accused criminals; and, limited as is +this sphere, he must have displayed unusual maturity of judgment and +natural eloquence, to have received successively the eminent +appointments of Provisory Assistant Judge in the Court of Justice of +Ferrara, Supplementary Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the +Lyceum, and Judge of the Peace, by virtue of which latter office he +crossed the Po to practise at Polesino,--wisely preferring the Austrian +to the Papal jurisdiction. In Crespino, in the province of Rovigo, in +the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, Foresti was made Praetor under the +Emperor's warrant. Coincident with this recognition of his judicial +knowledge and skill, was a kindred appreciation on the part of his +liberal and patriotic countrymen; they beheld in the vigorous and +disciplined mind and generous heart of Foresti, in his civic wisdom and +courage, the representative and ally they sought in this portion of +their beautiful and unhappy land. To disseminate the principles and +secure the cooperation of Venice became the special office of the +Carbonari leaders of Ferrara, and they had only to reveal the high and +holy object they cherished, to one who so well knew the wants and woes +of his country as Foresti, to enlist his adventurous sympathy. The +delicate and difficult mission, fraught with the dearest prospects of +Italy, was nearly consummated, when a treacherous colleague revealed to +the accredited agents both of Austria and the Pope the system of this +mysterious revolutionary combination in and around Ferrara. The latter +shrank from extreme measures, and was content with an oath of +retraction; but the Austrian government gave instant orders to the +chiefs of police, both there and at Venice, to arrest those whom the +perjured Count Villa named as adherents of Carbonarism. The decree was +executed with military force; and, without warning, preparation, or +even a parting interview with their families and friends, the suspected +were hurried off to the Piombi, that Venetian prison so graphically +described by Pellico. All correspondence and personal intercourse was +denied. Meantime, an ingenious and persevering investigation went on, +to ascertain the scope of the enterprise thus summarily baffled, the +means proposed, and the individuals implicated. To complicate still +further the situation of the victims, in other quarters the flame they +had secretly fed burst forth conspicuously; Naples and Piedmont were in +arms; and Austria conceived an alarming idea of the national spirit she +had partially contravened. The rigor of espionage towards the +imprisoned and their friends increased; the prosecution was insidiously +prolonged; privation and solitude, vigilance and suspense were made +instruments for subduing the resolution and invading the confidence of +the captives; they pined in desolation, ignorant of their fate, +uninformed of the welfare of those most dear to them, without resources +of defence or consolation, except what the strength of individual +character yields; physically weakened, morally isolated; sometimes +roused from sleep and bewildered with questions; at other times told +they were to die, that some companion had confessed, or that some loved +one had ceased to exist;--and all these crises of feeling and anxiety, +of surprise and despair, induced with a fiendish deliberation, to +startle honor into self-betrayal, wring from exhausted Nature what +conscious rectitude would not divulge, or agonize human love into +inadvertent disloyalty. + +At length their fate was decided. Foresti's companion in prison was the +son of a judge of Ferrara; and, one November midnight, their +conversation was interrupted by the unexpected entrance of the jailer, +who bade Foresti follow him. The hour and the manner of the official +convinced both him and his comrade that his sacrifice was resolved +upon; they embraced, and he left the cell to find himself strictly +guarded by six soldiers. This nocturnal procession marched silently +through the vast, lonely, and magnificent rooms of the Ducal Palace to +the door which leads to the Bridge of Sighs: it was the old road to +destruction,--the mysterious process, made familiar by novelists and +poets, by which the ancient and sinister republic made more fearful the +vengeance of government. As the unfortunate youth passed through a +labyrinth of gloomy corridors, he recognized the haunts of the ancient +Inquisition; the atmosphere was clogged with damp; moisture dripped +from the stones. A dungeon, lighted only by a lamp suspended from the +vault, and narrow, humid, and unfurnished, except with a pile of straw +and a rude table, proved the dreary goal of their heavy steps. Left to +his own reflections, Foresti contemplated his prospects with deliberate +anguish; that he had been found guilty was apparent; if the fact of his +direct agency in initiating the oath of self-emancipation, the sacred +compact of national self-assertion in the Austrian dominions, had +transpired, he felt that his prominence as a judicial officer, and the +firmness with which he had refused to explain the purposes or betray +the associates of this memorable league, made him the most probable +victim of extreme measures, should one be chosen from the Carbonari of +Ferrara. At that period of his life he entertained the opinion that +suicide was justifiable to avoid an ignominious death at the hands of +arbitrary power. Believing his fate sealed, he gave a few moments of +tender reminiscence to his dead mother and his living father and +sisters, to the dreams of his youth, and the patriotic aspirations to +which he was about to fall a sacrifice. The jailer returned, bringing a +book and a bottle of wine, for which he had asked; a few tears were +shed, a prayer for forgiveness breathed, and then he plunged a knife +into his breast; the blade broke; he shattered the bottle at his side +and swallowed the fragments, and then fell bleeding and exhausted on +the straw. If left long alone, life would have ebbed away; but, +probably in anticipation of such a catastrophe, the officer ere many +hours revisited the cell to put chains upon the prisoner. Discovering +his condition, a surgeon was called, remedies were applied, and two +Austrian sentinels carried Foresti into the presence of the judge. It +was scarcely dawn; the venerable and courteous, but inflexible +representative of the Emperor expressed solicitude and sympathy; a +secretary and physician, with the guard and their prisoner, confronted +each other by the dim light of two candles. Irritated by the +conventional politeness of this arbiter of his destiny at such a +crisis, having vainly sought death, and bitterly conscious of the long +outrages perpetrated under the name of justice, Foresti burst forth +into stern invectives, and boldly declared his liberal sentiments, his +allegiance to the principles for the sake of which he thus suffered, +and his absolute enmity to the usurpers of his country's freedom. The +Cavalier Mazzetti treated this overflow of emotion as the ebullition of +a youthful mind, romantic and intrepid, but unreasonable; he professed +the sincerest pity for so gifted and brave a youth, lamented his +delusion, painted in emphatic words his want of gratitude and +allegiance, treated his political creed and organization as chimerical, +and wound up by informing Foresti that he was condemned to die on the +public square of Venice, and that nothing would save him but a complete +revelation of the true plan, arrangements, and members of the secret +conclave to which he belonged. Threats and blandishments failed to move +the prisoner; he was silent, accepted his doom, and was remanded with +two allies,--one of whom purchased a remission by treason to his vows. +Such was the climax of two dreary years of imprisonment, aggravated by +ingenious moral torture. + +If the modern history of liberty is written by a comprehensive +humanitarian, he will not look exclusively to the battle-field for +picturesque and impressive _tableaux_; in that record most signally +will it appear that "the angel of martyrdom is brother to the angel of +victory"; and among the memorable scenes which an earnest chronicler +will delineate with noble pathos, few can exceed in moral interest that +which the Piazza of San Marco, at Venice, presented on Christmas Eve, +1821. There is not a spot in Europe, within the limits of a city, more +distinctly remembered by the transatlantic traveller,--the only +spacious area of solid ground under the open sky, in that marvellous +old city of the sea,--the gay centre of a recreative population, where +the costumes and physiognomies of the Orient and the West mingle in +dramatic contrast,--the nucleus of historical and romantic +associations, singularly domesticated in two hemispheres by the +household lore of Shakspeare and Otway, Byron and Rogers, Cooper and +Ruskin. The ancient temple of St. Mark, the bronze horses of Lysippus, +the arched galleries of the Palace, the waters of the Adriatic, the +firmament above, and the stones beneath seem instinct with the fame of +commercial grandeur, maritime triumphs, and diplomatic prowess; the +cheerful arcades that shade the _caffès_ remind us of the "harmless +comedy of life" which Goldoni recorded; the flush of sunset on dome, +balcony, and canal seems warm with the peerless tints which Titian here +caught and transmitted; the crowd of pleasure-seekers recall the music, +love, and chivalry, of which this was once the splendid centre; while +the shadow of a dark _façade_ whispers of the mysterious oligarchy, the +anonymous accusers, the secret council, and the venerable Doge;--a more +remarkable union of gloom and gayety, of romance and reality, of the +beautiful and the tragic, directly suggested by inevitable local +associations, cannot be found in the whole range of European travel. +Imagine this memorable square, on the afternoon of a great Christmas +festival;--fair faces at every window,--the adjacent roofs crowded with +spectators,--an Austrian regiment drawn up around a scaffold,--the +Viceroy, brother of the Emperor, standing in the large balcony of the +Palace,--two cannon placed between the columns of San Marco and San +Teodoro,--every inch of the vast Piazza, without the circle of +soldiery, occupied by eager spectators. Over this vast assemblage, amid +the impending thoughts which the incidents of the hour and the memory +of the Past inspired, reigned a profound silence; no laugh or jest, +such as bespeaks a holiday, no heartless curiosity, such as accompanies +a mere public show, no vulgar excitement was evident; on many faces +dwelt an expression of awe and pity,--on others an indignant frown,--on +all painful and sympathetic expectancy. Every class was represented, +from the swarthy fishermen of the lagoons to the dark-eyed countess of +the Palazzo,--pale students, venerable citizens, the shopkeeper and the +marquis, the priest and the advocate. It was not merely the fate of the +few prisoners on the scaffold, deep as was the public sympathy, which +occasioned this profound suspense; they represented the national cause, +and in every city of the land there were scores of the bravest and the +best equally involved in the patriotic sacrifice, and whose destiny +had, for long and weary months, agonized their relations, friends, and +countrymen. The anomalous tyranny under which the nation had collapsed +was demonstrated not so much by the outward aspect as by the moral +facts of that fatal day in the Piazza of San Marco. On the scaffold +were a group of educated, courageous, honest Italians, guarded by +Austrian soldiers and overlooked by the official representative of +imperial despotism; their attitude was criminal, their acts sublime; +ostensibly condemned, they were in reality glorified. Not a being in +that vast multitude, except the official creatures of Austria, but +gazed with respect, love, sorrow, pride, tenderness, and admiration +upon her noble victims; it was the apparent triumph of physical force, +and the actual realization of moral superiority: the silence of that +multitude was the eloquent protest of humanity. + +And this ominous silence was all at once broken by the clear, +well-emphasized voice of a judicial officer, reading the sentence; it +was listened to with such breathless attention, that, when the phrase, +_condemned to death_, was uttered, a visible shudder vibrated, like an +electric shock, through the dense mass of human beings, and upturned +faces flushed or grew pallid in an instant; but scarcely were these +simultaneous emotions recognized, when another phrase, _life granted_, +called forth a cry as of one mighty voice. All were spared: but a +sentence, to such as understood its meaning, of living death,--_carcere +duro_ in Spielberg and the Castle of Lubiano,--some for ten, others for +fifteen, and the remainder for twenty years,--was substituted. + +This entire ceremony was characteristic of Austrian despotism, aware of +the profound sympathy among the Italians for their patriot martyrs, of +the widespread disaffection, of the necessity of exciting vague and +terrible apprehension,--and at the same time conscious that policy +forbade arousing the fury of despair. The accused were thus kept more +than two years alternating from hope to desperation, the people in +ignorance of the issue, and then, when led out, as they supposed, to +die, they served as a warning to those who dared imperial vengeance, +while, by a sudden act of apparent clemency, the government at once rid +itself of formidable opponents and assumed the character of merciful +executors of law! It was rumored that the consideration of his youth +saved the life of Foresti;--he was sentenced to twenty years' +imprisonment. + +From, the scaffold the prisoners were transferred to the Island of St. +Michael. Their transit was more like an ovation than a disgrace. The +better class of spectators embarked in gondolas and followed the +_cortége_ with shouts of encouragement and waving of handkerchiefs; +"Courage, courage, brave patriots!" was their salutation; and when +night fell upon the scene, there rose from the lagoons strains of +instrumental and vocal melody, and improvised recitations breathing +honor, compassion, and hope; so that in spite of bayonets and police, +terrorism and espionage, the voice of their fettered country wafted to +every captive the assurance that he had not striven and been faithful +unto death in vain. + +These scenes in Venice were reenacted, with unimportant modifications, +within a few months, at Rome and Turin, at Modena, Parma, and Naples. +The rolls of victims embraced the most highly endowed and heroic men of +the day. Many of them, after years of incarceration, distinguished +themselves in civil and literary life; some perished miserably in +durance; and a few yet survive and enjoy social consideration or +European fame. Among them were representatives of every rank, vocation, +and section of the land,--noblemen, professors, military officers, +advocates, physicians, priests, men of wealth, of genius, and of +character. Those known in America, either personally or by their +writings, are Count Gonfalonieri of Milan, Silvio Pellico, Castilla, +Borsieri, Maroncelli, and Foresti. The abortive revolutions of 1831 and +1848 sent other refugees to our shores, and canonized other saintly +heroes in the Calendar of Freedom; but these were the original, and, as +a body, the remarkable men, who, imbued with the intelligent and +progressive Liberalism of the nineteenth century, practically +established in Italy by Napoleon, bravely initiated the vital reaction +invoked by humanity as well as patriotism, before which European +despotism has never ceased to tremble, and which, however baffled, +postponed, and misunderstood, by the law of God as well as the +development of man, is absolutely destined to an ultimate triumph. + +The show of justice and clemency was made at noonday with every +circumstance of pomp and authority to give it popular effect; the trial +and punishment were enacted in darkness and isolation. On a cold, still +night of January came police commissioners to the island, whither the +condemned patriots had been conveyed amid tears and benedictions, and +chained them in couples like galley-slaves. By the light of torches +they were placed in boats which glided noiselessly by sleeping Venice +to Mestre, and there they were transferred to carriages, two prisoners +and four guards to each vehicle, and in this manner, for four dreary +weeks, borne through the winter days farther and farther from country +and home,--sleeping at night in town-jails, by-way fortresses, or, when +neither were available, in the worst apartments of lonely inns. Who can +adequately describe the wretchedness of that journey, the bitterness of +soul, the prospective desolation, the tender regrets of those unhappy +prisoners,--torn from the embrace of kindred, the dignity and motive of +a high career, the most beautiful of countries, and the most sacred of +ties and duties, to bury their youth, with all its high dreams and +noble fervor and consecrated gifts, in a distant dungeon? Even the +strangers through whose domain they passed testified by looks, signs, +respectful greetings, and, when possible, kind attentions, their +sympathy and esteem; people of rank continued to approach them in +disguise merely to indicate their humane recognition; the very +commissioners sent to attest the execution of the sentence parted from +their charge with tearful respect. Grief, privation, and fatigue, +greatly aggravated by the shackles which bound them in pairs, had +exhausted body and mind at the end of the journey. From the city of +Brunn, the capital of Moravia, their wan looks sought the mountain +prison above, where frowned the bastions of Spielberg, once a mediaeval +castle, then a fortress, built by the Emperor Charles, and, just before +the battle of Austerlitz, dismantled by Napoleon, and now the place of +confinement for the most degraded criminals of Austria, nearly a +thousand of whom there expiate their offences. Into this herd of +malefactors were thrust gentlemen, scholars, citizens, for the crime of +patriotism. To each was assigned a cell, twelve feet in length and +eight in breadth, with a small iron-barred window, a plank with, a +mattress and blanket, an iron chair secured to the wall, and an earthen +jug for water. Arrayed in convict uniform, here the brave youths were +immured. Sentinels were continually on guard in the corridors and court +and around the bastions; the food was inadequate and often loathsome; +an hour's walk in the yard daily, between two soldiers with loaded +muskets, was the only respite from solitude and inaction; "Lives of the +Saints" were the only books allowed; intercourse with the outward world +was entirely cut off; surveillance was incessant; on Sunday they were +guarded to the chapel, but kept apart; every quarter appeared a priest, +who strove, by rigid examination, to elicit political secrets; the +agents and officials maintained an unmitigated reserve; what transpired +in the world, how it fared with their country and their loved ones, was +unknown; existence so near to death itself, in passivity, "cold +obstruction," alienation from all the interests, the hopes, and the +very impressions of human life, it is impossible to imagine. +Subsequently reforms were introduced, and the rigors of this system +somewhat modified; but the era of Foresti's confinement at Spielberg +was that which has become accursed in political history as the reign of +Francesco Primo. He insisted to the last on chains, the badge of crime, +and the severest _régime_ possible to life. He had even visited Brunn, +and been within hearing of his victims, and sent his physician to +ascertain their condition; but refused any mitigation of sufferings, +moral and physical, which involved sanity, health, and almost vitality. + +The details of this experience are familiar through current European +memoirs. Silvio Pellico has made the life of an Austrian +prisoner-of-state, in its outward environment and inward struggles, as +well known as that of the Arctic explorer or the English +factory-operative. A confirmatory supplement to this dark chapter in +the history of modern civilization has recently appeared from the pen +of another of Foresti's fellow-martyrs, Pallavicino. [Footnote: +_Spielbergo e Gradisca: Scene del Carcere Duro di_ GIORGIO PALLAVICINO. +Torino. 1856.] But while they were undergoing the bitter ordeal, it was +all but unknown in Europe and undreamed of in America; literature, that +noble vantage-ground for oppressed humanity, has now broken the silence +and proclaimed the truth. There was one solace ingeniously obtained by +these buried members of the living human family,--occasional indirect +intercourse with each other: the telegraphs of eye and ear conveyed +their mutual feelings. One after another succumbed, from the vital +injuries of the _régime_; in one case the brain grew weak, in another +the blood was impoverished or fevered; this one was prostrated by +gangrene in wounds caused by chafing fetters, and that attenuated by +insufficient nourishment: yet they contrived to make known to each +other how it fared with them respectively. Pellico, through an +indulgent guard, sent Foresti verses on his birthday; Maronchelli +sounded on the wall the intimation of his continued existence after his +leg was amputated; and when marshalled for a walk or convened on Sunday +in the chapel, the devoted band had the melancholy satisfaction of +beholding each other, though the different groups were not permitted to +communicate. Andryane, a French officer, included in the original +edict, though upon most inadequate evidence, describes, with keen +interest, his first impressions when permitted to go to mass at +Spielberg. His companion speculated on the identity of each of the +captives. "That one, with dejected looks and hollow eyes, who seems so +exhausted, and, though a tall man, is bent down into a dwarf, is Villa. +Poor fellow! he has but a few months to live. As for the last one, with +the stern looks and bushy black hair, he appears to bear his fate in +such a manner as ought to make us resigned to our own." "That," +whispered a fellow-prisoner, "is Foresti, who, like Ajax, doubtless +mutters between his teeth, 'I will foil them yet, though even the gods +oppose me!'" [Footnote: "_Mémoires d'un Prisonnier d'Etat_." Par +ALEXANDRE ANDRYANE. Paris.] + +This observation was sagacious. It was by calm resolution and +philosophic self-possession, through faith in the ultimate triumph of +justice and freedom, that Foresti kept at bay the corrosive despair +which irritated less noble characters into melancholy or wasted spirits +of gentler mould to insanity. Yet his physical torture was extreme. Of +robust frame and in the plenitude of youthful vigor when arrested, the +want of food during the earlier years of his captivity made serious and +permanent inroads upon a naturally powerful constitution. We have heard +him relate, with a humorous emphasis indicative of brave endurance, yet +suggestive of the keenest pangs, how eagerly he one day seized a +pudding, thrust under his dress, as he passed the lodge of an official +in the court, by a compassionate woman,--how ingeniously he concealed +it from the sentinels, at the risk of burning his hands,--with what +triumph he unfolded and with what voracity he devoured it in the +solitude of his cell. Sometimes an indignity overcame his +self-possession, as, on one occasion, when the jailer's attendant +rudely awoke him with a kick, as he deposited a basin of hot broth, +which Foresti indignantly seized and dashed its scalding contents into +the face of the brutal menial, who thenceforward was more respectful in +his salutations. But it was the moral suffering against which all his +wisdom and courage were invoked to struggle,--the resolute maintenance +of healthful mental activity, without an object or motive underived +from will,--the repression of hopeless, vague, self-tormenting +reverie, which perverts intellect and drains moral energy,--the +habitual exercise of memory, reflection, and fancy, to preserve their +functions unimpaired. Such expedients were of special necessity at +Spielberg; for never were educated men so barbarously deprived of the +legitimate resources of mind and heart; thought and love were left +uninvited, unappeased. Sir Walter Raleigh had the materials, at the +Tower, to write a history; Lafayette, at Olmutz, lived in perpetual +expectancy of release; Moore and Byron, children, flowers, birds, and +the Muses cheered Leigh Hunt's year of durance: but in this bleak +fortress, innocent and magnanimous men beheld the seasons come and go, +night succeed day, and year follow year, with no cognizance of kindred +or the world's doings,--no works of bard or sage,--no element of +life,--but a grim, cold, deadly routine within stone walls,--all tender +sympathies, the very breath of the soul, denied,--all influx of +knowledge, the food of the mind, prohibited, experience a blank, +existence a void! + +Had we need of evidence that conscience is a normal attribute of +humanity, that the soul is endowed with relations to the Infinite, we +should find it in the self-preservation realized under such +circumstances as these. Only conscious rectitude could arm humanity +against the sense of degradation and deprivation thus surrounding and +pressing upon it for years,--only the belief in a Power above and +beyond human will and perversity,--only, in a word, the recuperative +force of moral individuality and aspiration, could keep intact and +uninvaded the integrity of conscious being. Of course, the method +thereof depends on character; a cheerful heart In one, a buoyant +imagination in another, and the sweet self-oblivion which Faith imparts +in a third, sentiment here and will there, work the same miracle. +Foresti belonged to that class of Italians who combine perspicacity and +force of reasoning with a frank, affectionate, and trustful +disposition,--types of the manly intellect, the childlike heart; +incarceration, while it failed to enfeeble the former, by seclusion +from life's game and the world's encroachments from early youth to +middle age, perhaps confirmed the latter into the candid and loving +nature which endeared him to so many friends in Europe and America. +Sterne says, that, if he were in a desert, he would love some cypress; +and Isaac Taylor has observed, that the devout heart can find in a +single blade of grass the evidence of a Divine Creator. We have all +read of Bruce testing his fate, when a captive, by the gyrations of a +spider, of Baron Trenck finding solace in a dungeon in the +companionship of a mouse, and the imaginative prisoner of Fenestrelle +absorbed in vigilant and even affectionate observation of a little +plant,--its germination, slow approach to maturity, and consummate +flowering. But there were alleviating circumstances in the situation of +these captives,--a definite hope of release or a certainty of +life-bondage, either of which alternatives is more favorable to +tranquillity of soul than absolute suspense; they enjoyed tidings from +without or indulgences within. At Spielberg, the _sistema diabolico_, +as it has been justly called, especially at the epoch of Foresti's +incarceration, retained the galling chain on the limbs, cut off the +supply of moral and intellectual vitality, refused appropriate +occupation, baffled hope, eclipsed knowledge, and kept up a vile +inquisitorial process to goad the crushed heart, sap the heroic will, +and stupefy or alienate the mental faculties; dawn ushered in the +twilight of a mausoleum, noon fell dimly on paralyzed manhood, night +canopied aggravating dreams. + + "To such sad pitch their gathering griefs were wrought, + Life seemed not life, save when convulsed by thought." + +Casual evasions of this fiendish torture, through ingenuity or the +compassion of officials, are among the few animated episodes of their +dreary experiences recorded by the victims. At length the Emperor died +(an event they had surmised from a change in the form of the public +prayer); his son Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, and signalized his +accession by a decree liberating the Italian patriots, but condemning +them to perpetual exile in America. Those long years of such captivity +did not even gain them the privilege of again enjoying civil rights, +their country, and kindred! Protests were vain, appeals disregarded. In +November, 1835, their chains were removed; the same blacksmith who had +welded Foresti's shackles fourteen years before, now severed them, and +wept with joy as they fell! One night they were all summoned to the +director's room, and he, too, announced their enfranchisement with +congratulations; the prison garb was exchanged for citizen's dress, and +they were taken in carriages to the police prison of Brunn, where +comfortable apartments, good food, free intercourse, books, and +newspapers awaited them. Imagine the vividness of their sensations, the +hilarity of feeling inspired by the first sight of scenes and objects +associated with their youth! It was like a new birth. To grasp the +hands and hear the voices of their fellow-creatures,--to behold +streets, _caffès_, and shops, the tokens of industry, the insignia of +life,--to taste viands unknown for years,--to see the horizon,--to feel +the breath of heaven,--to trace once more those charts of living +history, the journals, resume acquaintance with favorite authors, +converse together, move unchained, think aloud,--this sudden and entire +transition awakened a sensation of almost infantile joy. But privation +had too long been their lot to be instantly ignored with impunity; a +reaction followed; the weakness incident to long confinement, +prostrated faculties, and inadequate nourishment brought on illness; +they could not, at once, bear the excitement, digest the food, or +sustain the keen pleasure; and a rigorous climate quelled their +sensitive vitality. But universal sympathy now environed them; their +very custodian ministered to their wants; and the Emperor ordered them +to be removed to the Castle of Gradisca, on the confines of Italy, +where a milder atmosphere prevailed. + +How much had occurred while these years of arbitrarily imposed +monasticism crept heavily by, to excite the speculative thought and +kindle the sympathies of educated men! To what new aspects of +civilization and fresh phases of contemporaneous history their +liberation suddenly introduced them! + +Their journey from Brunn to Gradisca was a perfect contrast to that +melancholy transit, so many years before, from Venice to Spielberg. It +was near the beginning of April, 1836, when they started in carriages +with a commissary and a few guards; in every town and village through +which they passed, crowds surrounded them with gratulations; the inns +where they stopped were besieged with well-wishers; Nature, too, seemed +to hail their release with vernal beauty; and so they journeyed on, to +be received as honored guests rather than prisoners-of-state at the +Castle of Gradisca. Their sojourn here was as recreative as was +consistent with that degree of supervision necessary to prevent escape; +they were at liberty to walk about, to make and receive visits, to +bathe in the sea, to attend the fairs, and examine the local +celebrities of Friuli; a single commissary often accompanied their +excursions, and personally the most delicate consideration was paid +them. Here, too, the most affecting reunions of long-severed kindred +and friends took place; their relatives hastened hither to embrace +them. + +Foresti used to relate many anecdotes illustrative of the sympathy and +respect felt and manifested by strangers during this interlude between +prison and exile. One deserves record here. Two travelling-carriages +arrived at a village-inn, one evening, where they were resting. While +the gentlemen were inspecting the apartments, a lady of distinguished +appearance inquired of a bystander, who the strangers were towards whom +so many friendly glances were directed; soon after, the landlord bore +to them her request for an interview; they rose at her entrance; she +attempted to speak, but her voice faltered, and, with tears, she turned +to her little boys and said, "Kneel, my darlings, to these brave +Italian patriots; they are illustrious victims in the great cause of +Liberty; and you, gentlemen, bless my sons; your blessing will be +fruitful to them of good; it will make them love their country and die +for it, if need be. I am a Pole. My country is oppressed like yours. I +have two brothers compromised in the last insurrection in Cracow. May +God preserve them!"--and weeping bitterly, she retired. They afterwards +learned that her husband was Counsellor of State to the King of +Prussia. + +On the 1st of August, 1836, they were transported by night to Trieste, +and, by a singular coincidence, placed on board the same brig-of-war +whence Kozsta was subsequently taken at Smyrna,--an incident memorable +in our subsequent diplomacy, as having occasioned the celebrated letter +of Webster to the Austrian envoy. Provided by that government with warm +clothing, the money they had taken to Spielberg was restored to them, +not, however, in the original gold coin, but in the Vienna bills for +which it had been then exchanged by the police, diminished nearly +two-thirds in value during the interval of fourteen years. The vessel +was uncomfortably crowded; the voyage occupied three months; but they +fared alike with the officers. Towards the close of October, they +beheld the noble bay of New York; and so intense was the satisfaction +with which they first trod American soil, the goal and terminus of such +protracted suffering, that, ever after, the Battery, where they landed, +was hallowed to their memories as consecrated ground. + +Within a few days of their arrival, a banquet was given them by their +compatriots; and from that hour, Foresti became the oracle and the +consoler, the teacher, almoner, and chief of his fellow-exiles. +Subsequent events drove many other Italian patriots to our shores; his +purse and his counsel were ever ready for the impoverished and +inexperienced, who regarded him with filial admiration; while to the +more educated he was the intimate companion or sympathetic friend. +Through his personal influence, employment was constantly obtained and +kindness enlisted for his countrymen. When the great political crisis +of 1848 occurred, Foresti hastened to Europe; Pius IX., at the urgent +prayer of his sisters and cousins, offered him free entrance to his +dominions, a favor his predecessor might have granted but for the +strong opposition of Cardinal Lambruschini. He took counsel with the +revolutionary leaders at Paris, and passed through Italy to the +frontiers of the Papal States, whence the fatal reaction, supported by +French bayonets, at Rome, sent him back once more to the land of his +adoption, whither he was soon followed by many of the heroic and +unfortunate men who redeemed the martial fame, without being able to +retrieve the fate of Italy. + +Of the many Italian exiles who have found an asylum in the United +States, Foresti was preeminently the representative man. The period of +his arrival, the circumstances of his life, and the traits of his +character united thus to distinguish him even among the best educated +and most unfortunate of the political refugees from Southern Europe. At +the time of his arrest, the vilest modern despotism of the Continent +had reached its acme; and the patriotic movements it then sought to +annihilate by a cruelty unparalleled since the Middle Ages were +justified even by conservative reformers, on account of their stringent +moral necessity, the intelligent scope of their advocates, and the high +and cultivated spirit of their illustrious martyrs. As scholars, +citizens, gentlemen, and, in more than one instance, authors of real +genius, these Liberals stand alone, and are not to be confounded with +the perverse Radicals of a subsequent epoch. Moreover, their +aspirations were, as we have seen, more reactionary than experimental; +for the rights for which they conspired had been in a great measure +enjoyed under Europe's modern conqueror, then impotent in action, but +most efficient in remembrance, although isolated on his prison-rock. +Foresti's companion in misfortune has made their mutual wrongs +"familiar as household words"; and to be associated in captivity with +the author of "Le Mie Prigioni" was of itself a passport to the +sympathy of the civilized world. + +The interest his previous history inspired was deepened and confirmed +by intimate acquaintance with Foresti. He lived for many years +domesticated in the family of a fellow-countryman; and an _habitué_ of +his apartments was transported in a moment from bustling, prosperous, +and republican New York, to the land of song, of martyrdom, and of +antiquity. The soulful ardor and childlike ingenuousness, the keen +perceptions and earnest will of Foresti suggested an obsolete, or at +least rare type of character; he belonged essentially to the olden days +of loyalty and lore which gave birth to self-reliance on the one hand, +and disinterested feeling on the other. His manner and conversation +had, as it were, an historical as well as national flavor, by virtue +whereof we were borne away from the prosaic and practical spirit of the +age, to the days of chivalry, feudal zeal, and genuine humanity,--when +faith was an inspiration, friendship a moral fact, and manhood, in its +virile simplicity, greater than wealth. Nor were the generous exile's +humble surroundings alien to these impressions: the effigies of his +country's poets were the favorite ornaments of his sitting-room; a +volume of Foscolo on the table, or a fresh letter from Silvio Pellico +under his snuffbox,--the grim, old-fashioned type of his _Sentenza_, as +it was originally distributed through Austrian Italy, and hanging in +its black frame, a memorial of startling import to a freeman's eyes,--a +landscape representing the Castle of Ferrara, the far-away scene of his +youthful life,--and a primitive engraving from one of the old masters +of that city, dedicated to him in one of those euphonious inscriptions +peculiar to Italian artists,--these and such as these tokens of his +experience and tastes gave interesting significance to his +companionship. Nor were indications of present consideration and +usefulness wanting: flowers or dainty needle-work, the offerings of his +fair pupils, applications to him, as President of the Italian +Benevolent Society, diplomas from American colleges, and invitations to +the country, to dinner, and to domestic _fêtes_, from the numerous +friends he had won in the free land of his adoption, gave evidence of +social enjoyment and genial activity. + +Whoever enjoyed Foresti's hospitality, in the conversations as well as +the viands has found an epitome and reflex of his most genial hours in +Italy: brave soldiers, like Avezzana and Garibaldi, scholars, artists, +every form of the national character, were gratefully exhibited in +reunions, of which he was the presiding genius, and to which his +American friends were admitted with fraternal cordiality. It was then +that his clear and strong mind often displayed itself with the +spontaneity of his race. + +Chastened, though unsubdued by misfortune, Foresti cherished a truly +Christian spirit of forgiveness, and the liberality which large +experience invariably fosters in enlightened minds: it was the system, +rather than its agents, which he ever held up to condemnation in +discussing the Austrian policy. Familiarity with American and English +politics and the modern history of Europe induced a wise modification +of his opinions on government; a fervent republican in sentiment, he +yet recognized the radical benefits of a constitutional monarchy, like +those of England and Sardinia. He was a natural orator, and, on several +occasions, memorably addressed the public with rare eloquence and power +on subjects of national or beneficent interest. During his long sojourn +in New York, he was not merely the acknowledged representative of +Italy, but her eloquent advocate, her wise expositor, her illustrious +son, whose literature he memorably unfolded, whose history he +sagaciously analyzed, whose misfortunes he tenderly portrayed, whose +glory he proudly vindicated, and whose nationality he incessantly +affirmed. Well did one of the leading Turin journals indicate the +prevalent graces of his character:--"A pure and just man, he knew +always how to appreciate those who dissented from him about forms of +government, because he could discover in them the true love of +nationality, to which Italy aspires. Wise without pretension, +beneficent without ostentation, chaste in deed and word, exquisitely +tender-hearted, he tempered the harsh lessons of experience by the +unchanged serenity of his bearing." + +Foresti was the most charming of correspondents; in a chirography +almost feminine, he wrote, in the old cavalier style, such quaintly +pleasant epistles, with graceful turns of expression, beautiful +epithets, and appropriate adjectives, that, to one fond of the writer +and cognizant of his native tongue, the most casual note was a prize to +be treasured. "Truly," remarks one of his friends, "he was +_squisitamente affetuoso di cuore_," and now the sweetest proof thereof +is to be found in his correspondence. In his two visits to Italy, he +used to walk daily to the shores, when within reach of the +Mediterranean, and salute, with tears, the _bandiera stellata_,--as he +called our national banner, under which his exile had been protected +and honored. + +The pleasure expressed at Foresti's consular appointment, as well as +the high order of applicants in his behalf, afforded the best evidence +of the friendship and interest he had awakened and maintained in a +foreign land. On the shores of the Hudson, by the cliffs of Newport, +under the elms of New Haven, as well as in the metropolis where he had +so long dwelt, faithful hearts rejoiced at the announcement. "Few are +aware," said Hillhouse, in his Eulogy on Lafayette, "how hallowed and +how deep are their feelings who worship Liberty as a mistress they may +never possess." And it was the constancy and intelligence of his +devotion to her which won for him such peculiar regard; for he did not +belong to the sentimental and spasmodic, but to the resolute and +philosophic devotees at her shrine; his native taste was more wedded to +the wise satire of Casti and the acute generalities of Vico than +satisfied with the soft beauties of Petrarch or the luxurious graces of +Boccaccio; the stoical Alfieri, more than the epicurean Metastasio, +breathed music to his soul. "You belong," wrote Pellico to him, "you +belong to those who to a generous disposition unite an intellect to see +things wisely; never can I forget the gifts of genius and of courage +developed in you in the days of misfortune." It was an auspicious sign +of the times when the land which protected such an exile was +represented by him in that of his nativity. + +Brief, however, was Foresti's enjoyment of the distinction and resource +thus secured for him through the considerate efforts of his American +friends. "I write to you," says his last letter to one of them, dated +immediately after the reception of his commission, "with my left hand +pressed on a heart overflowing with gratitude for the means thus +honorably afforded to solace the last years of the old prisoner of +Spielberg." Three months after, that noble heart ceased to beat; an +effusion on the chest, which ultimately defied the best medical skill +and the most assiduous friendly devotion, ended fatally on the morning +of the 14th of September, 1858, "By his death," said one of his +eulogists, "is broken one of the links that bind the New World to the +Old"; and as if to evidence the sympathy of mourners in two hemispheres +and attest the varied associations which embalm the example and memory +of Foresti, his funeral was typical of his life, and so illustrative of +his character, that we can imagine no peculiar honor wanting, grateful +to the patriot, the liberal, the martyr, or the man. In that ancient +city of Genoa, of old renowned for commercial glory and maritime valor, +the birthplace of the discoverer of the land of his adoption, now the +refuge of more who had sacrificed all for their country, and the state +where that country's best prospects are centred and her highest +aspirations cherished, in the home of the moral, civic, and social +vanguard of modern Italy, he found a grave. The American flag was his +pall; American mariners carried his bier; before it was borne the +Cross. His remains were followed from the Piazza della Maddelena, +through the principal streets and the Porta Romana to the Campo Santo, +by the officers and crew of the United States frigate "Wabash," the +captains of the American merchantmen in port, the Society of +Operatives, the industrial representative of a progressive state, of +which he was an honorary member, a vast multitude of emigrants from the +less favored Italian provinces, and a numerous body of literary, +official, and private gentlemen who enjoyed his personal friendship. + + + * * * * * + + +LARVAE. + + +My little maiden of four years old + (No myth, but a genuine child is she, +With her bronze-brown eyes, and her curls of gold) + Came, quite in disgust, one day, to me. + +Rubbing her shoulder with rosy palm,-- + As the loathsome touch seemed yet to thrill her, +She cried,--"Oh, mother, I found on my arm + A horrible, crawling caterpillar!" + +And with mischievous smile she could scarcely smother, + Yet a glance, in its daring, half-awed and shy, +She added,--"While they were about it, mother, + I wish they'd just finished the butterfly!" + +They were words to the thought of the soul that turns + From the coarser form of a partial growth, +Reproaching the Infinite Patience that yearns + With an unknown glory to crown them both. + +Ah, look thou largely, with lenient eyes, + On whatso beside thee may creep and cling, +For the possible beauty that underlies + The passing phase of the meanest thing! + +What if God's great angels, whose waiting love + Beholdeth our pitiful life below, +From the holy height of their heaven above, + Couldn't bear with the worm till the wings should grow? + + + + +THE MINISTER'S WOOING.[*] + +[Footnote *: Copyright secured by the Author in Great Britain and +France.] + +[Continued.] + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE QUILTING. + +By six o'clock in the morning, Miss Prissy came out of the best room to +the breakfast-table, with the air of a general who has arranged a +campaign,--her face glowing with satisfaction. All sat down together to +their morning meal. The outside door was open into the green, turfy +yard, and the apple-tree, now nursing stores of fine yellow jeannetons, +looked in at the window. Every once in a while, as a breeze shook the +leaves, a fully ripe apple might be heard falling to the ground, at +which Miss Prissy would bustle up from the table and rush to secure the +treasure. + +As the meal waned to its close, the rattling of wheels was heard at the +gate, and Candace was discerned, seated aloft in the one-horse wagon, +with her usual complement of baskets and bags. + +"Well, now, dear me! if there isn't Candace!" said Miss Prissy; "I do +believe Miss Marvyn has sent her with something for the quilting!" and +out she flew as nimble as a humming-bird, while those in the house +heard various exclamations of admiration, as Candace, with stately +dignity, disinterred from the wagon one basket after another, and +exhibited to Miss Prissy's enraptured eyes sly peeps under the white +napkins with which they were covered. And then, hanging a large basket +on either arm, she rolled majestically towards the house, like a +heavy-laden Indiaman, coming in after a fast voyage. + +"Good-mornin', Miss Scudder! good-mornin', Doctor!" she said, dropping +her curtsy on the door-step; "good-mornin', Miss Mary! Ye see our folks +was stirrin' pootty 'arly dis mornin', an' Miss Marvyn sent me down wid +two or tree little tings." + +Setting down her baskets on the floor, and seating herself between +them, she proceeded to develop their contents with ill-concealed +triumph. One basket was devoted to cakes of every species, from the +great Mont-Blanc loaf-cake, with its snowy glaciers of frosting, to the +twisted cruller and puffy doughnut. In the other basket lay pots of +golden butter curiously stamped, reposing on a bed of fresh, green +leaves,--while currants, red and white, and delicious cherries and +raspberries, gave a final finish to the picture. From a basket which +Miss Prissy brought in from the rear appeared cold fowl and tongue +delicately prepared, and shaded with feathers of parsley. Candace, +whose rollicking delight in the good things of this life was +conspicuous in every emotion, might have furnished to a painter, as she +sat in her brilliant turban, an idea for an African Genius of Plenty. + +"Why, really, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder, "you are overwhelming us!" + +"Ho! ho! ho!" said Candace, "I's tellin' Miss Marvyn folks don't git +married but once in der lives, (gin'ally speakin', dat is,) an' den dey +oughter hab plenty to do it wid." + +"Well, I must say," said Miss Prissy, taking out the loaf-cake with +busy assiduity,--"I must say, Candace, this does beat all!" + +"I should rader tink it oughter," said Candace, bridling herself with +proud consciousness; "ef it don't, 'ta'n't 'cause ole Candace ha'n't +put enough into it. I tell ye, I didn't do nothin' all day yisterday +but jes' make dat ar cake. Cato, when he got up, he begun to talk +someh'n' 'bout his shirt-buttons, an' I jes' shet him right up. Says I, +'Cato, when I's r'ally got cake to make for a great 'casion, I wants my +mind _jest_ as quiet an' _jest_ as serene as ef I was a-goin' to de +sacrament. I don't want no 'arthly cares on't. Now,' says I, 'Cato, de +ole Doctor's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's his quiltin'-cake,--an' +Miss Mary, she's gwine to be married, an' dis yer's _her_ +quiltin'-cake. An' dar'll be eberybody to dat ar quiltin'; an' ef de +cake a'n't right, why, 'twould be puttin' a candle under a bushel. An' +so,' says I, 'Cato, your buttons mus' wait' An' Cato, he sees de +'priety ob it, 'cause, dough he can't make cake like me, he's a 'mazin' +good judge on't, an' is dre'ful tickled when I slips out a little loaf +for his supper." + +"How is Mrs. Marvyn?" said Mrs. Scudder. + +"Kinder thin and shimmery; but she's about,--habin' her eyes eberywar, +'n' lookin' into eberyting. She jes' touches tings wid de tips ob her +fingers an' dey seem to go like. She'll be down to de quiltin' dis +arternoon. But she tole me to take de tings an' come down an' spen' de +day here; for Miss Marvyn an' I both knows how many steps mus' be taken +sech times, an' we agreed you oughter favor yourselves all you could." + +"Well, now," said Miss Prissy, lifting up her hands, "if that a'n't +what 'tis to have friends! Why, that was one of the things I was +thinking of, as I lay awake last night; because, you know, at times +like these, people run their feet off before the time begins, and then +they are all limpsey and lop-sided when the time comes. Now, I say, +Candace, all Miss Scudder and Mary have to do is to give everything up +to us, and we'll put it through straight." + +"Dat's what we will!" said Candace. "Jes' show me what's to be done, +an' I'll do it." + +Candace and Miss Prissy soon disappeared together into the pantry with +the baskets, whose contents they began busily to arrange. Candace shut +the door, that no sound might escape, and began a confidential +outpouring to Miss Prissy. + +"Ye see," she said, "I's _feelin's_ all de while for Miss Marvyn; +'cause, ye see, she was expectin', ef eber Mary was married,--well--dat +'twould be to somebody else, ye know." + +Miss Prissy responded with a sympathetic groan. + +"Well," said Candace, "ef't had been anybody but de Doctor, _I_ +wouldn't 'a' been resigned. But arter all he's done for my color, dar +a'n't nothin' I could find it in my heart to grudge him. But den I was +tellin' Cato t'oder day, says I, 'Cato, I dunno 'bout de rest o' de +world, but I ha'n't neber felt it in my bones dat Mass'r James is +r'ally dead, for sartin.' Now I feels tings _gin'ally_, but _some_ +tings I feels _in my bones_, an' dem allers comes true. An' dat ar's a +feelin' I ha'n't had 'bout Mass'r Jim yit, an' dat ar's what I'm +waitin' for 'fore I clar make up my mind. Though I know, 'cordin' to +all white folks' way o' tinkin', dar a'n't no hope, 'cause Squire +Marvyn he had dat ar Jeduth Pettibone up to his house, a-questionin' on +him, off an' on, nigh about tree hours. An' r'ally I didn't see no hope +no way, 'xcept jes' dis yer, as I was tellin' Cato,--_I can't feel it +in my bones_." + +Candace was not versed enough in the wisdom of the world to know that +she belonged to a large and respectable school of philosophers in this +particular mode of testing evidence, which, after all, the reader will +perceive has its conveniences. + +"Anoder ting," said Candace; "as much as a dozen times, dis yer last +year, when I's been a-scourin' knives, a fork has fell an' stuck +straight up in de floor; an' de las' time I pinted it out to Miss +Marvyn, an' she on'y jes' said, 'Why, what o' dat, Candace?'" + +"Well," said Miss Prissy, "I don't believe in _signs_, but then strange +things do happen. Now about dogs howling under windows,--why, I don't +believe in it a bit, but I never knew it fail that there was a death in +the house after." + +"Ah, I tell ye what," said Candace, looking mysterious, "dogs knows a +heap more'n dey likes to tell!" + +"Jes' so," said Miss Prissy. "Now I remember, one night, when. I was +watching with Miss Colonel Andrews, after Marthy Ann was born, that we +heard the _mournfulest_ howling that ever you did hear. It seemed to +come from right under the front stoop; and Miss Andrews she just +dropped the spoon in her gruel, and says she, 'Miss Prissy, do, for +pity's sake, just go down and see what that noise is.' And I went down +and lifted up one of the loose boards of the stoop, and what should I +see there but their Newfoundland pup?--there that creature had dug a +grave, and was a-sitting by it, crying!" + +Candace drew near to Miss Prissy, dark with expressive interest, as her +voice, in this awful narration, sank to a whisper. + +"Well," said Candace, after Miss Prissy had made something of a pause. + +"Well, I told Miss Andrews I didn't think there was anything in it," +said Miss Prissy; "but," she added, impressively, "she lost a very dear +brother, six months after, and I laid him out with my own hands,--yes, +laid him out in white flannel." + +"Some folks say," said Candace, "dat dreamin' 'bout white horses is a +sartin sign. Jinny Styles is bery strong 'bout dat. Now she come down +one mornin' cryin', 'cause she'd been dreamin' 'bout white horses, an' +she was sure she should hear some friend was dead. An' sure enough, a +man come in dat bery day an' tole her her son was drownded out in de +harbor. An' Jinny said, 'Dar! she was sure dat sign neber would fail.' +But den, ye see, dat night he come home. Jinny wa'n't r'ally +disappinted, but she allers insisted he was _as good as drownded_, any +way, 'cause he sunk tree times." + +"Well, I tell you," said Miss Prissy, "there are a great many more +things in this world than folks know about." + +"So dey are," said Candace. "Now, I ha'n't neber opened my mind to +nobody; but dar's a dream I's had, tree mornin's runnin', lately. I +dreamed I see Jim Marvyn a-sinkin' in de water, an' stretchin' up his +hands. An' den I dreamed I see de Lord Jesus come a-walkin' on de +water, an' take hold ob his hand, an' says he, 'O thou of little faith, +wherefore didst thou doubt?' An' den he lifted him right out. An' I +ha'n't said nothin' to nobody, 'cause, you know, de Doctor, he says +people mus'n't mind nothin' 'bout der dreams, 'cause dreams belongs to +de ole 'spensation." + +"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I am sure I don't know what to +think. What time in the morning was it that you dreamed it?" + +"Why," said Candace, "it was jest arter bird-peep. I kinder allers +wakes myself den, an' turns ober, an' what comes arter dat is apt to +run clar." + +"Well, well, well!" said Miss Prissy, "I don't know what to think. You +see, it may have reference to the state of his soul." + +"I know dat," said Candace; "but as nigh as I could judge in my dream," +she added, sinking her voice and looking mysterious, "as nigh as I can +judge, _dat boy's soul was in his body!_" + +"Why, how do you know?" said Miss Prissy, looking astonished at the +confidence with which Candace expressed her opinion. + +"Well, ye see," said Candace, rather mysteriously, "de Doctor, he don't +like to hab us talk much 'bout dese yer tings, 'cause he tinks it's +kind o' heathenish. But den, folks as is used to seein' sech tings +knows de look ob a sperit _out_ o' de body from de look ob a sperit +_in_ de body, jest as easy as you can tell Mary from de Doctor." + +At this moment Mrs. Scudder opened the pantry-door and put an end to +this mysterious conversation, which had already so affected Miss +Prissy, that, in the eagerness of her interest, she had rubbed up her +cap border and ribbon into rather an elfin and goblin style, as if they +had been ruffled up by a breeze from the land of spirits; and she flew +around for a few moments in a state of great nervous agitation, +upsetting dishes, knocking down plates, and huddling up contrary +suggestions as to what ought to be done first, in such impossible +relations that Mrs. Katy Scudder stood in dignified surprise at this +strange freak of conduct in the wise woman of the parish. + +A dim consciousness of something not quite canny in herself seemed to +strike her, for she made a vigorous effort to appear composed; and +facing Mrs. Scudder, with an air of dignified suavity, inquired if it +would not be best to put Jim Marvyn in the oven now, while Candace was +getting the pies ready,--meaning, of course, a large turkey, which was +to be the first in an indefinite series to be baked that morning; and +discovering, by Mrs. Scudder's dazed expression and a vigorous pinch +from Candace, that somehow she had not improved matters, she rubbed her +spectacles into a diagonal position across her eyes, and stood glaring, +half through, half over them, with a helpless expression, which in a +less judicious person might have suggested the idea of a state of +slight intoxication. + +But the exigencies of an immediate temporal dispensation put an end to +Miss Prissy's unwonted vagaries, and she was soon to be seen flying +round like a meteor, dusting, shaking curtains, counting napkins, +wiping and sorting china, all with such rapidity as to give rise to the +notion that she actually existed in forty places at once. + +Candace, whom the limits of her corporeal frame restricted to an +altogether different style of locomotion, often rolled the whites of +her eyes after her and gave vent to her views of her proceedings in +sententious expressions. + +"Do you know why _dat ar_ neber was married?" she said to Mary, as she +stood looking after her. Miss Prissy had made one of those rapid +transits through the apartment. + +"No," answered Mary, innocently. "Why wasn't she?" + +"'Cause neber was a man could run fast enough to cotch her," said +Candace; and then her portly person shook with the impulse of her own +wit. + +By two o'clock a goodly company began to assemble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel +arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy +Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye, and a +most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad, +expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the +cabbage-garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced +our tea-party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some +fresh butter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new +Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon +Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and +tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned. + +The quilt-pattern was gloriously drawn in oak-leaves, done in indigo; +and soon all the company, young and old, were passing busy fingers over +it; and conversation went on briskly. + +Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with +hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall +china vases on the mantel-pieces, and, departing from the usual rule of +an equal mixture of roses and asparagus-bushes, had constructed two +quaint and graceful bouquets, where garden-flowers were mingled with +drooping grasses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful +combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it. + +"It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw grass put into a +flower-pot," said Miss Prissy; "but I must say it looks as handsome as +a picture. Mary, I must say," she added, in an aside, "I think that +Madame de Frongenac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I +ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a +minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of grass, or +leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come +just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would +understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a +dress fitted here, to let me try it." + +At the quilting, Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won +the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her +needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among +the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as +being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging Papistical +opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their +minister's bed-quilt; but the younger part of the company were quite +captivated by her foreign air, and the pretty manner in which she +lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her +mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent +herself,--a declaration which arose less from native depravity than +from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young +people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of +course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with +the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a +forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the +parish, was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company. + +Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by +declaring, that, for her part, she never could see into it, how any +girl could marry a minister,--that she should as soon think of setting +up housekeeping in a meeting-house. + +"Oh, Cerinthy Ann!" exclaimed her mother, "how can you go on so?" + +"It's a fact," said the adventurous damsel; "now other men let you have +some peace,--but a minister's always round under your feet." + +"So you think, the less you see of a husband, the better?" said one of +the ladies. + +"Just my views," said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread +with her scissors; "I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four-years' +voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married, +I'm going up to have one of those fellows." + +It is to be remarked, in passing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this +very time receiving surreptitious visits from a consumptive-looking, +conscientious, young theological candidate, who came occasionally to +preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the Deacon, her +father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine +of Election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to illustrate it in a +most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the +consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison +that added vigor to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen +confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at +the demonstration. + +"You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann," said her mother; "they say that +'those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.' Girls talk +about getting married," she said, relapsing into a gentle didactic +melancholy, "without realizing its awful responsibilities." + +"Oh, as to that," said Cerinthy, "I've been practising on my pudding +now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney +with any girl." + +This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no +young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled +Indian-pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up chimney +and come down on the ground, outside, without breaking; and the +consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh. + +"Girls a'n't what they used to be in my day," sententiously remarked an +elderly lady. "I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she +could knit a long cotton stocking in a day." + +"I haven't much faith in these stories of old times,--have you, girls?" +said Cerinthy, appealing to the younger members at the frame. + +"At any rate," said Mrs. Twitchel, "our minister's wife will be a +pattern; I don't know anybody that goes beyond her either in spinning +or fine stitching." + +Mary sat as placid and disengaged as the new moon, and listened to the +chatter of old and young with the easy quietness of a young heart that +has early outlived life, and looks on everything in the world from some +gentle, restful eminence far on towards a better home. She smiled at +everybody's word, had a quick eye for everybody's wants, and was ready +with thimble, scissors, or thread, whenever any one needed them; but +once, when there was a pause in the conversation, she and Mrs. Marvyn +were both discovered to have stolen away. They were seated on the bed +in Mary's little room, with their arms around each other, communing in +low and gentle tones. + +"Mary, my dear child," said her friend, "this event is very pleasant to +me, because it places you permanently near me. I did not know but +eventually this sweet face might lead to my losing you, who are in some +respects the dearest friend I have." + +"You might be sure," said Mary, "I never would have married, except +that my mother's happiness and the happiness of so good a friend seemed +to depend on it. When we renounce self in anything, we have reason to +hope for God's blessing; and so I feel assured of a peaceful life in +the course I have taken. You will always be as a mother to me," she +added, laying her head on her friend's shoulder. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Marvyn; "and I must not let myself think a moment how +dear it might have been to have you more my own. If you feel really, +truly happy,--if you can enter on this life without any misgivings"-- + +"I can," said Mary, firmly. + +At this instant, very strangely, the string which confined a wreath of +sea-shells around her glass, having been long undermined by moths, +suddenly broke and fell down, scattering the shells upon the floor. + +Both women started, for the string of shells had been placed there by +James: and though neither was superstitious, this was one of those odd +coincidences that make hearts throb. + +"Dear boy!" said Mary, gathering the shells up tenderly; "wherever he +is, I shall never cease to love him. It makes me feel sad to see this +come down; but it is only an accident; nothing of him will ever fail +out of my heart." + +Mrs. Marvyn clasped Mary closer to her, with tears in her eyes. + +"I'll tell you what, Mary; it must have been the moths did that," said +Miss Prissy, who had been standing, unobserved, at the door for a +moment back; "moths will eat away strings just so. Last week Miss +Vernon's great family-picture fell down because the moths eat through +the cord; people ought to use twine or cotton string always. But I came +to tell you that the supper is all set, and the Doctor out of his +study, and all the people are wondering where you are." + +Mary and Mrs. Marvyn gave a hasty glance at themselves in the glass, to +be assured of their good keeping, and went into the great kitchen, +where a long table stood exhibiting all that plenitude of provision +which the immortal description of Washington Irving has saved us the +trouble of recapitulating in detail. + +The husbands, brothers, and lovers had come in, and the scene was +redolent of gayety. When Mary made her appearance, there was a moment's +pause, till she was conducted to the side of the Doctor; when, raising +his hand, he invoked a grace upon the loaded board. + +Unrestrained gayeties followed. Groups of young men and maidens chatted +together, and all the gallantries of the times were enacted. Serious +matrons commented on the cake, and told each other high and particular +secrets in the culinary art, which they drew from remote +family-archives. One might have learned in that instructive assembly +how best to keep moths out of blankets,--how to make fritters of Indian +corn undistinguishable from oysters,--how to bring up babies by +hand,--how to mend a cracked teapot,--how to take out grease from a +brocade,--how to reconcile absolute decrees with free will,--how to +make five yards of cloth answer the purpose of six,--and how to put +down the Democratic party. All were busy, earnest, and certain,--just +as a swarm of men and women, old and young, are in 1859. + +Miss Prissy was in her glory; every bow of her best cap was alive with +excitement, and she presented to the eyes of the astonished Newport +gentry an animated receipt-book. Some of the information she +communicated, indeed, was so valuable and important that she could not +trust the air with it, but whispered the most important portions in a +confidential tone. Among the crowd, Cerinthy Ann's theological admirer +was observed in deeply reflective attitude; and that high-spirited +young lady added further to his convictions of the total depravity of +the species by vexing and discomposing him in those thousand ways in +which a lively, ill-conditioned young woman will put to rout a serious, +well-disposed young man,--comforting herself with the reflection, that +by-and-by she would repent of all her sins in a lump together. + +Vain, transitory splendors! Even this evening, so glorious, so +heart-cheering, so fruitful in instruction and amusement, could not +last forever. Gradually the company broke up; the matrons mounted +soberly on horseback behind their spouses; and Cerinthy consoled her +clerical friend by giving him an opportunity to read her a lecture on +the way home, if he found the courage to do so. + +Mr. and Mrs. Marvyn and Candace wound their way soberly homeward; the +Doctor returned to his study for nightly devotions; and before long, +sleep settled down on the brown cottage. + +"I'll tell you what, Cato," said Candace, before composing herself to +sleep, "I can't feel it in my bones dat dis yer weddin's gwine to come +off yit." + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +AN ADVENTURE. + + +A day or two after, Madame de Frontignac and Mary went out to gather +shells and seaweed on the beach. It was four o'clock; and the afternoon +sun was hanging in the sultry sky of July with a hot and vaporous +stillness. The whole air was full of blue haze, that softened the +outlines of objects without hiding them. The sea lay like so much +glass; every ship and boat was double; every line and rope and spar had +its counterpart; and it seemed hard to say which was the more real, the +under or the upper world. + +Madame de Frontignac and Mary had brought a little basket with them, +which they were filling with shells and sea-mosses. The former was in +high spirits. She ran, and shouted, and exclaimed, and wondered at each +new marvel thrown out upon the shore, with the _abandon_ of a little +child. Mary could not but wonder whether this indeed were she whose +strong words had pierced and wrung her sympathies the other night, and +whether a deep life-wound could lie bleeding under those brilliant eyes +and that infantine exuberance of gayety; yet, surely, all that which +seemed so strong, so true, so real could not be gone so soon,--and it +could not be so soon consoled. Mary wondered at her, as the Anglo-Saxon +constitution, with its strong, firm intensity, its singleness of +nature, wonders at the mobile, many-sided existence of warmer races, +whose versatility of emotion on the surface is not incompatible with +the most intense persistency lower down. + +Mary's was one of those indulgent and tolerant natures which seem to +form the most favorable base for the play of other minds, rather than +to be itself salient,--and something about her tender calmness always +seemed to provoke the spirit of frolic in her friend. She would laugh +at her, kiss her, gambol round her, dress her hair with fantastic +coiffures, and call her all sorts of fanciful and poetic names in +French or English,--while Mary surveyed her with a pleased and innocent +surprise, as a revelation of character altogether new and different +from anything to which she had been hitherto accustomed. She was to her +a living pantomime, and brought into her unembellished life the charms +of opera and theatre and romance. + +After wearying themselves with their researches, they climbed round a +point of rock that stretched some way out into the sea, and attained to +a little kind of grotto, where the high cliffs shut out the rays of the +sun. They sat down to rest upon the rocks. A fresh breeze of declining +day was springing up, and bringing the rising tide landward,--each +several line of waves with its white crests coming up and breaking +gracefully on the hard, sparkling sand-beach at their feet. + +Mary's eyes fixed themselves, as they were apt to do, in a mournful +reverie, on the infinite expanse of waters, which was now broken and +chopped into a thousand incoming waves by the fresh afternoon breeze. +Madame de Frontignac noticed the expression, and began to play with her +as if she had been a child. She pulled the comb from her hair, and let +down its long silky waves upon her shoulders. + +"Now," said she, "let us make a Miranda of thee. This is our cave. I +will be Prince Ferdinand. Burr told me all about that,--he reads +beautifully, and explained it all to me. What a lovely story that +is!--you must be so happy, who know how to read Shakspeare without +learning! _Tenez!_ I will put this shell on your forehead,--it has a +hole here, and I will pass this gold chain through,--now! What a pity +this seaweed will not be pretty out of water! it has no effect; but +there is some green that will do;--let me fasten it so. Now, fair +Miranda, look at thyself!" + +Where is the girl so angelic as not to feel a slight curiosity to know +how she shall look in a new and strange costume? Mary bent over the +rock, where a little pool of water lay in a brown hollow above the +fluctuations of the tide, dark and still, like a mirror,--and saw a +fair face, with a white shell above the forehead and drooping wreaths +of green seaweed in the silken hair; and a faint blush and smile rose +on the cheek, giving the last finish to the picture. + +"How do you find yourself?" said Madame. "Confess now that I have a +true talent in coiffure. Now I will be Ferdinand." + +She turned quickly, and her eye was caught by something that Mary did +not see; she only saw the smile fade suddenly from Madame de +Frontignac's cheek, and her lips grow deadly white, while her heart +beat so that Mary could discern its flutterings under her black silk +bodice. + +"Will the sea-nymphs punish the rash presumption of a mortal who +intrudes?" said Colonel Burr, stepping before them with a grace as +invincible and assured as if he had never had any past history with +either. + +Mary started with a guilty blush, like a child detected in an unseemly +frolic, and put her hand to her head to take off the unwonted +adornments. + +"Let me protest, in the name of the Graces," said Burr, who by that +time stood with easy calmness at her side; and as he spoke, he stayed +her hand with that gentle air of authority which made it the natural +impulse of most people to obey him. "It would be treason against the +picturesque," he added, "to spoil that toilette, so charmingly uniting +the wearer to the scene." + +Mary was taken by surprise, and discomposed as every one is who finds +himself masquerading in attire foreign to his usual habits and +character; and therefore, when she would persist in taking it to +pieces, Burr found sufficient to alleviate the embarrassment of Madame +de Frontignac's utter silence in a playful run of protestations and +compliments. + +"I think, Mary," said Madame de Frontignac, "that we had better be +returning to the house." + +This was said in the haughtiest and coolest tone imaginable, looking at +the place where Burr stood, as if there were nothing there but empty +air. Mary rose to go; Madame de Frontignac offered her arm. + +"Permit me to remark, ladies," said Burr, with the quiet suavity which +never forsook him, "that your very agreeable occupations have caused +time to pass more rapidly than you are aware. I think you will find +that the tide has risen so as to intercept the path by which you came +here. You will hardly be able to get around the point of rocks without +some assistance." + +Mary looked a few paces ahead, and saw, a little before them, a fresh +afternoon breeze driving the rising tide high on to the side of the +rocks, at whose foot their course had lain. The nook in which they had +been sporting formed part of a shelving ledge which inclined over their +heads, and which it was just barely possible could be climbed by a +strong and agile person, but which would be wholly impracticable to a +frail, unaided woman. + +"There is no time to be lost," said Burr, coolly, measuring the +possibilities with that keen eye that was never discomposed by any +exigency. "I am at your service, ladies; I can either carry you in my +arms around this point, or assist you up these rocks." + +He paused and waited for their answer. + +Madame de Frontignac stood pale, cold, and silent, hearing only the +wild beating of her heart. + +"I think," said Mary, "that we should try the rocks." + +"Very well," said Burr; and placing his gloved hand on a fragment of +rock somewhat above their heads, he swung himself up to it with an easy +agility; from this he stretched himself down as far as possible towards +them, and, extending his hand, directed Mary, who stood foremost, to +set her foot on a slight projection, and give him both her hands; she +did so, and he seemed to draw her up as easily as if she had been a +feather. He placed her by him on a shelf of rock, and turned again to +Madame de Frontignac; she folded her arms and turned resolutely away +towards the sea. + +Just at that moment a coming wave broke at her feet. + +"There is no time to be lost," said Burr; "there's a tremendous surf +coming in, and the next wave may carry you out." + +"_Tant mieux_!" she responded, without turning her head. + +"Oh, Virginie! Virginie!" exclaimed Mary, kneeling and stretching her +arms over the rock; but another voice called Virginie, in a tone which +went to her heart. She turned and saw those dark eyes full of tears. + +"Oh, come!" he said, with that voice which she never could resist. + +She put her cold, trembling hands into his, and he drew her up and +placed her safely beside Mary. A few moments of difficult climbing +followed, in which his arm was thrown now around one and then around +the other, and they felt themselves carried with a force as if the +slight and graceful form were strung with steel. + +Placed in safety on the top of the bank, there was a natural gush of +grateful feeling towards their deliverer. The severest resentment, the +coolest moral disapprobation, are necessarily somewhat softened, when +the object of them has just laid one under a personal obligation. + +Burr did not seem disposed to press his advantage, and treated the +incident as the most matter-of-course affair in the world. He offered +an arm to each lady, with the air of a well-bred gentleman who offers a +necessary support; and each took it, because neither wished, under the +circumstances, to refuse. + +He walked along leisurely homeward, talking in that easy, quiet, +natural way in which he excelled, addressing no very particular remark +to either one, and at the door of the cottage took his leave, saying, +as he bowed, that he hoped neither of them would feel any inconvenience +from their exertions, and that he should do himself the pleasure to +call soon and inquire after their health. + +Madame de Frontignac made no reply; but curtsied with a stately grace, +turned and went into her little, room, whither Mary, after a few +minutes, followed her. + +She found her thrown upon the bed, her face buried in the pillow, her +breast heaving as if she were sobbing; but when, at Mary's entrance, +she raised her head, her eyes were bright and dry. + +"It is just as I told you, Mary,--that man holds me. I love him yet, in +spite of myself. It is in vain to be angry. What is the use of striking +your right hand with your left? When we _love_ one more than ourselves, +we only hurt ourselves with our anger." + +"But," said Mary, "love is founded on respect and esteem; and when that +is gone"---- + +"Why, then," said Madame, "we are very sorry,--but we love yet. Do we +stop loving ourselves when we have lost our own self-respect? No! it is +so disagreeable to see, we shut our eyes and ask to have the bandage +put on,--you know _that_, poor little heart! You can think how it would +have been with you, if you had found that _he_ was not what you +thought." + +The word struck home to Mary's consciousness,--but she sat down and +took her friend in her arms with an air self-controlled, serious, +rational. + +"I see and feel it all, dear Virginie, but I must stand firm for you. +You are in the waves, and I on the shore. If you are so weak at heart, +you must not see this man any more." + +"But he will call." + +"I will see him for you." + +"What will you tell him, my heart?--tell him that I am ill, perhaps?" + +"No; I will tell him the truth,--that you do not wish to see him." + +"That is hard;--he will wonder." + +"I think not," said Mary, resolutely; "and furthermore, I shall say to +him, that, while Madame de Frontignac is at the cottage, it will not be +agreeable for us to receive calls from him." + +"Mary, _ma chère_, you astonish me!" + +"My dear friend," said Mary, "it is the only way. This man--this cruel, +wicked, deceitful man--must not be allowed to trifle with you in this +way. I will protect you." + +And she rose up with flashing eye and glowing cheek, looking as her +father looked when he protested against the slave-trade. + +"Thou art my Saint Catharine," said Virginie, rising up, excited by +Mary's enthusiasm, "and hast the sword as well as the palm; but, dear +saint, don't think so very, very badly of him;--he has a noble nature; +he has the angel in him." + +"The greater his sin," said Mary; "he sins against light and love." + +"But I think his heart is touched,--I think he is sorry. Oh, Mary, if +you had only seen how he looked at me when he put out his hands on the +rocks!--there were tears in his eyes" + +"Well there might be!" said Mary; "I do not think he is quite a fiend; +no one could look at those cheeks, dear Virginie, and not feel sad, +that saw you a few months ago." + +"Am I so changed?" she said, rising and looking at herself in the +mirror. "Sure enough,--my neck used to be quite round;--now you can see +those two little bones, like rocks at low tide. Poor Virginie! her +summer is gone, and the leaves are falling; poor little cat!"--and +Virginie stroked her own chestnut head, as if she had been pitying +another, and began humming a little Norman air, with a refrain that +sounded like the murmur of a brook over the stones. + +The more Mary was touched by these little poetic ways, which ran just +on an even line between the gay and the pathetic, the more indignant +she grew with the man that had brought all this sorrow. She felt a +saintly vindictiveness, and a determination to place herself as an +adamantine shield between him and her friend. There is no courage and +no anger like that of a gentle woman, when once fully roused; if ever +you have occasion to meet it, you will certainly remember the hour. + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +PLAIN TALK. + + +Mary revolved the affairs of her friend in her mind, during the night. +The intensity of the mental crisis through which she had herself just +passed had developed her in many inward respects, so that she looked +upon life no longer as a timid girl, but as a strong, experienced +woman. She had thought, and suffered, and held converse with eternal +realities, until thousands of mere earthly hesitations and timidities, +that often restrain a young and untried nature, had entirely lost their +hold upon her. Besides, Mary had at heart the true Puritan seed of +heroism,--never absent from the souls of true New England women. Her +essentially Hebrew education, trained in daily converse with the words +of prophets and seers, and with the modes of thought of a people +essentially grave and heroic, predisposed her to a kind of exaltation, +which, in times of great trial, might rise to the heights of the +religious--sublime, in which the impulse of self-devotion took a form +essentially commanding. The very intensity of the repression under +which her faculties had developed seemed, as it were, to produce a +surplus of hidden strength, which came out in exigencies. Her reading, +though restricted to a few volumes, had been of the kind that vitalized +and stimulated a poetic nature, and laid up in its chambers vigorous +words and trenchant phrases, for the use of an excited feeling,--so +that eloquence came to her as a native gift. She realized, in short, in +her higher hours, the last touch with which Milton finishes his +portrait of an ideal woman:-- + + "Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat + Build in her loftiest, and create an awe + About her as a guard angelic placed." + +The next, morning, Colonel Burr called at the cottage. Mary was +spinning in the garret, and Madame de Frontignac was reeling yarn, when +Mrs. Scudder brought this announcement. + +"Mother," said Mary, "I wish to see Mr. Burr alone. Madame de +Frontignac will not go down." + +Mrs. Scudder looked surprised, but asked no questions. When she was +gone down, Mary stood a moment reflecting; Madame de Frontignac looked +eager and agitated. + +"Remember and notice all he says, and just how he looks, Mary, so as to +tell me; and be sure and say that I thank him for his kindness +yesterday. We must own he appeared very well there; did he not?" + +"Certainly," said Mary; "but no man could have done less." + +"Ah! but, Mary, not every man could have done it _as_ he did. Now don't +be too hard on him, Mary;--I have said dreadful things to him; I am +afraid I have been too severe. After all, these distinguished men are +so tempted! we don't know how much they are tempted; and who can wonder +that they are a little spoiled? So, my angel, you must be merciful." + +"Merciful!" said Mary, kissing the pale cheek, and feeling the cold +little hands that trembled in hers. + +"So you will go down in your little spinning-toilette, _mimi_? I fancy +you look as Joan of Arc did, when she was keeping her sheep at Domremy. +Go, and God bless thee!" and Madame de Frontignac pushed her playfully +forward. + +Mary entered the room where Burr was seated, and wished him +good-morning, in a serious and placid manner, in which there was not +the slightest trace of embarrassment or discomposure. + +"Shall I have the pleasure of seeing your fair companion this morning?" +said Burr, after some moments of indifferent conversation. + +"No, Sir; Madame de Frontignac desires me to excuse her to you." + +"Is she ill?" said Burr, with a look of concern. + +"No, Mr. Burr, she prefers not to see you." + +Burr gave a start of well-bred surprise, and Mary added, + +"Madame de Frontignac has made me familiar with the history of your +acquaintance with her; and you will therefore understand what I mean, +Mr. Burr, when I say, that, during the time of her stay with us, we +should prefer not to receive calls from you." + +"Your language, Miss Scudder, has certainly the merit of explicitness." + +"I intend it shall have, Sir," said Mary, tranquilly; "half the misery +in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth +plainly and in a spirit of love." + +"I am gratified that you add the last clause, Miss Scudder; I might not +otherwise recognize the gentle being whom I have always regarded as the +impersonation of all that is softest in woman. I have not the honor of +understanding in the least the reason of this apparently capricious +sentence, but I bow to it in submission." + +"Mr. Burr," said Mary, walking up to him, and looking him full in the +eyes, with an energy that for the moment bore down his practised air of +easy superiority, "I wish to speak to you for a moment, as one immortal +soul should to another, without any of those false glosses and deceits +which men call ceremony and good manners. You have done a very great +injury to a lovely lady, whose weakness ought to have been sacred in +your eyes. Precisely because you are what you are,--strong, keen, +penetrating, and able to control and govern all who come near +you,--because you have the power to make yourself agreeable, +interesting, fascinating, and to win esteem and love,--just for that +reason you ought to hold yourself the guardian of every woman, and +treat her as you would wish any man to treat your own daughter. I leave +it to your conscience, whether this is the manner in which you have +treated Madame de Frontignac." + +"Upon my word, Miss Scudder," began Burr, "I cannot imagine what +representations our mutual friend may have been making. I assure you, +our intercourse has been as irreproachable as the most scrupulous could +desire." + +"Irreproachable!--scrupulous!--Mr. Burr, you know that you have taken +the very life out of her. You men can have everything,--ambition, +wealth, power; a thousand ways are open to you: women have nothing but +their heart; and when that is gone, all is gone. Mr. Burr, you remember +the rich man who had flocks and herds, but nothing would do for him but +he must have the one little ewe-lamb which was all his poor neighbor +had. Thou art the man! You have stolen all the love she had to +give,--all that she had to make a happy home; and you can never give +her anything in return, without endangering her purity and her +soul,--and you knew you could not. I know you men _think_ this is a +light matter; but it is death to us. What will this woman's life be? +one long struggle to forget; and when you have forgotten her, and are +going on gay and happy,--when you have thrown her very name away as a +faded flower, she will be praying, hoping, fearing for you; though all +men deny you, yet will not she. Yes, Mr. Burr, if ever your popularity +and prosperity should leave you and those who now flatter should +despise and curse you, she will always be interceding with her own +heart and with God for you, and making a thousand excuses where she +cannot deny; and if you die, as I fear you have lived, unreconciled to +the God of your fathers, it will be in her heart to offer up her very +soul for you, and to pray that God will impute all your sins to her, +and give you heaven. Oh, I know this, because I have felt it in my own +heart!" and Mary threw herself passionately down into a chair, and +broke into an agony of uncontrolled sobbing. + +Burr turned away, and stood looking through the window; tears were +dropping silently, unchecked by the cold, hard pride which was the evil +demon of his life. + +It is due to our human nature to believe that no man could ever have +been so passionately and enduringly loved and revered by both men and +women as he was, without a beautiful and lovable nature;--no man ever +demonstrated more forcibly the truth, that it is not a man's natural +constitution, but the _use_ he makes of it, which stamps him as good or +vile. + +The diviner part of him was weeping, and the cold, proud demon was +struggling to regain his lost ascendency. Every sob of the fair, +inspired child who had been speaking to him seemed to shake his +heart,--he felt as if he could have fallen on his knees to her; and yet +that stoical habit which was the boast of his life, which was the sole +wisdom he taught to his only and beautiful daughter, was slowly +stealing back round his heart,--and he pressed his lips together, +resolved that no word should escape till he had fully mastered himself. + +In a few moments Mary rose with renewed calmness and dignity, and, +approaching him, said,-- + +"Before I wish you good-morning, Mr. Burr, I must ask pardon for the +liberty I have taken in speaking so very plainly." + +"There is no pardon needed, my dear child," said Burr, turning and +speaking very gently, and with a face expressive of a softened concern; +"if you have told me harsh truths, it was with gentle intentions;--I +only hope that I may prove, at least by the future, that I am not +altogether so bad as you imagine. As to the friend whose name has been +passed between us, no man can go beyond me in a sense of her real +nobleness; I am sensible how little I can ever deserve the sentiment +with which she honors me. I am ready, in my future course, to obey any +commands that you and she may think proper to lay upon me." + +"The only kindness you can now do her," said Mary, "is to leave her. It +is impossible that you should be merely friends;--it is impossible, +without violating the holiest bonds, that you should be more. The +injury done is irreparable; but you _can_ avoid adding another and +greater one to it." + +Burr looked thoughtful. + +"May I say one thing more?" said Mary, the color rising in her cheeks. + +Burr looked at her with that smile that always drew out the confidence +of every heart. + +"Mr. Burr," she said, "you will pardon me, but I cannot help saying +this: You have, I am told, wholly renounced the Christian faith of your +fathers, and build your whole life on quite another foundation. I +cannot help feeling that this is a great and terrible mistake. I cannot +help wishing that you would examine and reconsider." + +"My dear child, I am extremely grateful to you for your remark, and +appreciate fully the purity of the source from which it springs. +Unfortunately, our intellectual beliefs are not subject to the control +of our will. I have examined, and the examination has, I regret to say, +not had the effect you would desire." + +Mary looked at him wistfully; he smiled and bowed,--all himself again; +and stopping at the door, he said, with a proud humility,-- + +"Do me the favor to present my devoted regard to your friend; believe +me, that hereafter you shall have less reason to complain of me." + +He bowed, and was gone. + +An eye-witness of the scene has related, that, when Burr resigned his +seat as President of his country's Senate, an object of peculiar +political bitterness and obloquy, almost all who listened to him had +made up their minds that he was an utterly faithless, unprincipled man; +and yet, such was his singular and peculiar personal power, that his +short farewell-address melted the whole assembly into tears, and his +most embittered adversaries were charmed into a momentary enthusiasm of +admiration. + +It must not be wondered at, therefore, if our simple-hearted, loving +Mary strangely found all her indignation against him gone, and herself +little disposed to criticize the impassioned tenderness with which +Madame de Frontignac still regarded him. + +We have one thing more that we cannot avoid saying, of two men so +singularly in juxtaposition as Aaron Burr and Dr. Hopkins. Both had a +perfect _logic_ of life, and guided themselves with an inflexible +rigidity by it. Burr assumed individual pleasure to be the great object +of human existence; Dr. Hopkins placed it in a life altogether beyond +self. Burr rejected all sacrifice; Hopkins considered sacrifice as the +foundation of all existence. To live as far as possible without a +disagreeable sensation was an object which Burr proposed to himself as +the _summum bonum_, for which he drilled down and subjugated a nature +of singular richness. Hopkins, on the other hand, smoothed the +asperities of a temperament naturally violent and fiery by a rigid +discipline which guided it entirely above the plane of self-indulgence; +and, in the pursuance of their great end, the one watched against his +better nature as the other did against his worse. It is but fair, then, +to take their lives as the practical workings of their respective +ethical creeds. + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +NEW ENGLAND IN FRENCH EYES. + + +We owe our readers a digression at this point, while we return for a +few moments to say a little more of the fortunes of Madame de +Frontignac, whom we left waiting with impatience for the termination of +the conversation between Mary and Burr. "_Enfin, chère Sybille_," said +Madame de Frontignac, when Mary came out of the room, with her cheeks +glowing and her eye flashing with a still unsubdued light, "_te voilà +encore_! What did he say, _mimi_?--did he ask for me?" + +"Yes," said Mary, "he asked for you." + +"What did you tell him?" + +"I told him that you wished me to excuse you." + +"How did he look then?--did he look surprised?" + +"A good deal so, I thought," said Mary. + +"_Allons, mimi_,--tell me all you said, and all he said." "Oh," said +Mary, "I am the worst person in the world; in fact, I cannot remember +anything that I have said; but I told him that he must leave you, and +never see you any more." + +"Oh, _mimi_, never!" + +Madame de Frontignac sat down on the side of the bed with such a look +of utter despair as went to Mary's heart. + +"You know that it is best, Virginie; do you not?" + +"Oh, yes, I know it; _mais pourtant, c'est dur comme la mort_. Ah, +well, what shall Virginie do now?" + +"You have your husband," said Mary. + +"_Je ne l'aime point_," said Madame de Frontignac. + +"Yes, but he is a good and honorable man, and you should love him." + +"Love is not in our power," said Madame de Frontignac. + +"Not every kind of love," said Mary, "but some kinds. If you have a +kind, indulgent friend who protects you and cares for you, you can be +grateful to him, you can try to make him happy, and in time you may +come to love him very much. He is a thousand times nobler man, if what +you say is true, than the one who has injured you so." + +"Oh, Mary!" said Madame de Frontignac, "there are some cases where we +find it too easy to love our enemies." + +"More than that," said Mary; "I believe, that, if you go on patiently +in the way of duty, and pray daily to God, He will at last take out of +your heart this painful love, and give you a true and healthy one. As +you say, such feelings are very sweet and noble; but they are not the +only ones we have to live by;--we can find happiness in duty, in +self-sacrifice, in calm, sincere, honest friendship. That is what you +can feel for your husband." + +"Your words cool me," said Madame de Frontignac; "thou art a sweet +snow-maiden, and my heart is hot and tired. I like to feel thee in my +arms," she said, putting her arms around Mary, and resting her head +upon her shoulder. "Talk to me so every day, and read me good cool +verses out of that beautiful Book, and perhaps by-and-by I shall grow +still and quiet like you." + +Thus Mary soothed her friend; but every few days this soothing had to +be done over, as long as Burr remained in Newport. When he was finally +gone, she grew more calm. The simple, homely ways of the cottage, the +healthful routine of daily domestic toils, into which she delighted to +enter, brought refreshment to her spirit. That fine tact and exquisite +social sympathy, which distinguish the French above other nations, +caused her at once to enter into the spirit of the life in which she +moved; so that she no longer shocked any one's religious feelings by +acts forbidden by the Puritan idea of Sunday, or failed in any of the +exterior proprieties of religious life. She also read and studied with +avidity the English Bible, which came to her with the novelty of a +wholly new book in a new language; nor was she without a certain +artistic appreciation of the austere precision and gravity of the +religious life by which she was surrounded. + +"It is sublime, but a little _glaciale_, like the Alps," she sometimes +said to Mary and Mrs. Marvyn, when speaking of it; "but then," she +added, playfully, "there are the flowers,--_les roses des Alpes_,--and +the air is very strengthening, and it is near to heaven,--_faut +avouer_." + +We have shown how she appeared to the eye of New England life; it may +not be uninteresting to give a letter to one of her friends, which +showed how the same appeared to her. It was not a friend with whom she +felt on such terms, that her intimacy with Burr would appear at all in +the correspondence. + + + * * * * * + +"You behold me, my charming Gabrielle, quite pastoral, recruiting from +the dissipations of my Philadelphia life in a quiet cottage, with most +worthy, excellent people, whom I have learned to love very much. They +are good and true, as pious as the saints themselves, although they do +not belong to the Church,--a thing which I am sorry for; but then let +us hope, that, if the world is wide, heaven is wider, and that all +worthy people will find room at last. This is Virginie's own little, +pet, private heresy; and when I tell it to the Abbé, he only smiles; +and so I think, somehow, that it is not so very bad as it might be. + +"We have had a very gay life in Philadelphia, and now I am growing +tired of the world, and think I shall retire to my cheese, like +Lafontaine's rat. + +"These people in the country here in America have a character quite +their own, very different from the life of cities, where one sees, for +the most part, only a continuation of the forms of good society which +exist in the Old World. + +"In the country, these people seem simple, grave, severe, always +industrious, and, at first, cold and reserved in their manners towards +each other, but with great warmth of heart. They are all obedient to +the word of their minister, who lives among them just like any other +man, and marries and has children. + +"Everything in their worship is plain and austere; their churches are +perfectly desolate; they have no chants, no pictures, no +carvings,--only a most disconsolate, bare-looking building, where they +meet together, and sing one or two hymns, and the minister makes one or +two prayers, all out of his own thoughts, and then gives them a long, +long discourse about things which I cannot understand enough English to +comprehend. + +"There is a very beautiful, charming young girl here, the daughter of +my hostess, who is as lovely and as saintly as St. Catharine, and has +such a genius for religion, that, if she had been in our Church, she +would certainly have been made a saint. + +"Her mother is a good, worthy matron; and the good priest lives in the +family. I think he is a man of very sublime religion, as much above +this world as a great mountain; but he has the true sense of liberty +and fraternity; for he has dared to oppose with all his might this +detestable and cruel trade in poor negroes, which makes us, who are so +proud of the example of America in asserting the rights of men, so +ashamed for her inconsistencies. + +"Well, now, there is a little romance getting up in the cottage; for +the good priest has fixed his eyes on the pretty saint, and discovered, +what he must be blind not to see, that she is very lovely,--and so, as +he can marry, he wants to make her his wife; and her mamma, who adores +him as if he were God, is quite set upon it. The sweet Marie, however, +has had a lover of her own in her little heart, a beautiful young man, +who went to sea, as heroes always do, to seek his fortune. And the +cruel sea has drowned him; and the poor little saint has wept and +prayed, till she is so thin and sweet and mournful that it makes one's +heart ache to see her smile. In our Church, Gabrielle, she would have +gone into a convent; but she makes a vocation of her daily life, and +goes round the house so sweetly, doing all the little work that is to +be done, as sacredly as the nuns pray at the altar. For you must know, +here in New England, the people, for the most part, keep no servants, +but perform all the household work themselves, with no end of spinning +and sewing besides. It is the true Arcadia, where you find cultivated +and refined people busying themselves with the simplest toils. For +these people are well-read and well-bred, and truly ladies in all +things. And so my little Marie and I, we feed the hens and chickens +together, and we search for eggs in the hay in the barn. And they have +taught me to spin at their great wheel, and at a little one too, which +makes a noise like the humming of a bee. + +"But where am I? Oh, I was telling about the romance. Well, so the good +priest has proposed for my Marie, and the dear little soul has accepted +him as the nun accepts the veil; for she only loves him filially and +religiously. And now they are going on, in their way, with preparations +for the wedding. They had what they call 'a quilting' here the other +night, to prepare the bride's quilt,--and all the friends in the +neighborhood came;--it was very amusing to see. + +"The morals of this people are so austere, that young men and girls are +allowed the greatest freedom. They associate and talk freely together, +and the young men walk home alone with the girls after evening parties. +And most generally, the young people, I am told, arrange their +marriages among themselves before the consent of the parents is asked. +This is very strange to us. I must not weary you, however, with the +details. I watch my little romance daily, and will let you hear further +as it progresses. + +"With a thousand kisses, I am, ever, your loving + +"Virginie." + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +CONSULTATIONS AND CONFIDENCES. + + +Meanwhile, the wedding-preparations were going on at the cottage with +that consistent vigor with which Yankee people always drive matters +when they know precisely what they are about. + +The wedding-day was definitely fixed for the first of August; and each +of the two weeks between had its particular significance and value +precisely marked out and arranged in Mrs. Katy Scudder's comprehensive +and systematic schemes. + +It was settled that the newly wedded pair were, for a while at least, +to reside at the cottage. It might have been imagined, therefore, that +no great external changes were in contemplation; but it is astonishing, +the amount of discussion, the amount of advising, consulting, and +running to and fro, which can be made to result out of an apparently +slight change in the relative position of two people in the same house. + +Dr. H. really opened his eyes with calm amazement. Good, modest soul! +he had never imagined himself the hero of so much preparation. From +morning to night, he heard his name constantly occurring in busy +consultations that seemed to be going on between Miss Prissy and Mrs. +Deacon Twitchel and Mrs. Scudder and Mrs. Jones, and quietly wondered +what they could have so much more than usual to say about him. For a +while it seemed to him that the whole house was about to be torn to +pieces. He was even requested to step out of his study, one day, into +which immediately entered, in his absence, two of the most vigorous +women of the parish, who proceeded to uttermost measures,--first +pitching everything into pie, so that the Doctor, who returned +disconsolately to look for a book, at once gave up himself and his +system of divinity as entirely lost, until assured by one of the +ladies, in a condescending manner, that he knew nothing about the +matter, and that, if he would return after half a day, he would find +everything right again,--a declaration in which he tried to have +unlimited faith, and which made him feel the advantage of a mind +accustomed to believing in mysteries. And it is to be remarked, that on +his return he actually found his table in most perfect order, with not +a single one of his papers missing; in fact, to his ignorant eye the +room looked exactly as it did before; and when Miss Prissy eloquently +demonstrated to him, that every inch of that paint had been scrubbed, +and the windows taken out, and washed inside and out, and rinsed +through three waters, and that the curtains had been taken down, and +washed, and put through a blue water, and starched, and ironed, and put +up again,--he only innocently wondered, in his ignorance, what there +was in a man's being married that made all these ceremonies necessary. +But the Doctor was a wise man, and in cases of difficulty kept his mind +to himself; and therefore he only informed these energetic +practitioners that he was extremely obliged to them, accepting it by +simple faith,--an example which, we recommend to all good men in +similar circumstances. + +The house throughout was subjected to similar renovation. Everything in +every chest or box was vigorously pulled out and hung out on lines in +the clothes-yard to air; for when once the spirit of enterprise has +fairly possessed a group of women, it assumes the form of a "prophetic +fury," and carries them beyond themselves. Let not any ignorant mortal +of the masculine gender, at such hours, rashly dare to question the +promptings of the genius that inspires them. Spite of all the treatises +that have lately appeared, to demonstrate that there are no particular +inherent diversities between men and women, we hold to the opinion that +one thorough season of house-cleaning is sufficient to prove the +existence of awful and mysterious difference between the sexes, and of +subtile and reserved forces in the female line, before which the lords +of creation can only veil their faces with a discreet reverence, as our +Doctor has done. + +In fact, his whole deportment on the occasion was characterized by +humility so edifying as really to touch the hearts of the whole synod +of matrons; and Miss Prissy rewarded him by declaring impressively her +opinion, that he was worthy to have a voice in the choosing of the +wedding-dress; and she actually swooped him up, just in a very critical +part of a distinction between natural and moral ability, and conveyed +him bodily, as fairy sprites knew how to convey the most ponderous of +mortals, into the best room, where three specimens of brocade lay +spread out upon a table for inspection. + +Mary stood by the side of the table, her pretty head bent reflectively +downward, her cheek just resting upon the tip of one of her fingers, as +she stood looking thoughtfully _through_ the brocades at something +deeper that seemed to lie under them; and when the Doctor was required +to give judgment on the articles, it was observed by the matrons that +his large blue eyes were resting upon Mary, with an expression that +almost glorified his face; and it was not until his elbow was +repeatedly shaken by Miss Prissy, that he gave a sudden start, and +fixed his attention, as was requested, upon the silks. It had been one +of Miss Prissy's favorite theories, that _"that dear blessed man had +taste enough, if he would only give his mind to things"_; and, in fact, +the Doctor rather verified the remark on the present occasion, for he +looked very conscientiously and soberly at the silks, and even handled +them cautiously and respectfully with his fingers, and listened with +grave attention to all that Miss Prissy told him of their price and +properties, and then laid his finger down on one whose snow-white +ground was embellished with a pattern representing lilies of the valley +on a background of green leaves. "This is the one," he said, with an +air of decision; and then be looked at Mary, and smiled, and a murmur +of universal approbation broke out. + +"_Il a de la délicatesse_," said Madame de Frontignac, who had been +watching this scene with bright, amused eyes,--while a chorus of loud +acclamations, in which Miss Prissy's voice took the lead, conveyed to +the innocent-minded Doctor the idea, that in some mysterious way he had +distinguished himself in the eyes of his feminine friends; whereat he +retired to his study slightly marvelling, but on the whole well +pleased, as men generally are when they do better than they expect; and +Miss Prissy, turning out all profaner persons from the apartment, held +a solemn consultation, to which only Mary, Mrs. Scudder, and Madame de +Frontignac were admitted. For it is to be observed that the latter had +risen daily and hourly in Miss Prissy's esteem, since her entrance into +the cottage; and she declared, that, if she only would give her a few +hints, she didn't believe but that she could make that dress look just +like a Paris one; and rather intimated that in such a case she might +almost be ready to resign all mortal ambitions. + +The afternoon of this day, just at that cool hour when the clock ticks +so quietly in a New England kitchen, and everything is so clean and put +away that there seems to be nothing to do in the house, Mary sat +quietly down in her room to hem a ruffle. Everybody had gone out of the +house on various errands. The Doctor, with implicit faith, had +surrendered himself to Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy, to be conveyed up +to Newport, and attend to various appointments in relation to his outer +man, which he was informed would be indispensable in the forthcoming +solemnities. Madame de Frontignac had also gone to spend the day with +some of her Newport friends. And Mary, quite well pleased with the +placid and orderly stillness which reigned through the house, sat +pleasantly murmuring a little tune to her sewing, when suddenly the +trip of a very brisk foot was heard in the kitchen, and Miss Cerinthy +Ann Twitchel made her appearance at the door, her healthy glowing cheek +wearing a still brighter color from the exercise of a three-mile walk +in a July day. + +"Why, Cerinthy," said Mary, "how glad I am to see you!" + +"Well," said Cerinthy, "I have been meaning to come down all this week, +but there's so much to do in haying-time,--but to-day I told mother I +_must_ come. I brought these down," she said, unfolding a dozen snowy +damask napkins, "that I spun myself, and was thinking of you almost all +the while I spun them, so I suppose they aren't quite so wicked as they +might be." + +We will observe here, that Cerinthy Ann, in virtue of having a high +stock of animal spirits and great fulness of physical vigor, had very +small proclivities towards the unseen and spiritual, but still always +indulged a secret resentment at being classed as a sinner above many +others, who, as church-members, made such professions, and were, as she +remarked, "not a bit better than she was." She had always, however, +cherished an unbounded veneration for Mary, and had made her the +confidante of most of her important secrets. It soon became very +evident that she had come with one on her mind now. + +"Don't you want to come and sit out in the lot?" she said, after +sitting awhile, twirling her bonnet-strings with the air of one who has +something to say and doesn't know exactly how to begin upon it. + +Mary cheerfully gathered up her thread, scissors, and ruffling, and the +two stepped over the window-sill, and soon found themselves seated +cozily under the boughs of a large apple-tree, whose descending +branches, meeting the tops of the high grass all around, formed a +seclusion as perfect as heart could desire. + +They sat down, pushing away a place in the grass; and Cerinthy Ann took +off her bonnet, and threw it among the clover, exhibiting to view her +black hair, always trimly arranged in shining braids, except where some +glossy curls fell over the rich high, color of her cheeks. Something +appeared to discompose her this afternoon. There were those evident +signs of a consultation impending, which, to an experienced eye, are as +unmistakable as the coming up of a shower in summer. + +Cerinthy began by passionately demolishing several heads of clover, +remarking, as she did so, that she "didn't see, for her part, how Mary +could keep so calm when things were coming so near." And as Mary +answered to this only with a quiet smile, she broke out again:-- + +"I don't see, for my part, how a young girl _could_ marry a minister, +anyhow; but then I think _you_ are just cut out for it. But what would +anybody say, if _I_ should do such a thing?" + +"I don't know," said Mary, innocently. + +"Well, I suppose everybody would hold up their hands; and yet, if I +_do_ say it myself,"--she added, coloring,--"there are not many girls +who could make a better minister's wife than I could, if I had a mind +to try." + +"That I am sure of," said Mary, warmly. + +"I guess you are the only one that ever thought so," said Cerinthy, +giving an impatient toss. "There's father and mother all the while +mourning over me; and yet I don't see but what I do pretty much all +that is done in the house, and they say I am a great comfort in a +temporal point of view. But, oh, the groanings and the sighings that +there are over me! I don't think it is pleasant to know that your best +friends are thinking such awful things about you, when you are working +your fingers off to help them. It is kind o' discouraging, but I don't +know what to do about it";--and for a few moments Cerinthy sat +demolishing buttercups, and throwing them up in the air till her shiny +black head was covered with golden flakes, while her cheeks grew redder +with something that she was going to say next. + +"Now, Mary, there is _that creature_. Well, you know, he won't take +'_No_' for an answer. What shall I do?" + +"Suppose, then, you try '_Yes_,'" said Mary, rather archly. + +"Oh, pshaw! Mary Scudder, you know better than that, now. I look like +it, don't I?" + +"Why, yes," said Mary, looking at Cerinthy, deliberately; "on the +whole, I think you do." + +"Well! one thing I must say," said Cerinthy,--"I can't see what _he_ +finds in me. I think he is a thousand times too good for me. Why, you +have no idea, Mary, how I _have_ plagued him. I believe that man +_really is a Christian_," she added, while something like a penitent +tear actually glistened in those sharp, saucy, black eyes. "Besides," +she added, "I have told him everything I could think of to discourage +him. I told him that I had a bad temper, and didn't believe the +doctrines, and couldn't promise that I ever should; and after all, that +creature keeps right on, and I don't know what to tell him." + +"Well," said Mary, mildly, "do you think you really love him?" + +"Love him?" said Cerinthy, giving a great flounce, "to be sure I don't! +Catch me loving any man! I told him last night I didn't; but it didn't +do a bit of good. I used to think that man was bashful, but I declare I +have altered my mind; he will talk and talk till I don't know what to +do. I tell you, Mary, he talks beautifully, too, sometimes." + +Here Cerinthy turned quickly away, and began reaching passionately +after clover-heads. After a few moments, she resumed:-- + +"The fact is, Mary, that man _needs_ somebody to take care of him; for +he never thinks of himself. They say he has got the consumption; but he +hasn't, any more than I have. It is just the way he neglects +himself,--preaching, talking, and visiting; nobody to take care of him, +and see to his clothes, and nurse him up when he gets a little hoarse +and run down. Well, I suppose if I _am_ unregenerate, I do know how to +keep things in order; and if I should keep _such_ a man's soul in his +body, I should be doing some good in the world; because, if ministers +don't live, of course they can't convert anybody. Just think of his +saying that I could be a comfort to _him_! I told him that it was +perfectly ridiculous. 'And besides,' says I, 'what will everybody +think?' I thought that I had really talked him out of the notion of it +last night; but there he was in again this morning, and told me he had +derived great encouragement from what I had said. Well, the poor man +really is lonesome,--his mother's dead, and he hasn't any sisters. I +asked him why he didn't go and take Miss Olladine Slocum: everybody +says she would make a first-rate minister's wife." + +"Well, and what did he say to that?" said Mary. + +"Well, something really silly,--about my looks," said Cerinthy, looking +down. + +Mary looked up, and remarked the shining black hair, the long dark +lashes lying down over the glowing cheek, where two arch dimples were +nestling, and said, quietly,-- + +"Probably he is a man of taste, Cerinthy; I advise you to leave the +matter entirely to his judgment." + +"You don't, really, Mary!" said the damsel, looking up. "Don't you +think it would injure _him_, if I should?" + +"I think not, materially," said Mary. + +"Well," said Cerinthy, rising, "the men will be coming home from the +mowing, before I get home, and want their supper. Mother has got one of +her headaches on this afternoon, so I can't stop any longer. There +isn't a soul in the house knows where anything is, when I am gone. If I +should ever take it into my head to go off, I don't know what would +become of father and mother, I was telling mother, the other day, that +I thought unregenerate folks were of some use in _this_ world, any +way." + +"Does your mother know anything about it?" said Mary. + +"Oh, as to mother, I believe she has been hoping and praying about it +these three months. She thinks that I am such a desperate case, it is +the only way I am to be brought in, as she calls it. That's what set me +against him at first; but the fact is, if girls will let a man argue +with them, he always contrives to get the best of it. I am kind of +provoked about it, too. But, mercy on us! he is so meek, there is no +use of getting provoked at him. Well, I guess I will go home and think +about it." + +As she turned to go, she looked really pretty. Her long lashes were wet +with a twinkling moisture, like meadow-grass after a shower; and there +was a softened, childlike expression stealing over the careless gayety +of her face. + +Mary put her arms round her with a gentle caressing movement, which the +other returned with a hearty embrace. They stood locked in each other's +arms,--the glowing, vigorous, strong-hearted girl, with that pale, +spiritual face resting on her breast, as when the morning, songful and +radiant, clasps the pale silver moon to her glowing bosom. + +"Look here now, Mary," said Cerinthy; "your folks are all gone. You may +as well walk with me. It's pleasant now." + +"Yes, I will," said Mary; "wait a minute, till I get my bonnet." + +In a few moments the two girls were walking together in one of those +little pasture foot-tracks which run so cozily among huckleberry and +juniper bushes, while Cerinthy eagerly pursued the subject she could +not leave thinking of. + +Their path now wound over high ground that overlooked the distant sea, +now lost itself in little copses of cedar and pitch-pine, and now there +came on the air the pleasant breath of new hay, which mowers were +harvesting in adjoining meadows. + +They walked on and on, as girls will; because, when a young lady has +once fairly launched into the enterprise of telling another all that +_he_ said, and just how _he_ looked, for the last three months, walks +are apt to be indefinitely extended. + +Mary was, besides, one of the most seductive little confidantes in the +world. She was so pure from selfishness, so heartily and innocently +interested in what another was telling her, that people in talking with +her found the subject constantly increasing in interest,--although, if +they really had been called upon afterwards to state the exact portion +in words which she added to the conversation, they would have been +surprised to find it so small. + +In fact, before Cerinthy Ann had quite finished her confessions, they +were more than a mile from the cottage, and Mary began to think of +returning, saying that her mother would wonder where she was, when she +came home. + +[To be continued.] + + + * * * * * + +LION LLEWELLYN. + + +Singing, shining, beautiful May +Lureth me, draweth me, all the day. +Once, when the season wooed me so, +Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go, +Pacing before or close beside, +Reticent, quaint, and dignified, +Roaming with me, wandering wide; +And if ever thy feet inclined, +Weary with roving, to lag behind, +When were my arms to aid thee slow? +"Muver will cahwy her darlin'! So!" + +Not to the pines, my warrior gray, +Gray and stately and scarred as they,-- +Not to the hill, or the valley glen, +Shall we wander together again. + +Nevermore, in the dead of night, +Shall I waken in cold affright,-- +Waken at sounds I know too well, +Growl defiant, and horrid yell, +Sounds that bristle the hair, and tell +Strife is raging, and blood is shed, +Blood and--fur, in the conflict dread. +Nevermore, from my bed, shall I +Unto the chamber-window fly, + +There, by the wintry moon, to spy +Thee on the well-sweep mounted high,-- +Mounting still, from the crafty foe +Creeping and crawling up below; +And, when thou canst no farther go, +See thee crouch for the fearful leap +Off the top of the old well-sweep, +Then, with a swift and dizzy sweep, +Plunge in the crusty snow knee-deep. +Nor, for a lameness gotten so, +Shall I nurse thee again,--all, no! + +Nevermore, from my willing hand +Winning the all I can command, +Shall be heard the pathetic tone, +(Solvent sufficient for heart of stone,) +Making thy simple wishes known; +Nor shall the vibrating long-drawn "Mr--r" +Of thy tranquil thunderous purr +Breathe again, to my ear attent, +Bliss o'erflowing and deep content. + +As I fondly muse on thee, +I recall the spreading tree +Of thy goodly pedigree, +Which, of shapely branch or bough, +Hath no fairer growth than thou; +And my glance caressing now +Sweeps Alas, and Och Oh-Ow, +Chryssa, Christopher, What-Not, +Zabdas, Bunch, Longinus, Dot, +Tom, Zenobia, Nonesuch, +Turvy, Topsy, Inasmuch, +Zillah, Zillah Number Two, +Fremont, Dayton, Tittattoo, +Hiawatha, And, and If, +Minnehaha, But, and Tiff, +Kitty Clover, Kitty Gray, +Flossy, Frolic, Fayaway, +Quip, and Quirk, and Dearest Mae, +Nippenicket, Dido, Puck, +Minnesinger, Friar Tuck, +Periwinkle, Winkle Less, +Quiz, Albeit, Bonnie, Bess, +Midget, Budget, Mayaret, +Jocko, Sancho, Hans, Coquette, +Daisy Du Da, Ditto, Pet, +Pancks, and Peepy, Tilly, Tarn, +Tattycoram, Zoe, Clam, +Little Dorrit, Uncle Sam, +Tomtit, Pug, Penelope, +Ike, Ulysses, Rosalie, + +Punch, and Judy, Ferny Fan, +Cowslip, Hecate, Caliban, +Filibuster, Jonathan,-- +Name them all who may, who can; +For the half has not been told +Of the branches I behold +On the honored parent-stem, +And the later growth from them. + +Lion Llewellyn, faithful friend, +Brave and gentle to the end, +Would that I once more might hail, +Like a banner on the gale, +Waving slow, thy jet-ringed tail! +And thy furry coat of mail, +Like the striped and spotted skin +Of thy savage leopard kin, +Would I might again caress +With the old-time tenderness! + +Why do I talk of what may not be? +For the pillow of him I fain would see +Was changed long since from my motherly knee +To the garden, under the willow-tree,-- +Weeping-willow and flowering moss. +Over it riseth nor pile nor cross; +We, who only have felt his loss, +Needing no sculptured stone to tell +How he battled, and how he fell, +Or where sleepeth who sleeps so well. + +What is the destiny of his race? +Is there, I wonder, no other place +Whence they come or whither they go? +Earth-existence the all they know? +Does the living intelligence +Die in them with the dying sense? +Or, from the body passing hence, +Does it find in another sphere +Being in higher form than here? + +For summers twain, the willow kept +Its watch where low the warrior slept, +But, on the third, a blight had crept +Upon the vigor of its frame; +Nor knew we how or whence it came. + +Whisper it low and fearfully, +The tale of ghostly mystery; +For toothless crones and graybeards said +That from the presence of the dead +An influence around was shed, + +Like warlock's foul, unholy spell, +Of malisons and curses fell, +Which steeped that soil with venom dank, +Of which the fated willow drank. + +Whether it were or were not so, +At least so much as this we know, +That on the willow fell decay; +And though, when all things else grew gay, +It feebly strove to look as they, +Yet was its summer crown of pride +Worn lightly, and soon cast aside, +And when Spring found it, it had died. + +A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown, +Now mark the place of his rest alone. + +I see that the soft west-wind to-day +From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away, +And wherever its fitful currents flow, +Rising or falling, swift or slow, +The tender petals like white wings go, +Floating, eddying, wavering low, +Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow; +And under their light and flickering fall, +The mound, and the flowering moss, and all, +Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest. + +Thou that often these arms have pressed, +Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,-- +Thou that takest thy colder rest, +Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground, +Close, but untenderly, folded round,-- +Ever, by thy drifted mound, +Sleep, the Mystery, be found +Most mysterious, most profound! +And through her enchanted air, +Lighter than petals fair, +Brooding Peace sink downward there; +And the blasted willow make +Haunt perpetual, for thy sake! + + + + +TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA. + + "It were wise, nay, just, + To strike with men a balance: to forgive, + If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama. + + +In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories +and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same +Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years +afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of +_citoyen Français_, when that new order was created by the Revolution. +At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr. +Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these +occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a +bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had +been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the +New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased +with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with +regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his +destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache, +introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of +filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or +assistant surveyor." + +The "young man" was thirty-seven years of age when he landed in +Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, to begin the real business of his +life. He had been a staymaker, a sailor, an exciseman, a teacher, a +shopkeeper, and an author, to say nothing of his twofold matrimonial +experience. Such a long and various course of schooling had fitted him +to become an American citizen. + +His father was a staymaker, a Quaker, and poor. The son was sent to a +free school, where he was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, +--enough learning to be given to any man at the public expense. +With these three keys, if he is made of the right material, he +can open the world. At thirteen, he worked at his father's trade; at +sixteen, he ran away and shipped on board the privateer "Terrible," +Captain Death: the names of both craft and captain suggest the black +flag and cross-bones. Before the vessel sailed, his father interfered +and brought him ashore. Luckily for him; for, on her next cruise, the +"Terrible" was taken into St. Malo, a prize to the "Vengeance," after +one of the most desperate sea-fights on record. Her captain was killed; +out of a crew of two hundred men, only twenty-six were found alive, +most of them badly wounded. Visions of sea-life again lured Paine away +from the shop-board. He shipped in another privateer, and this time +actually served out the cruise. In 1759, we find him living at +Sandwich, a staymaker and a married man. In 1761, he was a widower and +an officer of the excise. From this position he was dismissed, for some +reason which escaped both Cobbett and Cheetham, and eleven months +afterward was reinstated on his own petition. In the interval, he found +employment in London as usher in a school, at twenty-five pounds a +year. His leisure moments he devoted to lectures on Natural Science. In +1768, he took a second wife at Lewes, the daughter of a tobacconist; +and the father dying soon after, Paine kept the shop. Here he wrote for +his brother-excisemen a petition to government for an increase of +salary. Four thousand copies were published by subscription. This piece +introduced him to Goldsmith, and a letter from the author to the famous +Doctor still exists, requesting "the honor of his company at the tavern +for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine." + +The year 1774 was an eventful one for Paine. He failed in the shop, was +separated from his wife, and dismissed from his office as exciseman. +After petitioning in vain to be reinstated, he determined to emigrate. + +His first scheme was, to establish a school for girls in Philadelphia; +but Bache procured him an engagement as assistant editor of the +"Pennsylvania Magazine," at fifty pounds a year. Paine's contributions +were much applauded, and soon attracted subscribers. His "Reflections +on the Life and Death of Lord Clive" were considered admirable, but do +not suit our present taste. A song on the Death of General Wolfe, still +occasionally reprinted, does not rise above a low level of mediocrity. +But here is a paragraph on the Mineral Riches of the Earth, which, many +years later, found favor in the eyes of the surly Cheetham, and may +still be read with some interest:-- + + + * * * * * + +"Though Nature is gay, polite, and generous abroad, she is sullen, +rude, and niggardly at home; return the visit, and she admits you with +all the suspicion of a miser, and all the reluctance of an antiquated +beauty retired to replenish her charms. Bred up in antediluvian +notions, she has not yet acquired the European taste of receiving +visitants in her dressing-room: she locks and bolts up her private +recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve +her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face that +was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He that would view Nature in +her undress, and partake of her internal treasures, must proceed with +the resolution of a robber, if not a ravisher. She gives no invitation +to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation +of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery +of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is +noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of +her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her +gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness; +and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the +riches of a necromancer's cell." + + + * * * * * + +An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper, +introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among +others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to +Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this +communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and +the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the +venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen +appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_," +as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his +contemporaries. [1] + +[Footnote 1: See "Climenole" in The Portfolio, 1803.] + +Paine's own account of the work is probably the true one:-- + + + * * * * * + +"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as +were in his hands towards completing a history of the present +transactions, and seemed desirous to have the first volume out the next +spring. I had then formed the outlines of "Common Sense," and finished +nearly the first part; and as I supposed the Doctor's design in getting +out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to +surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he +thought of." + + + * * * * * + +The times were more suggestive than doctors, even when Franklin was one +of them. When Paine came to America, he found the dispute with England +the all-absorbing topic. The atmosphere was heavy with the approaching +storm. The First Congress was in session in the autumn of that year. On +the 17th of September, John Adams felt certain that the other Colonies +would support Massachusetts. The Second Congress met in May, 1775. +During the winter and spring the quarrel had grown rapidly. Lexington +and Concord had become national watchwords; the army was assembled +about Boston; Washington was chosen commander-in-chief. Then came +Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was +open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had +drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag. + +From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in +their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots, +militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in +regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make +out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to +appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising +revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament +could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed +excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of +British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by +the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial +merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to +independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion +to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists +insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men +and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of +Parliament with both, if necessary. These arguments of our ancestors +led them to an excellent conclusion, and so far are entitled to our +respect; but logically we are afraid that King George had the best of +it. + +Before many months had passed, lagging theory was left so far in the +rear by the rapid course of events, that the Colonists felt it +necessary to move up a new set of principles to the van, if they wished +to present a fair front to the enemy. They had raised an army, and +taken the field. Unless they declared themselves a nation, they were +confessedly rebels. And yet almost all hesitated. There was a +deep-seated prejudice in favor of the English government, and a strong +personal liking for the people. Even when it was known that the second +petition to the King--Dickinson's "measure of imbecility"--was +disregarded, as it deserved to be, and that the Hessians were coming, +and all reasonable men admitted that there was no hope for +reconciliation, they still refused to abandon the pleasing delusion, +and talked over the old plans for redress of grievances, and a +constitutional union with the mother country. With little or no belief +in the possibility of either, they stood shivering on the banks of the +Rubicon, that mythical river of irretrievable self-committal, +hesitating to enter its turbid waters. A few of the bolder "shepherds +of the people" tried to urge them onward; but no one was bold enough to +dash in first and lead them through. Paine seized the opportunity. He +had a mind whose eye always saw a subject, when it could perceive it at +all, in its naked truth, stripped of the non-material accessories which +disturb the vision of common men. He saw that reconciliation was +impossible, mere rebellion folly; and that, to succeed in the struggle, +it was necessary to fight Great Britain as an equal,--nation against +nation. This course he recommended in "Common Sense," published in +January, 1776. + +Paine told the Colonists in this pamphlet that the connection with the +mother country was of no use to them, and was rapidly becoming an +impossibility. "It is not in the power of England to do this continent +justice. The business of it is too weighty and too intricate to be +managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power so distant. +_To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a +petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, when +obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few +years be looked upon as folly and childishness_." As to the protection +of England, what is that but the privilege of contributing to her wars? +"Our trade will always be a protection." "Neutrality is a safer convoy +than a man-of-war." "It is the true interest of America to steer clear +of European contentions, which she can never do while by her dependence +on Britain she is made the make-weight in the scale of European +politics." According to "Common Sense," not only was a separation +necessary and unavoidable, but the present moment was the right time to +establish it. "The time hath found us." The materials of war were +abundant; the union of the Colonies complete. It might be difficult, if +not impossible, to form the continent into a government half a century +hence. Now the task is easy. The interest of all is the same. "There is +no religious difficulty in the way." "I fully believe that it is the +will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of religious +opinions among us. _I look upon the various denominations among us as +children of the same family, differing only in what is called their +Christian names."_ All things considered, "nothing can settle our +affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration of +independence." "This proceeding may at first appear strange and +difficult. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a +superficial appearance of being right"; but in a little time it will +become familiar. "And until independence is declared, the continent +will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant +business from day to day, yet knows it must be done; hates to set about +it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its +necessity." To this he thought it necessary to add a labored argument +against kings from the Old Testament, which may possibly have had much +weight with a people some of whose descendants still triumphantly quote +the same holy book in favour of slavery. + +The King's speech, "a piece of finished villany" in the eyes of true +patriots, appeared in Philadelphia on the same day as "Common Sense". +Thus Paine was as lucky in his time of publication as in his choice of +a subject. All contemporaries admit that the pamphlet produced a +prodigious effect. Paine himself says,--"The success it met with was +beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the copyright +up to every State in the Union, and the demand ran to not less than one +hundred thousand copies." The authorship was attributed to Dr. +Franklin, to Samuel Adams, and to John Adams. + +It is hardly necessary to mention that the movement party, with General +Washington at its head, considered Paine's "doctrines sound, and his +reasoning unanswerable." Even in England, Liberals read and applauded. +The pamphlet was translated into French. When John Adams went to +France, he heard himself called _le fameux Adams_, author of "Common +Sense." + +It soon became apparent that the people were charged with Independence +doctrines, and, like an electrified Leyden jar, only waited for the +touch of a skilful hand to produce the explosion. "Common Sense" drew +the spark. The winged words flew over the country and produced so rapid +a change of opinion, that, in most cases, conservatives judged it +useless to publish the answers they had prepared. One or two appeared. +None attracted attention. About five months later, Congress declared +independence; "as soon," Paine wrote, "as 'Common Sense' could spread +through such an extensive country." In a few years Paine asserted and +believed, that, had it not been for him, the Colonial government would +have continued, and the United States would never have become a nation. + +If we countermarch and get into the rear of Time, to borrow an +expression from "The Crisis," and, placing ourselves in January, 1776, +look at "Common Sense" from that date, we may understand without much +difficulty why it produced so great an impression. Paine, as later, +when he brought out the "Rights of Man," caused a chord to vibrate in +the popular mind which was already strung to the exact point of +tension. The publication was not only timely,--it was novel. Paine +founded a new school of pamphleteering. He was the first who wrote +politics for the million. The learned political dissertations of Junius +Brutus, Publius, or Philanglus were guarded in expression, +semi-metaphysical in theory, and Johnsonian in style. They were +relished by comparatively few readers; [1] but the shrewd illustrations +of "Common Sense," the homely force of its statements, and its concise +and muscular English stirred the mind of every class. Even Paine's +coarse epithets, "Common Ruffian," "Royal Brute of Britain," and the +like, which offended the taste of the leaders of the American +party,--for party-leaders were gentlemen in 1776,--had as much weight +with the rank-and-file as his arguments. + +[Footnote 1: Compare, for instance, Judge Drayton's Independence Charge +to the Grand Jury of Charleston, delivered April 23, 1776, with "Common +Sense."] + +Paine became suddenly famous. General Charles Lee said "that he burst +upon the world like Jove, in thunder." His acquaintance was sought by +all who were of the true faith in Independence; and when, soon +afterward, he visited New York, he carried with him letters from Dr. +Franklin and John Adams, introducing him to the principal residents "as +a citizen of the world, the celebrated author of 'Common Sense.'" Had +he been a man of fortune or American-born, he might have reached a +place in the foremost rank of the Fathers of the Country. But nativism +was powerful, and position important at that time, as Lee and Gates and +even Hamilton himself experienced. The signature, "Common Sense," Paine +preserved through life. It became what our authorlings, who ought to +know better, will persist in calling a _nom [1] de plume_--a Yankee +affectation, unknown to French idioms. + +[Footnote 1: They generally spell it "_nomme_."] + +In the autumn of 1776, Paine joined the army as volunteer aide-de-camp +to General Greene, and served through the gloomy campaign which opened +with the loss of New York in September. He remained in the field until +the army went into winter-quarters after the battles of Trenton and +Princeton. It was not as a combatant that Paine did the States good +service. He played the part of Tyraetus in prose,--an adaptation of the +old Greek lyrist to the eighteenth century and to British America,--and +cheered the soldiers, not with songs, but with essays, continuations of +"Common Sense." The first one was written on the retreat from Fort Lee, +and published under the name of "The Crisis," on the 23d of December, +when misfortune and severe weather had cast down the stoutest hearts. +It began with the well-known phrase, "'These are the times that try +men's souls.' The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this +crisis shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it +now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."--"But after all," +he continues, "matters might be worse. Howe has done very little. Fort +Washington and Fort Lee were no loss to us. The retreat was admirably +planned and conducted. General Washington is the right man for the +place, 'with a mind that can even nourish upon care.'" He closes with a +cheerful sketch of the spirit and condition of the army, attacks the +Tories, and appeals to the Colonies for union and contributions. + +This "Crisis" produced the best effect at home; in England it had the +honor of being burned by the hangman. The succeeding "Crisises" were +brought out at irregular intervals, whenever the occasion seemed to +demand Paine's attention; some of them not longer than a leader in a +daily paper; others swollen to pamphlet dimensions. They were read by +every corporal's guard in the army, and printed in every town of every +State on brown or yellow paper; for white was rarely to be obtained. In +their hours of despondency, the Colonists took consolation and courage +from the "Crisis." "Never," says a contemporary, "was a writer better +calculated for the meridian under which he wrote, or who knew how to +adapt himself more happily to every circumstance... Even Cheetham +admits, that to the army Paine's pen was an appendage almost as +necessary and as formidable as its cannon." + +The next campaign opened gloomily for the Colonies. The Tories felt +certain of victory. In the political almanac of that party, 1777 was +_"the year with three gallows in it."_ The English held New York and +ravaged the Jerseys on their way to Philadelphia. Howe issued a +proclamation "commanding all congresses and committees to desist and +cease from their treasonable doings," promising pardon to all who +should come in and take the oath of allegiance. Paine met him with a +"Crisis." "By what means," he asked, "do you expect to conquer America? +If you could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than +yours, nor in the winter, when we had none, how _are_ you to do it? If +you obtain possession of this city, [Philadelphia,] you could do +nothing with it but plunder it; it would be only an additional +dead-weight on your hands. You have both an army and a country to +contend with. You may march over the country, but you cannot hold it; +if you attempt to garrison it, your army would be like a stream of +water running to nothing. Even were our men to disperse, every man to +his home, engaging to reassemble at some future day, you would be as +much at a loss in that case as now. You would be afraid to send out +your troops in detachments; when we returned, the work would be all to +do." Paine then turns to those who, frightened by the proclamation, +betrayed their country, and paints their folly and its punishment. In +speaking of them, he calls upon the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to +take into serious consideration the case of the Quakers, whose +published protest against breaking off the "happy connection" seemed to +Paine of a treasonable nature. "They have voluntarily read themselves +out of the Continental meeting," he adds, with a humor, doubtless, +little relished by the Friends, "and cannot hope to be restored to it +again, but by payment and penitence." + +In April, Paine was elected, on motion of John Adams, Secretary to the +Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, with a salary of seventy +dollars a month. When Philadelphia surrendered, he accompanied Congress +in the flight to Lancaster. The day after the affair at Brandywine, a +short "Crisis" appeared, explaining the accidents which had caused the +defeat of the Continentals, and insisting that the good cause was safe, +and that Howe's victories were no better than defeats. Paine was right. +The Americans were gaining more ground in Northern New York than they +had lost in Pennsylvania. Burgoyne, who, + + "Unconscious of impending fates, + Could push through woods, but not through + Gates," + +had capitulated. The news reached Philadelphia on the 18th of October. + +This winter ought to have closed the war. The alliance with France, +Burgoyne's capture, two campaigns without useful results, Washington's +admirable patience and management at Valley Forge, with starvation and +mutiny in the ranks and disaffection to his person in the officers of +the Gates faction, ought to have convinced every Englishman in America +that the attempt to reduce the Colonies was now hopeless. Paine was so +indignant with the reckless obstinacy of the British government, that +he conceived the idea of carrying the war into England with pen and +paper,--weapons he began to think invincible in his hands. "If I could +get over to England," he wrote to his old chief, General Greene, +"without being known, and only remain in safety until I could get out a +proclamation, I could open the eyes of the country with respect to the +madness and stupidity of its government." Greene had no confidence in +the success of this appeal to the English people, and advised Paine not +to attempt it. + +In the mean time the French fleet had arrived, bringing M. Gérard, the +first foreign minister to the United States, and with him trouble to +Thomas Paine. It is well known that the French government employed +Beaumarchais, the author of the "Barber of Seville," as their agent to +furnish secret supplies to the American insurgents, and that +Beaumarchais imagined a firm, Rodrigue Hortalez & Co., who shipped to +the United Colonies munitions of war furnished by the King, and were to +receive return cargoes of tobacco, to keep up mercantile appearances. +Silas Deane, a member of Congress from Connecticut, represented the +Americans in the business. In 1777, Congress, out of patience with +Deane for his foolish contracts with foreign officers, recalled him. He +returned, bringing with him a claim of Beaumarchais for the cargoes +already shipped to the United States. As Deane could produce no +vouchers, and Arthur Lee had cautioned Congress against his demands, +the claim was laid on the table until the vouchers should be presented. +Deane, confiding in the support of his numerous friends, appealed to +the public in a newspaper. Congress bore this indignity so +amiably,--refusing, indeed, by a small majority to take notice of +it,--that Henry Laurens, the president, who had laid Deane's appeal +before them for their action, resigned in disgust, and was succeeded by +John Jay. But Paine, whose position as Foreign Secretary enabled him to +know that the supplies had come from the French government, and not +from Beaumarchais, answered Deane in several newspaper articles, +entitled, "Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs." In these +he exposed the whole claim with his usual unmitigated directness. M. +Gérard immediately announced officially that Paine's papers were false, +and called upon Congress to declare them so and to pay the claim. Party +feeling ran high on this question,--a foreshadowing of the French and +English factions fifteen years later. Congress passed a resolution in +censure of Paine. Mr. Laurens moved that he be heard in his defence; +the motion was lost, and Paine resigned his office. A motion from the +Deane party to refuse his resignation and to discharge him was also +lost,--the Northern States voting generally in Paine's favor. His +resignation was then accepted. + +As the French government persisted in denying that the King had +furnished any supplies, Congress admitted the debt, and in October, +1779, drew bills on Dr. Franklin in favor of Beaumarchais, for two +millions and a half of francs, at three years' sight. Beaumarchais +negotiated the bills, built a fine hotel, and lived _en prince_. But +neither he nor Deane was satisfied. They still demanded another +million. + +We have no doubt that Paine was correct in his facts, however +injudicious it may have been to use them in his position. Deane's best +friends gave him up, before many years had passed. M. de Loménie, in +his interesting sketch of Beaumarchais, has tried hard to show the +justice of his demands on the United States, but without much success. +He does not attempt to explain how Beaumarchais, notoriously penniless +in 1775, should have had in 1777 a good claim for three millions' worth +of goods furnished. The American public looked upon Paine as a victim +to state policy, and his position with his friends did not suffer at +all in consequence of his disclosures. Personally, he exulted in his +conduct to the end of his life, and took pleasure in watching and +recording Deane's disreputable career and miserable end. "As he rose +like a rocket, so he fell like the stick," a metaphor which has passed +into a proverb, was imagined by Paine to meet Deane's case. [1] The +immediate consequence of Paine's resignation was to oblige him to hire +himself out as clerk to an attorney in Philadelphia. In his office, +Paine earned his daily bread by copying law-papers until he was +appointed clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania. + +[Footnote 1: This Beaumarchais claim was kept alive until the beginning +of the present generation. In 1794, Gouverneur Morris, Minister to the +French Republic, obtained from the Minister of Finance a receipt to the +Crown for a million of francs, signed by Beaumarchais, and sent it home +to meet the claim which had again been presented. In 1806 it +reappeared, urged by the Imperial Ambassador. In 1816, the Duc de +Richelieu, minister of Louis XVIII., sustained it, and declared, on the +strength of Gerard's assertions, that the million receipt did not in +any way concern the United States. In 1824, the daughter of +Beaumarchais came to this country to solicit Congress in person, with +no better success. But at last, in 1835, when our claim of twenty-five +millions on France was settled, eight hundred thousand francs were +allowed to the heirs of Beaumarchais, and the business closed +forever,--not creditably to us. The claim was probably unfounded; but +our government admitted its validity by the fact of payment; and the +money, if due, ought to have been paid forty years before, or a +suitable compensation made for the long delay. To be Liberals in +borrowing and Conservatives in repayment is not a desirable financial +character for a nation to obtain.] + +Early in May, 1780, while the Assembly of Pennsylvania was receiving +petitions from all parts of the State, praying for exemption from +taxes, a letter was brought to the speaker from General Washington, and +read to the House by Paine as clerk. It stated simply that the army was +in the utmost distress from the want of every necessary which men could +need and yet retain life; and that the symptoms of discontent and +mutiny were so marked that the General dreaded the event of every hour. +"When the letter was read," says Paine, "I observed a despairing +silence in the House. Nobody spoke for a considerable time. At length a +member, of whose fortitude I had a high opinion, rose. 'If,' said he, +'the account in that letter is true, and we are in the situation there +represented, it appears to me in vain to contend the matter any longer. +We may as well give up first as last.' A more cheerful member +endeavored to dissipate the gloom of the House, and moved an +adjournment, which was carried," Paine, who knew that the Assembly had +neither money nor credit, felt that the voluntary aid of individuals +could alone be relied upon in this conjuncture. He accordingly wrote a +letter to a friend in Philadelphia, a man of influence, explaining the +urgency of affairs, and inclosed five hundred dollars, the amount of +the salary due him as clerk, as his contribution towards a relief fund. +The Philadelphian called a meeting at the coffee-house, read Paine's +communication, and proposed a subscription, heading the list with two +hundred pounds in good money. Mr. Robert Morris put his name down for +the same sum. Three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency, +were raised; and it was resolved to establish a bank with the fund for +the relief of the army. This plan was carried out with the best +results. After Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finances, he +developed it into the Bank of North America, which was incorporated +both by act of Congress and by the State of Pennsylvania. Paine +followed up his letter by a "Crisis Extraordinary." Admitting that the +war costs the Colonists a very large sum, he shows that it is trifling, +compared with the burdens the English have to bear. For this reason it +would be less expensive for the Americans to raise almost any amount to +drive the English out than to submit to them and come under their +system of taxation. + +Our ancestors read the "Crisis Extraordinary," and understood every +word of it, we may be sure. Paine's lucidity of statement is never more +remarkable than when he handles financial questions. But conviction did +not work its way down to the pocket. Few men gave who could avoid it, +and each State appeared more fearful of paying, by accident, a larger +sum than its neighbor, than of the success of the British arms. +Congress, finding it at last almost impossible to get money or even +provisions at home, resolved to resort again to the financial expedient +which has proved so often profitable to this country, namely, to borrow +in Europe. Colonel Laurens, son of the late President of Congress, was +appointed commissioner to negotiate an annual loan from France of a +million sterling during the continuation of the war. Paine accompanied +him at his request. They sailed in February, 1781, and were graciously +received by King Louis, who promised them six millions of livres as a +present and ten millions as a loan. In little more than ten years, the +American secretary, who stands respectfully and unnoticed in the +presence of his Majesty of France, will sit as one of his judges in a +trial for life! Is there anything more wonderful in the transmutations +of fiction than this? Meanwhile, the future member of the Convention, +as little dreaming of what was in store for him as the King, sailed for +Boston with his principal. They carried with them two millions and a +half in silver,--a great help to Washington in the movement southward, +which ended with the capitulation of Yorktown. While in Paris, Paine +was again seized with the desire of invading England, incognito, with a +pamphlet in his pocket, to open the eyes of the people. But Colonel +Laurens thought no better of this scheme than General Greene, and +brought his secretary safely home again. + +Cornwallis had surrendered, and it was evident that the war could not +last much longer. The danger past, the Colonial aversion to pay Union +expenses and to obey the orders of Congress became daily stronger. The +want of a "Crisis," as a corrective medicine for the body politic, was +so much felt, that Robert Morris, with the knowledge and approbation of +Washington, requested Paine to take pen in hand again, offering him, if +his private affairs made it necessary, a salary for his services. Paine +consented. A "Crisis" appeared which produced a most salutary effect. +This was followed a few days later by another, in which a passage +occurs which may be quoted as a specimen of Paine's rhetorical powers. +A rumor was abroad that England was treating with France for a separate +peace. Paine finds it impossible to express his contempt for the +baseness of the ministry who could attempt to sow dissension between +such faithful allies. "We sometimes experience sensations to which +language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be born alive, +and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. Our feelings, imprisoned +by their magnitude, find no way out; and in the struggle of expression +every finger tries to be a tongue." It will be difficult to describe +better the struggle of an indignant soul with an insufficient +vocabulary. + +When peace was proclaimed, Paine, the untiring advocate of +independence, had a right to print his "Io Paean." The last "Crisis" +announces, "that the times that tried men's souls were over, and the +greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew gloriously and +happily accomplished." "America need never be ashamed to tell her +birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire." But it is to +the future he bids her look, rather than to the past. "The remembrance +of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most +laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began +with." "She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and domestic +life,--not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in +her own land and under her own vine the sweet of her labors and the +reward of her toil. In this situation may she never forget that a fair +national reputation is of as much importance as independence,--that it +possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and makes even enemies +civil,--that it gives a dignity which is often superior to power, and +commands reverence where pomp and splendor fail." As indispensable to a +future of prosperity and dignity, he warmly recommends the Union. "I +ever feel myself hurt," he says, "when I hear the Union, that great +Palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of. +It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that +which every man should be most proud and tender of." Thus he +anticipated by seventy-five years our "Union-savers" of 1856, few of +whom dreamed that their pet phrases, or something very like them, +originated with Thomas Paine. + +The war left Paine no richer than it found him. He had made fame, but +no money, by his writings. None of the proceeds of large editions had +enriched his purse. He had an exalted ideal of an author's duty when +his work is on political subjects. Louis Blanc has written somewhere, +"_Le journalisme est un sacerdoce._" This seems to have been Paine's +thought, although he may not have expressed it so sonorously,--for +there are no phrase-makers like the French. But Paine went, we suspect, +much farther than Louis Blanc; for he held that the priest ought to +take no pay for his ministrations. And he acted up to this unusual +theory in literary ethics. If he took out a copyright, he gave it away +to some public use. As he himself said, late in life,--"I could never +reconcile it to my principles to make money by my polities or my +religion." "In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake, +I love to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of +this principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the +pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward." + +His friends and admirers did not permit him to have the honor of giving +not only his services, but his actual expenses, to the Republic. The +State of New York presented him with a confiscated Royalist estate, +near New Rochelle, three hundred acres of good land, with the necessary +fences and buildings upon it. Pennsylvania voted him five hundred +pounds, currency. And the Virginians were talking about making a +similar donation, when an unlucky pamphlet from Paine appeared, +demolishing the claim of Virginia to the Western country. This +publication changed the views of the chivalry, and Paine lost his +grant. He owned, besides, a small place in Bordentown,--a gift, we +believe, of the State of New Jersey. The other nine States passed him +over. New England had expended enough, both of men and means, for the +cause,--and the South had fine feelings, but no money. + +In the autumn of 1783, when Paine was residing at Bordentown, he +received a letter from Washington, who had fixed his quarters at Rocky +Hill, near Princeton, until he could resign his command to Congress. It +ran thus:-- + + + * * * * * + +"I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at +Bordentown,--whether for the sake of retirement or economy; be it for +either or both, or whatever it may, I shall be exceedingly happy to see +you here. + +"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this +country; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best +exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who +entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, +with much pleasure, subscribes himself + +"G. WASHINGTON." + + + * * * * * + +Such a letter of hearty approval and respect, from the greatest man of +the country, perhaps of the age, (we Americans, at least, all think +so,) rich, powerful, honored, is certainly a "handsome testimonial," +worth writing or fighting for. It was not an empty offer of service. +Washington spoke to several members of Congress in Paine's behalf, and +told them that it would be pleasing to himself, as well as right and +proper, to make a suitable provision for Paine. In 1785, Congress at +last granted him three thousand dollars, much of which they fairly owed +him for his loss on the depreciated currency in which his salary as +Secretary had been paid. Paine accepted the General's invitation, and +spent some time in his family, at Mrs. Berrian's, Rocky Hill. One +evening of his visit was devoted to setting a neighboring creek on +fire. This successful experiment, as performed by the Father of his +Country, assisted by Thomas Paine, General Lincoln, and Colonel Cobb, +is described in a tract on the Yellow Fever, written by Paine a few +years before his death, at the request of Thomas Jefferson. + +Until the spring of 1787, Paine spent his time in Philadelphia or in +Bordentown, writing occasionally on subjects which interested him, and +indulging his taste for scientific speculations in the company of +Franklin and Rittenhouse. He was a member of the American Philosophical +Society, as well as an A. M. of the University of Philadelphia. His +reputation, his wonderful memory, the shrewd originality of his +remarks, made him a welcome guest in the best society. He was no talker +or _conversationist_, (an excellent word we should like to see +legitimated,) but a quiet, observing man, who spoke to the point, +inoffensive in manner, and not unprepossessing in appearance. As one of +the lions of the country, he was much looked at, especially by +foreigners. We find a sketch of an interview with him in the Travels of +the Chevalier de Chastellux. De Lafayette and himself requested +permission to call "on that author so celebrated in America and in +Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.'" Colonel Laurens +introduced them. "His physiognomy," the Chevalier thinks, "did not +belie the spirit that reigns throughout his works. Our conversation was +agreeable and animated, and such as to form a connection between us; +for he has written to me since my departure, and seems desirous of +maintaining a constant correspondence." + +In common with most of the clever men of his day, Paine, as we have +said, cultivated a taste for mechanics and natural science. There was +an awakening of the mind, in physics as well as in politics, at that +period; and it must be confessed that the natural philosophers have +succeeded better than the constitution-makers. Paine's mechanical hobby +was an iron bridge. A single arch, of four hundred feet span, and +twenty feet in height from the chord-line, was to be thrown over the +Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. The idea was suggested to him by a +spider's web, a section of which the bridge resembled; and the +principle he worked upon was, that the small segment of a large circle +was preferable to the great segment of a small circle. Paine made a +complete model of his bridge, in wrought iron and wood, at Bordentown; +but, finding that the insufficiency of capital and of skill in the +working of iron in America would prevent him from carrying out his +plan, he sailed for France to lay his model before the Académie des +Sciences. Franklin, who always liked him, gave him letters to the +celebrated Malesherbes, Le Roy, the Abbé Morellet, the Duke de la +Rochefoucauld, introducing him "as an ingenious, honest man, author of +'Common Sense,' a famous piece, published here with great effect on the +minds of people at the beginning of the Revolution." He had also a +satisfactory credential from Congress, in the shape of the following +resolution, adopted by that body in August, 1785:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labours of Mr. +Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late +Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of +Liberty and Civil Government, have been well received by the citizens +of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress." + + + + +TRIAL TRIP OF THE "FLYING CLOUD." + + +"Through in four days to San Francisco," repeated I. "Marvellous age!" + +I hastily computed the distance by an air-line, and placed the speed of +the craft at some thirty miles an hour. That seemed reasonable enough. +Indeed, the whole statement cohered marvellously well; all the parts +harmonized with each other and looked plausible, even reasonable, as I +have said, except the grand fact itself, which was too momentous for +belief. But why should it not be true? What new achievement of the +human mind ought to startle one in this nineteenth century, after +having witnessed the wonders of steam and electro-magnetism? I +determined to sift the matter, but immediately remembered that all the +knowledge I had of it had been imparted to me in the strictest +confidence. The ingenious inventors, as was clearly their right, had +reserved it to themselves to choose the time and way of making their +invention public, when it was to break on the world, some fine morning, +like the discovery of a second moon performing its orbit round the +earth. I sunk into a brown study. + +In the evening, Mr. Bonflon called again, as he had promised. He +brought with him a large roll of plans and drawings, for the purpose of +illustrating more clearly the principles and method of construction and +operation of his aërial ship. + +They were projected on a large scale, and the workmanship was superb. +Months of hard labor by a finished draughtsman must have been devoted +to their execution. "And what an additional outlay of time and brains," +thought I, "must have been required, to devise the scheme and construct +the machine itself, so as to elevate the ingenious ideal into an +absolute working reality!" These drawings, Mr. Bonflon informed me, +were duplicates of others which had been privately deposited in the +Patent-Office at Washington. + +The one which chiefly attracted my attention was that which represented +the monster steamer complete, with all its appendages and complement of +passengers, in its majestic flight through the air. Below it were the +drifting clouds. Its course lay quite above the storms and hurricanes +and conflicting wind-currents which vex the lower strata of the +atmosphere, where it comes in contact with the earth's uneven surface, +and is kept in motion by the contractions and expansions of alternate +cold and heat, and is broken and set whirling by the forests and gorges +and mountain-tops among which it is compelled to force its way. Above +all this, Mr. Bonflon assured me, as aëronauts report, there is ever a +smooth, quiet atmospheric sea. + +"But how is life to be sustained for any considerable time in that +rarefied medium?" inquired I, "when it is asserted that even in +ascending high mountains, the texture of the soft parts of the human +body becomes so loose and flabby from diminished atmospheric pressure +as to cause one, so to speak, to sweat blood,--which oozes perceptibly +from the mouth and nose and eyes, and even from under the +finger-nails?" + +Mr. Bonflon pointed to a long, narrow line which floated rearward at an +angle of about forty-five degrees from the point of its attachment to +his ship. + +"That," said he, "is an India-rubber tube several thousand feet long, +extending down into the respirable atmosphere, and keeping the cabins +always supplied with fresh and wholesome air." + +"But would the heavier nether air flow in that direction?" I asked. + +"With a little help from the engine," he replied, "a constant current, +whenever needed, is kept up; and the process of breathing is rendered +as easy and agreeable in the cabins of the 'Flying Cloud' as in one's +own parlors at home. On the upper deck, which is not inclosed, you see, +it is different. In the first trial-trip to California, Mr. M---- +insisted on remaining above on this deck for six consecutive hours, and +the result was an attack of hemorrhage from the lungs. On his going +below, however, it almost instantly ceased." + +I must now endeavor to give the reader some definite idea of this +extraordinary machine, as exhibited in the drawings. Its buoyant power +was, of course, on the principle of the balloon. But the gas-chamber, +or part to be inflated, instead of being globular in form, consisted of +two horizontal cones joined at the base; or more accurately still, it +resembled an immense barrel extended at both ends to a point, and +resting on its side. This shape was given it, according to Mr. Bonflon, +that it might offer the least possible resistance to the element in +which it was intended to move. In structure it was composed of a strong +flexible frame of whalebone and steel, covered with silk, strengthened +and rendered air-tight and water-proof by a coating of India-rubber. +Its size, of course, would depend on the proposed tonnage of a +particular ship. That of the working-model, as nearly as I remember, +was about six hundred feet long, by some seventy or eighty in breadth +in the middle, which was calculated to be amply sufficient to sustain +the immense car beneath, with its engine, and fuel for a week, and +three hundred passengers with their baggage; leaving still a +considerable margin for freight. + +Mr. Bonflon here pointed out, with great minuteness, the simple, but +ingenious method devised for the inflation of this enormous machine, +and the regulation of the gas; which I pass over, from an inability to +render it intelligible by mere description. + +The car or vessel suspended below, and to which the balloon part bore +the relation of masts and sails, was fashioned after the best model of +a clipper ship, but still farther elongated. Below deck, it was divided +into sitting and dining cabins, state-rooms, kitchen, engine-room, and +so forth; and above was a long, railed, promenade deck. The attachment +between the two parts was by means of a network of ropes, extending +from every quarter, and from the whole circumference of the ship, +connecting with staples in the framework of the balloon, and finally +embracing its entire body in its folds. Two enormous paddle-wheels, +made of oiled silk stretched on delicate frames, and driven by a +steam-engine of the lightest structure possible, furnished the +propelling power; while at the stern, like a vast fin, played the helm, +of a similar material and construction to the paddle-wheels. + +All this was explained to me in much fuller detail than I can here +repeat, by Mr. Bonflon, who added, that the materials employed combined +lightness with strength to a much greater degree than had ever before +been achieved,--that the fuel used was of the fluid kind, a new +combination of concentrated combustibles invented by himself,--and that +the weight of the entire machine had been carefully calculated +beforehand, together with its buoyant power, and the results had +demonstrated the accuracy of the mathematics. + +I turned on Mr. Bonflon and looked him squarely in the face. He was a +modest man and blushed slightly, but did not shrink. There could be no +dishonesty there. His countenance bore the unmistakable stamp of +integrity, as well as intelligence; and his whole appearance and +bearing were those of a true man. + +Had he brought me the newspaper he promised, not yet eight days old, +from San Francisco? + +No. He had been detained down-town all day in the whirl of our New York +Babel, and had not yet been home. He would hand it in to-morrow. + +Mr. Bonflon had been introduced to me that morning by a friend on whose +acuteness and judgment I felt I had many good reasons to rely. Without +pretending any precise knowledge of the man, or, indeed, any knowledge +at all, beyond what had been gathered from the individual himself in a +very brief acquaintance of Mr. Bonflon's own seeking, he expressed a +warm interest in him personally, as also in the startling discovery he +professed to have made. + +In that interview, Mr. Bonflon had informed us in brief, that, after +ten years of patient and toilsome experiment, of disappointment, of +perishing and reviving hope, he had at length achieved the grand object +of his life. He had solved the problem of the navigation of the air. He +had proved by actual results, that the great ocean of atmosphere above +us could be ploughed as successfully and safely as the waters beneath, +and with much greater facility and pleasure. He stated that the first +trial-trip, after the completion of the ship, had been made in the +night from an obscure point in the State of Maryland, and extended +north and northeast, along the Atlantic coast, to New York,--whose glow +of light from a great height, like a phosphorescent mist, was plainly +distinguishable,--and thence to the neighborhood of Boston, and back to +the place of starting; and that a second, with equally favorable +results, had been made from the same point by a more inland route, +northwest to Buffalo and the Canada line; and he named several +well-known persons who were on board at one or the other of these +times, and related some little anecdotes illustrative of their states +of mind and apprehensions while drifting above the earth on the +occasion of these novel voyages. + +He said, further, that the President and heads of departments at +Washington were fully cognizant of the matter; and that a third grand +trial-trip, in the interest of government, had been secretly made, with +important dispatches to California, relating to the security of our +rights in the Pacific. Four days had been consumed in the passage out, +including a stoppage of a couple of hours on a fine plateau, near the +head waters of the Missouri, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and +the same in the return. They had landed in the night in a deep valley a +few miles out of San Francisco, and remained two days in that city; +which gave a period of ten days to the entire voyage, out and back. +Forty selected individuals, all bound to secresy, had participated in +the risks and excitements of the extraordinary occasion. Mr. Bonflon +was not of the number. An heroic daughter of his was. His partner, +Mons. De Aëry, a French gentleman of great mechanical skill, had +managed the affair; and the craft, in the same hands, was now absent on +her second expedition across the American continent. + +Such was the sum of Mr. Bonflon's revelations of the morning. What a +discovery! How the announcement would astonish the world! How the +practical fact would overturn the world, upset commerce, and transform +the habits and relations of mankind! America, the pioneer in many +valuable discoveries and reforms, was still ahead,--still destined to +lead the van in the development of the powers and resources of Nature, +and the onward march of nations. + +Hurriedly recalling all these points to mind, I requested to know of +Mr. Bonflon how it had been possible, with so many confidants and the +prying propensities of the press, whose agents, like an invisible +police, are everywhere, to keep the matter from becoming public,--at +least, to cover the affair so completely that no hint of the existence +of his machine should have been given in any quarter, or of the vast +changes which its introduction as a power in the world could not fail +to effect. + +To this he replied, that the press had behaved very handsomely; that +the principal papers of the country had _attachés_ aboard on the first +trip to the Pacific; but that all parties--the government, the editors, +together with De Aëry and himself--were agreed that the matter should +be kept strictly private, until its practicality and value should be +established beyond the possibility of question. + +I now remembered, that, several years ago, a good deal of noise had +been made about a flying-machine which had been constructed in some of +the suburbs of the city,--and that a day had been advertised when it +was to make an ascent, but, it failed. I mentioned the circumstance to +Mr. Bonflon. + +"Yes," he replied. "It was at Hoboken. De Aëry and myself spent years +in the construction of that machine, and a large amount of money. On +the day when the trial of its powers was to have taken place, the +weather proved unfavorable, and we met with unexpected delays. The +spectators, who had congregated by thousands, became impatient; and the +mob, breaking in upon us, destroyed in an hour property which had cost +us five thousand dollars and the labor of years." + +I felt obliged to sympathize with Mr. Bonflon. He had met with the +usual fortune of public benefactors, and particularly of inventors. His +success, however, should it prove real, in the unexampled brilliancy of +its results, would more than compensate him for all his disappointments +and losses. He would rank as the greatest of discoverers,--as the +master mind of this master century. + +Leading him off from this one topic into general conversation, I held +him thus engaged for an hour. I was charmed with his comprehensive +intelligence, and with the scope and liberality of his views. In +everything relating to mechanics, his opinions were marked with +originality. This had evidently been his favorite field, where his +quick perceptions and powers of concentration and analysis had elevated +him to an eminence where he stood almost alone. I had never met his +equal. In plausible suggestions relative to the possibilities of the +future, he took me quite above my level, and left me floating in a maze +of glittering bewilderment. But I could discover no breaks, no +confusion in his mind, on the themes he presented. His premises were +apparently well considered, and his conclusions the fair and natural +sequences flowing from them. + +On the following day, Mr. Bonflon called on me again. In the interval, +my friend and myself had held extended consultations. My friend, while +externally calm as the surface of a summer sea, as was his wont, it was +plain for me to see, was internally deeply stirred and excited by the +extraordinary nature of Mr. Bonflon's revelations. Acknowledging a +mutual and increasing interest in the intelligent inventor, we +nevertheless parted in a wilderness of doubt. There was a mystery in +the matter,--a surprise for the world or a surprise for +ourselves,--which time, it would seem, with its busy thumb and finger, +must be left to unravel at its leisure. + +Mr. Bonflon had not brought the California paper with him. The two or +three copies only which had come into his possession had been handed +around among his confidential friends, and he had not been able to lay +his hand on one. He informed me that the "Flying Cloud" was expected to +return in three days, and, after remaining two days on the Atlantic +side of the continent, would then start on her third experimental trip +to the Pacific. At that time he expected to make one of the party +himself, and he invited me to accompany him. + +I accepted the invitation, and received from him particular +instructions as to the nature of my outfit. It was in the midst of the +heats of summer. He advised, however, a full supply of thick clothing, +on account of the increased chill and coldness of the atmosphere at +high altitudes; and, indeed, recommended a mail of flannel next the +skin. Everything else--the supply of the larder, with an excellent +cook, beds, and so forth--would be found amply provided by De Aëry and +himself for the comfort and accommodation of their guests. The station, +or point of departure, Mr. Bonflon informed me, was a retired spot but +a few miles out of the city of Baltimore; and he promised to be at hand +at the proper time to accompany me in person, and see me safely on +board the "Flying Cloud." + +I saw nothing more of Mr. Bonflon for several days. Meanwhile I +arranged my affairs for a brief absence, and, as my family were all off +in the country, prepared a special letter for use, if needed, to be +dated and mailed at the last moment, notifying them of a probable gap +in my correspondence, on account of some pressing business which would +take me out of the city for a few days and keep me constantly employed. + +In three or four days I received a note from Mr. Bonflon, advising me +to hold myself in readiness; and at the proper time, he presented +himself before me. But he came to apologize. The "Flying Cloud" had +returned. The second trip had been as successfully and safely performed +as the first. Nothing had occurred to mar the pleasure of the voyage; +but, unfortunately, before coming on to New York, De Aëry had filled +out the complement of guests for the third grand expedition. Even he +(Mr. Bonflon) should remain behind; but he should see that seats were +reserved for us both, without fail, for the next succeeding trip. Mr. +Bonflon took his leave; and I found myself more deeply involved in +doubt and perplexity than ever. I could hardly say that I was +disappointed, or that I was not. I had thrown myself on a wave, with no +look-out or means of judging where I was to be cast, and had formed no +opinions. As yet, everything looked fair with Mr. Bonflon. His face was +as honest as the morning sun, and it was next to impossible to doubt +him. He might be the prey of some strange phantasm, some monomania; but +the evidences did not show it. The account he had given of himself was +manly and coherent; his claims as a discoverer had been modestly +presented, and were not wholly unsupported by circumstances, or +unreasonable in themselves. Indeed, they must be regarded as coming +within the range of probabilities fully as much as, to human seeming, +had once the established, but ceaseless, wonders of steam locomotion +and electric telegraphing. + +Singularly enough,--and it illustrates the constantly shifting scenes +in the kaleidoscope of life,--within an hour, Mr. Bonflon returned with +a new message, and with the programme of the "Flying Cloud" changed, if +not reversed. He had seen De Aëry again. One or two of the expected +passengers had telegraphed that untoward circumstances would compel +them to remain behind, and there would be room for us. But no time was +to be lost; the air-steamer would weigh anchor before daylight of the +following morning, and we must start for Baltimore by the next train. +De Aëry and several others were already flying over the rail on their +way to Philadelphia. + +I did not allow myself to hesitate. With an unusual degree of +excitement, made up of the mingled emotions of wonder, doubt, and, I +frankly confess, apprehension, I dated and superscribed the letter to +my absent family; and, taking my carpet-bag in my hand, packed to +plethora several days before in readiness for the occasion, set out on +the strange and questionable adventure. + +The run to Baltimore was made without accident or delay. Mr. Bonflon +and myself conversed a good deal, and I found additional cause to +admire the discriminating character of his mind and the curious and +wonderful stores it contained. Some of the time we dozed, or sunk into +a mental confusion like that to which the body was subjected by the +motion of the cars, and called it sleep. My own most impressive +visions, however, were those of silent wakefulness, and were connected +with the morrow and the "Flying Cloud." + +We stopped in the chief city of Maryland only long enough to obtain +some slight refreshments, such as could be furnished readily in the +middle of the night, and proceeded at once to the wharf or station of +our sky-sailer. Ah, how shall I describe my sensations on first +beholding this most wonderful achievement of the age, and thus +satisfying myself that it was an actual existence, and not the mere +chimera of a diseased brain? There she sat like a majestic swan, +floating, as it were, in the pure empyrean, and crowned with a diadem +of stars. The Moon, Arcturus, and the Pleiades might well all make +obeisance to her, and the Milky Way invite her to extend her flight and +plough its snowy fields. I was astonished at her size, the symmetry of +her parts, and the harmony of her proportions, as she lay there at a +great height, which I was quite unable to estimate, in bold relief +against the sky. + +But Mr. Bonflon could afford me but a brief time for observation and +the indulgence of my wonder. The stores and most of the passengers were +already on board; and taking me by the arm, he hurried me forward, and +seated me in the small car or tender, by means of which, and the agency +of ropes and pulleys, we were to reach her decks. Our upward movement +immediately commenced. It was steady and gentle, not calculated to +create alarm; and still the notion of quitting Mother Earth for an +indefinite number of days, to rove in the blue unknown of space, was +attended with some apprehensions and regrets. I gazed anxiously at the +receding objects below; but my feelings underwent a change as we +approached the "Flying Cloud" herself, were pulled into her gangway, +and I found myself standing on her solid decks. A brief further period +intervened, and our anchor was loosed; the tremendous machine became +instinct with life; she began to move; and, hurrah! we were under way. + +The thoughts and emotions of this bewildering moment it is impossible +to describe. Our craft moved off majestically, like some huge +water-fowl rising from the sea. Her course was westward and upward, +like the eagle with his face turned toward the palace of the sun. At +first the lights in the city of Baltimore became more numerous and +distinct, as intervening objects were surmounted and overlooked. Next +they began to fade, shrinking down into twinkling points like +fireflies, until they disappeared. Forests, hills, and mountains +followed after, as our altitude was increased, blending together like a +hazy landscape, until, on passing above the cloud region, and finding +the level of our track, the earth was wholly lost to our view, and our +course lay through the blue serene of space, without a lighthouse or a +landmark, and nothing but the constant lamps of heaven to guide us in +our passage. + +What a sea! The ocean has its visible surface on which move the ships; +but we had none. The heavens were beneath us as well as above. We were +floating in the great circle of the systems and the suns. We were of +the universe; but were to be numbered with the constellations and the +stars. We could compare ourselves to a company of immortals quitting +the earth and traversing the electric seas which lead to brighter +homes. Or we were voyagers to the sun, or to the nearer Venus, or to +the far distant Centaurus. What a world of new thought was forced upon +us by the fancies and realities and charm and awe of our extraordinary +condition, combined with the profound consciousness we could not fail +to entertain of the effects which this crowning discovery of Messrs. +Bonflon and De Aëry must produce on travel, on commerce, on art, and +the common destiny of mankind! + +I found the atmosphere of the cabins, as my friend Bonflon had +asserted, agreeable and healthful. I could also occupy the promenade +deck for half an hour with little inconvenience, so far as the levity +of the air was concerned; but the cold was severe; while the system, in +consequence of an undue expansion of its particles, solid and fluid, +from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, was rendered doubly +susceptible to its influence. The advice given by Mr. Bonflon to case +myself in flannels, with an armament at hand of outer winter clothing, +proved well-timed; and yet a period of lassitude, verging on faintness, +invariably followed every considerable exposure to the open air. + +But the pleasure of gazing on those fields of space without +obstruction, without the intervention of so much as a plate of crystal +glass, repaid me for every risk and every ill. Though it might be said +there was no scenery there, where nothing was visible but the stars, +yet far beyond the power of mountain and valley, forest and lake, +waterfall and ocean, did that scene, which was no scene, or next to +none, bind me in the spell of its fascination. The motion of our craft, +as we careered noiselessly through the shoreless and objectless void, +without sense of effort or friction, was a charm of itself,--bringing +to a flower, crystallizing into refulgent stars, the dim, obscure, +however glorious, poetry of life. Here were the wildest imaginations of +the dreamer melted in a crucible, and reproduced in living forms of +usefulness and beauty. In my own years of widely diversified +experience, what had I met with to compare with this? Nothing. The +force of steam was marvellous,--talking over a wire mysterious; but here +I was in a great ship riding among the planets and the stars. I had +likened Niagara to a vast mill-dam, because I could find no peer to set +beside it; so now, in my weakness, the sublime pageant of the "Flying +Cloud" could search out nothing higher in my recollection with which to +compare it than a wild, ride of my youth in a canoe, for a half mile or +so, down the rapids of a river. + +But morning was at hand. The rich golden glow of night, to which the +dwellers on the earth's surface are accustomed, as we passed to higher +altitudes, had given place to a thin inky blue. This was obscured by no +fleck or mist, and yet the stars shone through it faint and dim, +despoiling the firmament of its glory. The same loss of power was +manifest on the ushering in of day. The auroral flame, which ordinarily +greets us in the east with such a ruddy laugh, was now nothing better +than a wan and dismal smile; and even the sun, as he struggled up from +what seemed a bed of leaden mist, brought with him only a pallid, +lifeless twilight. It was not that his rays were impeded by cloud or +haze; he had lost his power to shine. He hung there in the heavens like +a great white shield, and looked down on us as rayless and powerless +and devoid of life as a dead man's eye. + +Having at length wearied myself with gazing, and feeling chill and weak +from the coldness and tenuity of the atmosphere, I subsided into the +comfort and companionship of the cabins below. Among the passengers I +recognized _attachés_ of the press, besides several gentlemen of +Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with whom I was somewhat +acquainted. More circumspect, or less slaves to the imagination than +myself, they had contented themselves with in-door observations. But +their enthusiasm was none the less inflamed. In astonishment they +looked at each other; in restless bewilderment they glanced out of the +windows on the desert, trackless plane traversed by the "Flying Cloud," +and spoke with a species of awe of the shock which the announcement of +what they were then witnessing would give to sober men's minds; and +suggested, in broken sentences, some of the consequences which would be +likely to flow from the grand invention. + +What with excitement and lack of sleep, we all found ourselves a little +nervous. Coffee and Havanas failed to allay the feeling; and, in the +absence of the morning papers, we resorted to whist, chess, and our +pocket supplies of the "Atlantic Monthly," "Harper," and so forth, and +to the very select library provided by Messrs. Bonflon and De Aëry, the +proprietors, for the use of the passengers,--and at last to our beds. +It could not be denied that we were nervous. With all the smoothness +and beauty of our running, there was a sensation, an uncertain +quivering motion, not at first noticed and not at all definable, about +our craft, that constantly, suggested the idea that we were standing on +nothing, or, at best, nothing better than dissolving quicksands, which +were liable at any moment wholly to slide away and leave us; and it +required some strength of mind to resist the vagary, and prevent it +from effecting a troublesome lodgment in the imagination. + +Thus passed the day, which fortunately, in my case, was succeeded by a +night of repose. The restlessness of mind and body once subdued, Nature +asserted her empire, and I slept profoundly until morning. Another day +and night followed, with little variation from the first; and by this +time, the strangeness and mystery of my situation had quite worn away, +and the feeling of security was established. I trod the upper deck with +all the pride, and more than the composure, of a modern monarch on his +throne. + +But the sameness of the scenery of the vast aërial ocean, in which we +were sailing alone, without consort, without ever descrying a sail, or +even keeping a lookout, without so much as ever discovering a floating +plank to remind us of a wreck, or a seaweed to tell us of the land, was +already beginning to pall on the senses, when there appeared in the +distance before us, and multiplying to the right and the left, a +succession of white, sparkling pyramids and cones, resting on the +clouds and flashing in the nether light, like crystal monuments set to +mark the boundaries of space. These were crests of the Rocky Mountains, +covered with perpetual snow. + +I gazed on them with rapture. Right in our eye, nearly due west, stood +out Long's Peak, James's Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, at first small in +size, but momently swelling in dimensions; while, far to the north, +were just discernible the more lofty summits of Mount Hooker and Mount +Brown. Lying between Mount James and the Spanish Peaks, inclining to +their eastern slope, lay the green plateau, not yet visible, where we +were to land. Its position was carefully pointed out to Mr. Bonflon and +myself by Mr. De Aëry, but we strained our eyes and used our glasses in +vain. No strength of sight could penetrate the clouds and haze which +covered the body of the mountains, and hid the earth, with the +exception of those lofty silver pinnacles, from our view. + +Though these high peaks, like distant masts at sea, were first seen +early in the day, the meridian of noon overtook us before we came up +with them. At length, in increasing numbers and a thousand diversified +shapes, they lay spread out before us, and soon thereafter were +directly under our feet. Our magical machine, coming to a halt, +fluttered like a great bird above them, and gave us an opportunity, +such as probably had never been enjoyed by voyagers before, to spy out +their beauty, their mystery, and their strength. + +On nearing the mountains, we had left behind us the twilight of the +void, and come again into the full flood of day. This enabled the sight +to rest upon the scene with pleasure, to examine its diversified +splendors, and penetrate its chasms and gorges, otherwise inaccessible +to man. But to describe them is impossible. Broad fields of sparkling +snow, pyramids of ice, wide fissures shining like steel +mirrors,--produced by some unimaginable convulsion, possibly a thousand +or ten thousand years ago, and large enough to ingulf a city,--with +black humps or spires of granite here and there projecting through the +white; while afar down the rocky sides of interminable swells and +precipices came up a sound of water and a blush of green, betokening +the direction in which we were to look for the generative body of +Mother Earth; all these, and much more which I cannot stop to name, +were grouped in the rough, but magnificent landscape before us. + +No cabin could confine me at such a time as this. I stood out on the +upper deck in the extreme bow of the boat; and from an unobstructed +point of view, nearly over the figure-head, in the very abandonment of +daring, feasted my senses on the wondrous glories of this +mountain-scene of enchantment. + +De Aëry was at the helm. But I have scarcely introduced this +extraordinary gentleman to the reader. He was a tall, black-haired, +mercurial Frenchman, with an eye like a falcon, who, with only an +occasional Gallicism purposely indulged in, spoke American like a +native. I had every confidence in his prudence and skill in the +management of his craft; and still, as I perceived that we were +gradually settling down in the direction of the loftiest of those +snow-peaks, until scarcely fifty feet intervened between us and its +round, polished brow, to all appearance as solid as feldspar, I raised +my voice and accosted him. + +"Halloo! Captain!" said I, "are you intending to land us on this +Atlas-top?" + +"_Effectivement_," replied he. "_Mon Dieu!_ B----, come here." + +I went to him. + +"This," said he, "is the very Old Man of the Mountain. I intend to +plant the stars and stripes in the centre of his bald head." + +"Capital!" replied I. "But can you achieve it safely?" + +"Yes. I can manage my bird with as much ease as a pigeon poises himself +on his wings, or an Indian steers his canoe. See! we are approaching +the crown of the pinnacle." + +I watched the experiment with an interest not unmingled with fear. He +held in one hand a handsome American flag, of moderate size, and +occasionally, with a slight motion of his arm, and a glance of pride, +spread out its silken folds on the motionless air. Gradually the +"Flying Cloud," under his skilful hands, closed upon the bleak, +glittering summit, which, rounding off like the bald head of some +venerable giant, was, at its apex, scarcely ten feet in diameter. + +"No eagle, even, has ever set his foot here," said De Aëry. "There is +not a track, or feather, or mark of any living thing to be seen. The +'Flying Cloud' will be the first to explore many mysteries and to +explode others. Not even do the winds reach this height. Boreas and the +bird of Jove,--I will vanquish them both. I will step out upon that icy +peak." + +"No, no, Captain," I expostulated. "You might lose your foothold and +perish." + +"Not at all," rejoined he, with a laugh. "I am as sure-footed as a +goat. But if you think it risky, Monsieur, I forbear. But the snow +looks solid as adamant. I fear I shall not be able to erect this flag, +unless I have a firm spot for my feet." + +By this time our craft had reached a proper position,--her stern +alongside and almost in contact with the jutting peak,--to answer the +ambitious purpose of the Frenchman. Raising the flag of the Republic in +his hand, he requested us all to do it proper honor,--to salute it with +a "three times three,"--as he should succeed in securing it in its +place. Cautiously extending the staff, he brought it in contact with +the snow, and gave it several light blows, for the purpose of +ascertaining its solidity. It seemed of almost icy texture, and emitted +a half-sharp and half-muffled sound in reply. Then, elevating the +standard aloft in both hands, he brought it down with force, as the +farmer urges a stake into the ground; not doubting, as would seem, that +a succession of such blows would be needed in order to achieve his +purpose. + +A single stroke of the shaft, however, proved more than enough. To the +surprise and dismay of us all, the firm ringing surface turned out but +a shell, and all beneath, a loose bed of sparkling snow-crystals, like +white sand. The flag sunk down and disappeared, and De Aëry, losing his +balance, plunged over and went with it. + +We gazed after him in speechless horror. Before any one of us had +sufficiently recovered himself to speak, we were startled by a dull +sound, like a rushing wind, or distant, rumbling thunder; and an +immense mass of snow, many hundred feet in depth, and covering a third +of the cone, parted from its place, and, like a great, foaming wave, +broken and shapeless, rushed down the mountain's side. For the moment, +all eyes were fixed upon it. At first, it swept on without cohering, +like a cataract of sand; but, on coming in contact with the moister +snow below, it formed into a thousand balls and masses, some rolling +and some sliding, but each gathering bulk and velocity as it went. + +By the aid of our glasses we were able to sweep the rough slopes and +precipitous descents below, to the distance of many miles; and, +forgetting De Aëry, we watched the development of the phenomenon with +terror. The larger slides gradually absorbed the smaller ones, as +common fish are swallowed by sharks; but those which remained, fattened +and expanded by what they fed on, assumed enormous dimensions. Choosing +different paths, they pursued their course in smoking tracks of +devastation. Rocks, precipices, forests, furnished no obstruction. +Roaring, crashing onward, as though Mars or the Sun had opened its +batteries upon us, those sliding, whirling worlds of snow swept through +valleys large enough to have furnished sites for cities, without a +check, and bore down or over-leaped all obstacles, as easily as a man +would walk over an ant-hill, or some hollow where a toad had burrowed. +Finally they were lost to sight, passing behind intervening spurs or +ridges of the mountain, or becoming hidden in the cloud-mists which lay +heavily about its base; but the sound continued to roll back upon us +for some time, like the roar of distant artillery. I could no longer +wonder at the terror with which the cry of an avalanche is said to fill +the dwellers among the Alps. + +As this absorbing pageant of the mountains disappeared, our thoughts +reverted to De Aëry. Had he been carried away by the snow-slip? or was +his mangled corse below us among the black crags laid bare by that +catastrophe? Turning my gaze beneath, I discovered, far down, many +hundred feet, a moving object, scarcely bigger than a fly, and, on +bringing my glass to bear upon it, perceived that it was the Frenchman. +He was standing on a bare rib of rock, with his flag still in his hand, +and apparently unharmed. Waving the ensign to attract our attention, at +the same time he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs. But his +voice scarcely reached us, and probably would not alone have attracted +our notice. We replied with encouraging cheers; and the "three times +three," which we had intended for the American eagle, was given on the +spot to De Aëry. + +But how to rescue him from his perilous condition was indeed a serious +question. The "Flying Cloud," it was obvious, with her great size and +spreading pinions, could not venture among those ticklish quicksands, +whose insecure foundations had just been so strikingly illustrated +before us. Indeed, the slightest jar might precipitate another fall of +snow, and bury the object of our solicitude five hundred feet deep in +its bosom. The sagacity of Mr. Bonflon relieved us from our dilemma. He +hoisted out the small car or tender, and, letting it down with great +care and precision, safely accomplished the object. In the space of +half an hour, De Aëry, without a scratch, and, like a gallant Gaul, +rather proud of his adventure than frightened at it, was again restored +to our arms. + +Drawing off from our dangerous proximity to the "Old Man of the +Mountain," which had so nearly proved fatal to at least one of our +number, but astonished beyond measure at the novelty of our experiences +and the grandeur of the scenes we had witnessed, we retraced our course +for a short distance, and, gradually lessening the interval between us +and the earth, soon had the satisfaction of hearing the cry of "Land, +ho!" from the look-out man. The valley was in sight where we were to +take in water and enjoy a little picnic on the green grass, ere the +form and smell of Mother Earth, with her homely but blessed realities, +should be quite forgotten. + +We effected our landing in complete safety. The spot was a little, +luxurious nook among the lesser hills, with few trees, but full of wild +flowers, wild fruits, and wild grasses. Everything about it was wild, +but cheering and charming, especially to air-wanderers like us. The +foot of the white hunter, or even of the roving Indian, had perhaps +never visited it, nor foraging-parties of the buffalo or deer, for we +saw no signs of them; but birds of varied plumage and song, and troops +of squirrels, with footprints here and there of the grizzly bear, and a +drove of wild turkeys, with red heads aloft, rushing over an eminence +at our left as we approached, and an occasional whir of a rattlesnake +at our feet, sufficiently indicated the kind of denizens by which the +plateau was inhabited. + +Here, on the rich sward and delicate mosses, under the shadow of some +willows, we spread out our repast by the side of a clear +mountain-spring; and, to say nothing of old Otard and Schiedam +Schnapps, opened some bottles of Sparkling Catawba, and old Jersey +Champagne, of a remote vintage, which I have now quite forgotten. With +the flow of these beverages flowed our speech, in jovial words and +songs and raillery enough, if not in wit. De Aëry, as having by a +hair's breadth just escaped with his life, and in virtue of his +extraordinary feat in leaping five hundred feet or more through a bank +of snow, now that the danger was over, was made the butt of much +pleasantry, which he bore with his usual equanimity and grace. + +When these arrowy flights at the expense of the light-hearted Frenchman +had exhausted themselves, I took occasion to inquire of him what his +sensations were during his brief burial. He replied as follows:-- + +"I thought nothing at all about it. I remember feeling chagrined +because I was making a failure, and clung tight to my flag, fearing to +lose that too. _Mon Dieu!_ It might be expected that one would feel +cold, buried up in ice; but such was not the case. I was hot. The snow +burned my face, as it came in contact with it. As to the ride, it was +pleasant enough, but rather rapid and perplexing to the breath. It was +like sinking into a pit of quicksand, where everything gives way below +one, as though the bottom of the world had fallen out. There was the +struggle of a moment to keep the fine snow out of my mouth and +nostrils, as I drew in my breath, and the next instant my feet came in +contact with the solid rock, where you discovered me. The magnificent +avalanche you describe I know nothing about. I neither heard nor saw +anything of it, only as I afterward examined the marks it had left +behind it. This leads me to suppose that I was a good deal confused at +the time, though I was not aware of it. Indeed, I have an impression of +seeming to turn somersets in my descent, and this may account for it. +But, for the honor of France, I saved my adopted country's flag." + +High-minded Gaul! We all praised and honored him, and comforted him for +his disappointment. It was a noble attempt he had made, to nail the +American banner to the head of Mount James, impelled by the loftiest of +motives,--and, like many others of its kind, had for the present +failed. At some other time he might prove more successful; or some +other might achieve the object in his place, and so appropriate his +laurels; but no one would be likely to excel him in his flying leap. In +this he had distanced even the famous traveller at Rhodes. + +Having given a couple of hours to this species of recreation, we +weighed anchor, and again got under way. Slowly and smoothly, without a +ripple or a jar, we ascended through the blue ether to our former +altitude, and floated off over those majestic mountain-tops, toward the +west. Loath to part from scenes of such impressive beauty,--scenes, +alone paralleled in our recollection by fabulous tales of Oriental +enchantment,--we gazed behind us at those flashing crests of alabaster, +until they grew small in the distance, and finally were wholly lost to +our sight. With them disappeared the last vestige of the solid earth, +and we were again afloat in space. + +The following night and day were passed like their predecessors. +Another night came, and we were over the eastern bound of the State of +California. A few hours more, without accident, would terminate our +remarkable voyage, and set us down in the city of San Francisco. All of +us were brimming high with hope. Though we did not anticipate reaching +the station before one or two o'clock in the morning, and probably +should not disembark before dawn, we were loath to retire to rest. It +was near midnight before all of us were in our berths. + +But when at length there, I found it impossible to sleep. The +excitement attendant on the beginning of the trip seemed to have +returned on me with a double force. I listened for some sound to +relieve the awful stillness which, like the wing of Death, seemed to +have settled over the "Flying Cloud"; but there was no soughing of the +wind, as at sea, and no noise to be heard, save the monotonous movement +of the engine and the paddle-wheels; and this, so evenly did they play, +was rather a motion than a sound. + +This period of restlessness was succeeded by one of strange +bewilderment, which might have been sleep, or might not Rapidly +changing scenes and fantastic figures, some of them beautiful and some +horrible, flitted before me like a dissolving panorama. A band, as +though of steel wire, seemed to encircle my brain, and to compress it +closer and closer; and the spine, for its whole length, felt as though +subjected to a like crushing pressure. + +How long this state of hallucination continued I have no means of +knowing. From it, by a great effort, I suddenly aroused myself, and +returned to my proper senses. Where I was, and all the extraordinary +events of the last few days, were clear in my recollection. But I was +weighed down with weakness, and found, on attempting to speak, that I +had no voice. + +Suspecting that I had been stricken by some terrible disease, I +attempted to rise; and, loath to disturb any of my fellow-travellers, +undertook to crawl out upon the upper deck. This, after a good deal of +effort, I accomplished. Lying, therefore,--I could not stand,--I prayed +for a breath of air to relieve my hot and oppressed brow; but in vain. +The atmosphere seemed gone. Chill and dark, the heavens spread out +above me without a twinkle or a smile. The full-moon was there, and +there was no cloud or haze to obscure her light; but she did not shine. +Her white, rayless face was a mockery to the night. The same was true +of the stars. The dazzling canopy was faded out, and Cygnus and the +Great Bear were subdued to pallid points, like patches of white-gray +paper stuck upon a wall. + +Floating by the side of the "Flying Cloud," and nearly of her size, I +discovered a dark, irregular object, and dragged myself to the edge of +the deck to investigate it more closely. The two came together, but +without damage or friction. They touched and parted, like substances +nearly at rest in still water. I put out my hand on the strange +visitor, and received a pretty severe shock, as though I had been +subjected to the action of an electric battery. At the same time, a +light, bluish flame ran over its surface, showing me more accurately +its form and dimensions. To the touch, it was solid and cold, like iron +or granite. I pressed upon it, and it yielded like a floating dish. I +tried to break off a fragment, but was unable to separate so much as a +scale. + +A moment's reflection convinced me of the nature of this apparent +island in the air. It was an immense aërolite; and with this conviction +came the solution of my own painful state. We had unconsciously passed +beyond the controlling power of the earth's gravitation, into that +region of the upper atmosphere, where, science informs us, these +meteoric stones float in equilibrium, until some accidental impulse +throws them from their balance, when they are precipitated to the +surface of the earth. I must be dying for lack of air. And the man at +the helm, where was he? He must have fallen asleep, and left our vessel +to her own buoyant fancies. And my companions! Bonflon! De Aëry! All +ere this might have perished, and the "Flying Cloud," aside from +myself, be bearing into these upper altitudes nothing but a load of +death. + +Terror-struck, I dragged myself, with all the speed I could accomplish, +to the stern. There sat the helmsman at his post, but asleep or +insensible. I shook him, but he gave no signs of life. I shouted with +what little strength I had, but in vain. + +"Wake up! wake up!" I cried, "or we are lost!" + +At length he opened his eyes, but did not move. + +"Wake up!" I screamed again. "Breakers ahead, and worse. You have let +the craft run wild. We are above our level. We are all dying for lack +of air." + +"Oh, let me sleep!" he murmured. "I must sleep a little while longer. +It can't--can't be morning yet." + +By this time, fright, or the necessity of the occasion, was renewing my +strength. + +"Dick!" I shouted in his ear, "Dick, you scoundrel! you will murder us +all. Do your duty, or I will shoot you!" + +With this I discharged a barrel of my revolver above his head, which, +like my voice in my efforts at hallooing, sounded only as a faint echo +of itself, but, nevertheless, proved sufficient to give his dormant +faculties a shock. He started up, and, though still but half-conscious, +took the helm and gave it the direction I bade him. + +From him I hastened to the engineer, whom I found in a like state of +insensibility. I succeeded in arousing him; but it was necessary that +he should be made to comprehend the difficulties of our +situation,--that our craft, water-logged as it were, would float +forever where she was, for all anybody could say to the contrary, until +forced down by the power of the engine alone to lower and life-giving +atmospheric planes. To get him to understand this was not so easy. But +I succeeded in part, and, in my anxiety for my friends, rushed below to +look after their condition. + +As I anticipated, I found every one of them in a state of incipient +asphyxia. But the "Flying Cloud" was already descending into denser +air. Oxygen and pressure were performing their mystic work; and within +half an hour I had the pleasure of seeing them all restored to +consciousness and rapidly returning strength. But the renewed lights +exposed a sight almost too frightful to mention. Every man of us was +crimson from escaped blood, which seemed to have oozed forth, like a +pale-red dew, from every pore of our bodies. + +Messrs. Bonflon and De Aëry, when they came to realize the danger from +which we had so narrowly escaped, were nearly dumb with horror. The +lively Frenchman exhibited a sensibility which the extremity of his +single peril, a day or two before, had failed to call up. He wept +aloud. Mr. Bonflon was circumspect and thoughtful. He did not lose his +Yankee balance; but both of them, each in his own way, overwhelmed me +with expressions of obligation. + +But the dangers of this dreadful night--a night which can never pass +from my recollection--were not yet over. We were all gathered in the +main cabin, congratulating each other, next after our escape, on our +rapidly returning strength,--happy in the thought that our trip out, +though sprinkled with danger, was so near a prosperous completion, and +almost momently expecting to hear the stroke of the bell which should +announce to us that the red light to designate our place of landing was +in sight, when, instead of the silver ring of this messenger of peace, +we were startled and horrified by an alarm of fire. + +Bonflon and De Aëry rushed to the engine-room. A cloud of smoke poured +out from the door by which they disappeared. They were gone only for a +moment; for no man could remain in the hell of flames and vapors into +which they ventured and live. They came out dragging with them the +half-suffocated, scorched, and blazing engineer. How the accident +occurred, it was impossible to divine and useless to inquire. Closing +the door tightly after them to confine the flames, where confinement, +except for the briefest period, among matter so combustible, and +partitions scarcely more formidable than those of a paper bandbox, was +clearly impossible, they threw the burning engineer into our arms, and +themselves took the management of the craft. + +De Aëry, in this crisis, rose from the man to the hero, almost to a +demigod. His orders rung through the startled air clear and round like +the voice of a golden bell. Bonflon seconded him with coolness and +decision. With us a moment sufficed to extinguish the burning garments +of the engineer; but by that time the flames had burst from the +engine-room, and that part of the beautiful boat was a ragged, +crackling ruin. + +Fleeing to the upper deck, and taking refuge in the bow, we became +sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful +rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level, +on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in +our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful +was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the +dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of rest! +But if it were possible to escape the flames, it was clear enough that +we must be dashed in pieces against the solid earth. + +De Aëry was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to +great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to +control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played +about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke +through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething +hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had +perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the +furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet. + +"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he +shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the +flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon +and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our +number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say +which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface +of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and +the hazard they most dreaded. + +The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely +attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the +whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass +of surging fire. The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight, +to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San +Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid +illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than +astronomer has ever put on record. + +But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable +from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from +bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing +upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the +time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground, +served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser +lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most +fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we +struck in water instead of on the land. + +Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between +us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half +suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that +awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves +submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again +by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air. The flood of +fire in which we had descended was instantly extinguished; and we awoke +to a sense of our possible safety in darkness rendered doubly profound +by the contrast. + +Daylight was near at hand. By a careful adjustment of our weights we +kept the balloon from rolling, and sustained ourselves above the water +among the netting. As morning came, we discovered we had landed in a +small lake, hardly large enough to be dignified with the name, but +obviously of considerable depth. The shore was not distant: and as the +day was sultry, with a little grateful labor at swimming and towing, on +the part of a few of us, we soon reached it. There we examined into +each other's condition. Scarce one of us but was able to show damage by +fire, or from too rough contact with the fragments of the "Flying +Cloud," which preceded us in our plunge into the lake. But no bones +were broken, and no one badly flayed. The case of the engineer was the +worst; but even he was able to keep upon his feet, and pronounced in no +danger. + +No hut or field or sign of inhabitants was to be seen. With mixed +feelings, in which, for the present at least, the sense of personal +safety triumphed over all regrets, even with Messrs. Bonflon and De +Aëry, at the shipwreck of so many brilliant hopes, we scuttled that +part of our craft still afloat, and sunk it in the lake; and with weary +footsteps, but unobstructed with baggage, as near as we could determine +by the aid of a compass, took the direction toward San Francisco. A +couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Señor José Dianza, who +received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of +robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us +on to the city of the land of gold. + +It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return. +They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous +transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus +route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our +absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and +some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their +recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing +gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly +reappeared upon the stage of action. + +We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should +remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought +a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which +covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too +good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so +near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be +suppressed. Hence, conquering my repugnance, I have decided, on my own +responsibility, to give these interesting and valuable particulars to +the world. + + + * * * * * + +DOG-TALK. + + +Exactly,--Dog-Talk. And I sit down to write some of it out, in the +middle of this pleasant month of May, lest, peradventure, if I postpone +my task for a few weeks longer, I may fall in with my memories some +time in the raging days of the dog-star, when the overwhelming sense of +dog, in which, for the true working out of these memories, I must first +dip my mind, may debar me from enjoying to the fullest extent the +bounteous tap of Croton water which tinkles with such rivulet chiming +from the silver (German) faucet into the marble (wash-hand) basin with +which one side of my apartment is adorned. Hydrophobia is one thing, +and hydrophobiaephobia is another. + +Although but the mid-time of May, as I have said, the thermometer is +reported at something not far short of eighty degrees, and that in as +much shade as can possibly be had in the street in which I write, which +is a brick street of New York, with one catalpa-tree in it,--a poor, +vegetable fakir, standing on his one leg at a distance of about three +blocks from "our corner," and sprawling out all round with his +shrivelled hands, as if to catch the passing robe of some rambling +breath of fresh air. With a trustful hope that this statement may be +accepted in extenuation of the inevitable platitudinism down the gently +inclined plane of which I feel myself impelled to slide into my +memories, I will endeavor to bring some of the latter to the surface. + +I fancy it has been already remarked by writers,--though that will not +prevent me from repeating it,--that, of all the four-footed friends of +man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more +voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow, +Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of +others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from +the earliest ages we trace Dog as the companion, friend, and ally of +him whom alone he condescends to acknowledge as master, to accept as +tutor, and to sympathize with in the spirit of hostility to obnoxious +things, and in attachment to the sports of the field. It can hardly be +necessary for me to explain that I allude to Man. + +Above all other created things, Man is the one that laughs,--a remark, +so far the present writer is aware, entirely original, and vastly more +indicative of genius than the best of the platitudes incidentally +referred to above. Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for +instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror, +and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not +one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man, +excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a +beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is. +Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the +"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us +"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would +make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything +very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing +things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is +wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles +beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs +uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands. + +Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot +concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called +reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I +think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals +stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and +master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his +nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his +ribs. Fine as the line may appear which separates instinct from the +divine gift of reason, we must see that progress, an essential +consequence of the latter, is denied to the former. It is quite +possible that the dogs which accompanied the first mariner in the first +argosy were educated to fetch and carry, or were even so far +accomplished as to sit up and beg; and it is but little more their +descendants can do at the present day. But what of Man, who weathered +safely the storm of storms in that same Ark? Compare that venerated +bark, as imagined by us from traditionary description, with the least +eligible of the ferry-boats which scud across our crowded rivers, and +we have answer enough for the present, so far as progress is concerned. + +Well, if Dog has never invented so much even as a patent rat-trap,--a +thing, you see, that might have saved him some labor,--if he persists +in disregarding the majesty of Fashion, and continues to move about in +society with the same kind of coat on his back as that worn by his +first ancestor, hatless, disaffected of shoes, and totally obtuse to +the amenity of an umbrella,--if, in fact, his only approach to +humanity, as distinguished by apparel, is his occasional adoption of a +collar precisely similar in general effect to those in which Fashion, +empress of Broadway and of a great many other ways, condemns her +wretched votaries to partial strangulation,--well, say I again, in +spite of all this, Dog is prime company. Intimately associated as I +have been from earliest boyhood with many excellent fellows of the +family, from social communion with which I am at present debarred only +by the direful necessity of dwelling in lodgings,--a necessity which, +if distasteful to Man, to Dog, oh, how fatal!--bound, I may say, as I +was for years, not by straps and chains only, but by ties of confident +friendship also, to canine comrades possessing the purest elements of +worth and humor, it is to me a task not altogether devoid of interest +to fall back on such memories as may enable me to chronicle a few +reminiscences of the nobilities and eccentricities of the race. + +Before I discourse of individual dogs of the present century, however, +with whom I have had the pleasure of being personally acquainted, let +me reproduce the following short tale of a dog from an old French +volume,--a tome fittingly adorned with ears of that noble animal +innumerable. + +Persimel St. Remi was a gentleman of fortune, whose income was derived +principally from large rented farms, the dues arising from which he +sometimes collected himself, in preference to intrusting that important +duty to a steward or agent. On his excursions for that purpose, he was +generally accompanied by a favorite little spaniel, of a kind too small +to be of any service to him as an escort, but inestimable for his +qualities as a companion. One day M. St. Remi had ridden a long way to +collect certain sums of money due him in arrears of rent, but which he +had little expectation of being able to obtain without further trouble. +To his agreeable surprise, however, his tenants paid him the whole +arrears,--an event so unexpected that he could not conceal his +exultation as he clinked the heavy bag of money on the pommel of his +saddle, when cordially taking leave of his farmers. Merle--that was the +little dog's name--was equally delighted; for his moods were always +regulated by those of his master,--such is the mysterious sympathy +between Dog and us; and ever as his master laughed cheerily to the +chink of the gold, on his homeward ride, Merle barked and bounded +alongside of him, clearly understanding that gold is a thing to be +laughed _with_ and not _at_, and that it is no laughing matter to be +without it. This is what the old French writer asserts respecting the +inward sentiments of that small dog. How he arrived at a knowledge of +them, I know not, nor is it any business of mine. Well, Persimel St. +Remi galloped on and on, until they reached the way-side well about +halfway home,--the old stone trough, with the water sparkling into it +from the grotesque spout carved out of the rock. Here he pulled bridle +to water his horse, refreshed him further by slackening the girths of +the saddle, and, unstrapping the bag of gold which was attached to the +holsters, he placed it by his side on the rock, while he splashed his +hands and face in the cool water. By-and-by he drew up the girths, +mounted his horse dreamily, for he was a man of contemplative moods, +and rode away from the way-side well, forgetful of his treasure, which +lay temptingly on the flat rock, ready to the hand of the first comer. +Not so his faithful dog, who, having in vain tried to lift the bag, +which was too heavy for him, ran swiftly after the rider, whose +attention he strove to arouse by barking violently, and careering round +and round the horse when he slackened his pace. Failing thus to attract +notice, he went so far in his zeal as to bite the horse pretty severely +in the fetlock, which caused him to swerve on one side, and wake up his +master to a vague sense of something wrong, the first idea that +occurred to him being that his dog had gone mad. Cases of hydrophobia +had lately occurred in the neighborhood, and St. Remi was convinced of +the seizure by it of his poor dog when they reached the brook which +flowed across the road. Instead of luxuriating and drinking in this, as +he usually did, the spaniel circled away to where it narrowed, and +leaped across it in his run. Then St. Remi, drawing a pistol from his +holsters, fired at and shot his faithful companion, averting his eyes +as he touched the fatal trigger, and galloping rapidly away from the +death-cry that smote upon his ear; and, as he dashed the spurs into his +reeking horse, he invoked maledictions on the money which was the cause +of this unfortunate journey. The money! but where was it? Suddenly he +pulled up his harassed steed, and the unhappy truth flashed upon him: +he had left his treasure by the way-side well, and had shot his +faithful dog for trying to remind him of it. Riding back to the well +with mad speed, he found by traces of blood upon the path that the poor +spaniel had dragged himself thither again to guard his master's gold to +the last. There he found him, stretched out beside the bag of money, +with just strength enough left to raise his head towards his master, +with a look of forgiveness, ere he died. + +The chronicler does not state what M. St. Remi did with all that +money,--though we may be safe in supposing that he very exactly knew; +but we would fain hope that he expended a moiety of it in founding a +retreat for decayed dogs, as a monument to the poor little spaniel so +faithful to him in life and in death. + +Sporting dogs,--the setter, the pointer, the fox-hound, and all the +several varieties of hound, have had their historians, from Dame +Juliana Berners to Peter Beckford, and that more recent Peter whose +patronymic was Hawker; while, on our side of the Atlantic, the late +"Frank Forester" has reduced kennel-practice to a system from which the +Nimrod of the ramrod may not profitably depart. Apart from history, +however, and from didactic argument, the individual trails of dogs +remarkable in their day have but too rarely been recorded. Certainly +the shepherd's colley has been admirably individualized by the Ettrick +Shepherd; but many a terrier--"a fellow of infinite fancy"--has passed +through the world's worry without ever seeing his name in +print,--unless, indeed, he happened to have fallen among thieves, and +found himself lamp-posted accordingly,--has passed the grizzle-muzzle +period of doghood unbiographied, and gone down to his last burrow +unsung. + +Among the regrets with which we are saddled for our omissions, not the +least of mine is now galling me for having neglected to reduce to +writing, on the spot, curious facts which fell under my immediate +notice in the course of many years' companionship with a somewhat +miscellaneous assortment of canine friends,-- + + "The little dogs and all, + Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart." + +Nevertheless, I will endeavor to bring together in this paper such +stray reminiscences of doggery in general as may occur to me while I +write, illustrating the subject, as I proceed, with occasional passages +from the careers, of humble, but eccentric individuals of the race. + +Extinction has been the fate of some varieties of the dog, which have +been either superseded by the progress of machinery, or have gone to +decay in consequence of the annihilation of the animals for the chase +of which they were maintained. When there were wolves in the mosses and +caverns of Ireland, for example, there were wolf-dogs to hunt them. The +last wolf of that country--and _he_ was a wonder, from the then rarity +of the animal--was killed about one hundred and fifty years ago; and +although the breed of hound then known as the Irish wolf-dog--one of +the largest, noblest, and most courageous of the canine race--was kept +up to some extent for nearly a century later, we doubt much whether a +single pure specimen of the variety is now in existence; unless, +indeed, it may so happen that some _ultimus Romanorum_ of the tribe +still licks his patrician chops in the kennels of the Marquis of Sligo, +in the possession of which family the last litter was many years ago +supposed to be. + +Reverting to times when I was a boy, I remember me of a generation of +bandy-legged, foxy little curs, long of body, short of limb, tight of +skin, and "scant of breath," which were regarded as the legitimate +descendants of a superseded class,--the Turnspit of good old times. The +daily round of duty of that useful _aide-de-cuisine_ transpired in the +revolution of a wheel, along the monotonous journey of which he +cantered, as a squirrel does in his rolling cage, keeping in motion, by +his professional exertions, the wheels and spinners of the spit upon +which the joint was kept turning before the fire. The tight skin of +this ugly dog was evidently a provision of Nature to secure him from +entanglement with the machinery amid which his business was conducted. +Had a Scotch terrier, for instance, whiskered and plumed, descended +from his own more aristocratic circle to disport himself in that where +turnspit was the principal mover,--the kitchen-wheel,--he might have +found himself cogged, and caught up, and spitted, and associated +promiscuously with leg of mutton as roasted hare; in which capacity he +might eventually have been eaten with currant-jelly and considerable +relish, receiving more honor, perhaps, "in that connection," than had +ever in his lifetime been lavished on him as a member of society. + +But Turnspit's profession is a thing of the past, his very existence a +myth. The roasting-jack, with a wind-up weight by which the spit was +turned, cut him out first of all; other inventions further diminished +his importance. But the tea-kettle--which he somewhat resembled in +figure, by-the-by--scalded him clean off the face of creation; for the +bright steam-engine, attached nowadays to the kitchens of our principal +hotels, has given a new turn to affairs, ruling the roast after a +fashion that sets back old Turnspit into the remotest corner under the +backstairs of the Dark Ages. I have alluded to his alleged descendants, +as pointed out to my observation in boyhood; but they were an effete +and degenerate race, purposeless, and wallowing much with the pigs, +whom their grandsires would have recognized only to roast. + +In one instance only, and that on this side of the Atlantic, do I +remember having been introduced to any dog whose profession was at all +analogous to that of the turnspit of other days. Falling into +conversation with an old Dutch-Yankee farmer, in a remote and very +rural district, I made some remarks about his dog, which was a very +large, heavy one, of that no-particular-kind happily classified by the +comprehensive natural philosophers of the barn-floor as "yellow dog." +Farmer assured me that this fine fellow--whose name I am ashamed to say +I have forgotten--did all the churning of the farm-dairy by imparting +his motive power to a wheel. This piece of ingenuity, Farmer informed +me, was originally and exclusively an inspiration from the intellect +which animated his, Farmer's, proper clod; nor was he greatly +exhilarated when I narrated to him the tradition of the turnspit, whose +memory, I regret to record, he spurned as that of a "mean cuss," +destitute of that poetry which dwelleth in the pastoral associations of +the dairy. + +Although not strictly in connection with the subject of this article, I +will here relate a story told to me, on the same occasion, by that old +farmer, because it struck me as being rather a good one, and is not +particularly long. + +Seeing that I took notice of a smock-frocked rustic employed in +foddering the cattle,--a rustic whose legs and accent were to me +exclusively reminiscent of the pleasant roads and lanes of cheery +Somersetshire,--Farmer informed me that he was a newish importation, +having made his appearance about there early in the previous winter. +While snow, of such quality and in such quantity as they have it in +that region, was yet a novelty to the bumpkin, he was dispatched on +horseback, one day, to the neighboring village, strict instructions +being given him to ride carefully in the middle of the track, as, +treading in the deep snow, the horse might "ball,"--an expression +applied to taking up snow in the hollow of the hoof, which causes the +animal to stumble. An unusually long time elapsed before the messenger +made his appearance from his mission, and then he was seen making his +way painfully through the snow, leading the horse after him by the +bridle. + +"What's wrong now?" inquired Farmer, as he glanced at the animal's +knees; "been down, I guess; did Old Horse ball?" + +"Noa," replied Bumpkin, "a didn't joost bawl, but a groonted +consoomedly every toime a coom down. Oi thowt a wur a-gwoan to bawl the +last toime we coom down together, and zo oi joost stayed down and +walked 'im whoam." + +When doggy men beyond ocean talk about a terrier, they usually +pronounce it _tarrier_, and not _terrier_, as we mostly call him on +this bank of the Atlantic. There is no authority for the former +pronunciation, that I know of, beyond usage, which, however, is much +taken as a standard in England. Thus, an English merchant will talk to +you about his _clarks_, an American about his _clurks_. The French word +_terrier_--derived, of course, from _terre_--signifies not only the +dog, but a burrow in the earth; a kind of retreat in which such dogs +are supposed to pass a portion of their existence, occupied in the +subterrene branches of the chase. It means, also, a land-roll or +register. In Lower Canada, which is essentially France, I recollect the +label, _"Papier Terrier,"_ upon the door of a public-land-office. A +friend of mine, clandestinely and under cover of darkness, removed the +label, substituting for it a scurrilous one setting forth "Pasteboard +Poodle," an announcement which did not appear to convey any particular +idea whatever to the unsettled mind of the haggard provincial _chef du +bureau_, as it flashed upon him next morning in the light of the glad +young autumn day. But, reverting to pronunciation, _tare_-ier would, of +course, more correctly reverberate the sound of the French original +than either of the other usages, while it would possess the advantage +of conveying a suggestion of that proclivity for tearing, so +characteristic of the animal designated by the term. On this important +question the learned philologists wrangle. For my part, I stick to +_tarrier_, which comes "oncommon handy," as the horse-dealer hinted, +when reproved by the Cambridge student for reducing a noble animal +nearly to the level of a donkey by calling him "an 'oss." + +And of all the terrier tribe, there is no quainter little fellow than +he of the Island of Skye,--known to his friends and admirers as the +"Skye dog." This little animal, which, in length of spine, shortness of +legs, wildness of hair, and litheness of movement, resembles one of +those long, hirsute caterpillars oft-times to be observed by the happy +rambler in the country, as it promenades across his path, possesses +many distinctive traits, which separate him, in a manner, from Dog in +general, assimilating him somewhat, indeed, to the _ferce_, which find +in rapine and carnage the subsistence which Nature evidently has not +intended that they should realize in communion with man. The peculiar +odor of the fox is his, though in a mitigated degree. He loves to make +a lair under the bushes by tearing up the turf with his teeth and paws, +and to lie in it. He is of a shy and reserved disposition, and usually +more lively at night than by day. These are attributes of beasts of +prey. Unlike all other members of the terrier family, he cares nothing +about rats. He will sit down and bark in a tone of contempt at one +turned out before him in a close passage or room, declining, in fact, +to recognize rats as game, unless entered at them while very young. I +speak only of the pure, unmixed Isle-of-Skye dog, or "tassel terrier," +as he is sometimes called by rabbit-hunters,--a breed difficult to +obtain in perfection, and one which is particularly scarce in this +country. The proper game or quarry of this animal is the otter, which +he does not hesitate to follow into his very burrow in the river-banks; +nor is he afraid to attack one nearly double his size. + +Having, time after time, possessed several of these dogs, verified as +being derived from the best stock on the island, from which their +parents--who understood no language but Gaelic--were brought direct, I +have noted some of their odd, whimsical ways, a few of which I will +illustrate, taking for my exponent one very remarkable little fellow +who was a genuine type of his kind. + +This animal was one of the smallest of his family, and of a color +uncommon among them; for they are mostly either of a yellowish dun, or +of that slaty mouse-color known among dog-fanciers as "blue,"--a tint, +by the way, particularly appropriate for a dog of Skye. Sometimes they +are black; but Sambo, better known to his familiars as Sam, was of a +sooty brindle, with a very dark muzzle, and eyes burning out like black +stars from the cloud of shaggy hair that mantled upon his brow. Next to +the shortness of his legs, the length of his body was one of the most +remarkable physical freaks I remember to have observed; neither of +these attributes, however, having a chance of notice in comparison with +the quantity and denseness of his long, soft hair,--for the coat of a +true Skye dog is fleecy, rather than wiry. It was the joint result of +the shortness of his legs and the length of his beard that the fatter +appendage continually swept the ground,--an inconvenience which I once +undertook to remedy by trimming it off short with scissors. No Turk +could have more indignantly resented the process than did that small +quadruped,--his Celtic feelings being so severely wounded by it, in +fact, that he abstained from sustenance for three days, putting himself +into moral sackcloth and ashes for that period by retiring into his +penitential cell under a chest of drawers. + +When quite a pup, hardly half-grown, he played a trick unaccountable to +me at this day as it was then. Sam had the run of the house, and he +availed himself of it. On going into the breakfast-room, one morning +early, I observed a singular phenomenon in connection with a large, +cold round of beef, which was the _pièce de résistance_ on the table. +It was curious to behold a round of cold beef with a tail, which it +wagged, and feathered, and beckoned with, as if to say, "Come, eat me." +The tail was the tail of Sam, whose body was concealed far down in the +interior of the tower of beef, into which he had cut his way with great +perseverance and success. But the puzzle was, how he got there; for +there was no chair within reach of the table, and he was much too small +to have jumped up on it; while the theory of the servant, who +propounded that he must have climbed up by the table-cloth, tooth over +claw, was wild, and simply entitled to the contempt of any person aware +of the difference between dog and cat. There is but one acceptable +theory on the subject,--that he was down in the caverns of the beef, +_tail and all_, before it was brought up-stairs, and so escaped notice. + +Early in life, he contracted--from evil association, perhaps--a vulgar +trick of running after carriages and barking at the horses' heels, a +trick of which I in vain tried to break him. Once, when he was about a +year old, I took him up beside me into a high _calèche_, in which we +were going some distance. The moment the horse started, Sam jumped out +to have a bark at his heels, when, to my horror, the wheel of the +vehicle, in which there were three of us, went right over the middle of +his body, cutting him, apparently, in two; but he was up in a second, +and barking at heels and wheels for half a mile before we could pull up +and get him in again. This accident appeared to decide him in the +choice of a profession, for he devoted himself energetically, from that +hour, to the pursuit and baying-at of all manner of wheeled things +propelled by horse-power. + +A rat he would never touch, although I introduced him to one before he +was a year old; he manifested neither fear of the vermin, nor surprise +at it, but simply took no interest in it. He had much pleasure in +worrying cats; but that was owing, I fancy, to a sad discomfiture he +once met with from one. Walking through a suburb one day, with Sammy +trotting before me in dreamy mood, to which he was much given, a small, +but remarkably severe cat made a sudden and very fierce dash at him +from a cottage-door, taking him so completely aback, that he tumbled, +head over tail, into a deep, dirty pool of green, stagnant water, such +as is usually to be seen in the pleasure-grounds environing a +suburbo-Hibernian shanty. His appearance, on emerging from that +cesspool, was the reverse of majestic; but the incident gave him such +an idea on the subject of cats, that he always persecuted them +remorselessly from that day; nor did he ever again walk through a +suburb in any other frame of mind than a particularly wide-awake one, +and with his tail up. + +These dogs are curiously sensitive about their dignity, and sometimes +do not recover their elasticity of spirits for several days after +having undergone a process of correction. I recollect a singular +instance of this sensitiveness displayed by Sambo, in which he also +manifested a kind of inferential power wonderfully akin to reason. + +One morning, a tumult of dogs in the street drew him to the window, out +of which he looked by jumping on a chair, just as a troop of "curs of +low degree" tore past after a rather genteel-looking dog with a kettle +tied to his tail. They whirled rapidly by in a turmoil of dust, and +clink, and cur-dog yelp, but not so rapidly as to prevent Sam from +perceiving the terrible degradation to which a gentleman-dog had been +subjected. The sight had a visible effect on his spirits, for he +immediately became quite depressed as to tail and mind, a condition +which influenced him for a day or two, after which he again appeared +comparatively cheerful, and took his place in society with his +accustomed cautious conviviality. About a month after this, he was seen +coming very slowly along a lane which led up to the back of the +house,--a course hardly ever taken by him, as he was a parlor-dog, and +considered himself entitled to the freedom of the hall-door. Creeping +on in the shadow of the wall, he arrived with a very crest-fallen +aspect at the kitchen-door, where the cause of his ignominious approach +was made manifest to those who were watching him. _He had a kettle tied +to his tail_. Now this animal must surely have argued in his own mind, +that running away with a tin kettle is a sure way of attracting +undesirable notice; also, that proceeding through a public thoroughfare +with such an appendage is injudicious, and likely to result in +trouble. The circumstance of the runaway dog and the tumult after him +had left its impression upon him; and, travelling on his experience, he +rightly judged that an unpleasant affair of the kind might best be +hushed up by quietly making one's way home through back-lanes and the +kitchen-door. + +Skye terriers, when young, are apt to have a bad trick of gnawing and +tearing up articles of wearing apparel, particularly slippers, gaiters, +and such other things as are handy to toss up and catch. The fellow I +am writing about, when very young, destroyed sundry items of my +property in that way. He occupied a buffalo-robe in my room, and I +heard him very busy one night about something, but did not pay much +attention to it, as he was often lively at night. In the morning, +however, on looking for a pair of leather gaiters, I recognized the +remains of them, after much investigation, in a mass of pulp, to which +they had been reduced by the little beast as completely as they could +have been by the most experienced boa-constrictor. This habit I soon +broke him of, by chastising him with the remnants of the worried +article, when there were any left of substance sufficient to weave into +a scourge; nor did he ever recur to it when grown up, except once, +evidencing upon that occasion a remarkable instance of hereditary +instinct. + +Some fur caps, and other articles of winter wear, had been shaken out +of their summer quarters for the purpose of beating the moths out of +them and ventilating them generally, with a view to which they were +placed upon the sill of an open window. By some means Sam obtained +access to the room, where he was discovered in the act of mauling a +valuable otter-skin cap, which he had selected out of the whole +collection for his particular amusement. This dog had never seen an +otter; but his ancestors were noted for their game qualities in the +pursuit of that animal, and their speciality must have descended to +him. + +Eventually Sambo lost all his self-respect. He became discontented and +addicted to low company, dissipating with vile curs whose owners +enjoyed anything but unblemished reputations,--a fact first notified to +me by a clergyman of my acquaintance who knew him well. The worst of +this was, that he wore a collar with my name engraved on it in full; +and it was a long time before I had an opportunity of redeeming that +misused badge. About the very last time I ever saw him, I think, he +came home with one of his eyes gouged out, a split ear, and other marks +but too suggestive of the tavern brawl. I then deprived him of his +collar; soon after which he returned to his unsettled course of life, +and I never saw him again. + +The peculiar, otter-like form of these animals, and the buoyancy given +to them by their long, floating hair, endow them with great facility +for swimming; while the small compass into which they will pack in a +canoe or skiff makes them very useful companions to the sportsman whose +propensities are for paddling about "in the melancholy marshes." I made +an excellent retriever of one of mine by carrying in my pocket a +stuffed snipe, which I would make her hunt up and fetch out of the +weeds into which I had thrown it. She would go back half a mile and +fetch this, when I had hidden it ever so cunningly in a thicket by the +way-side. I also taught her to dive, by making her, while young, fetch +up a little bag of shot from the bottom of a bathtub in my room. By +throwing this into deeper water, gradually, she would soon go down to a +great depth for it. A charge of shot, tied up in a piece of white +kid-glove, with a "neck" left to hold on by, is a good object for the +purpose, as it is readily seen in deep water, and teaches the animal, +besides, to nip gingerly,--a valuable qualification in a retriever. I +remember one of these dogs fetching up from a considerable depth the +watch of a friend of mine, which had slipped out of his pocket into a +clear, still bay, over which he was loitering in his canoe. + +From times unrecorded until about twenty years ago, the Skye terrier +awaited confidently his summons to the sphere of rank and fashion. +About that time, the day, which, as the proverb figuratively informs +us, it falls to the lot of each individual of the canine race to enjoy, +began to shine out brightly for the dog of Skye, the first rays of it +that reached him being reflected from no less a luminary than the Crown +of Great Britain; for it was among the Scottish fancies of England's +Queen to adopt as a prime favorite this hitherto obscure quadruped. +Reckoned until that time--if anybody took the trouble of computing him +at all--as one of the ugliest of his race, he at once found himself +invested with all the attributes of a canine Adonis,--a very Admirable +Crichton of dogs,--perfect in intellect, face, figure, and the Hyperion +luxuriance of his copious mane and tail. In our youth, we knew--and +hated--a small, unmitigated snob of a dog called the Pug, a kind of +work-basket bull-dog, diminutive in size, dyspeptic in temper, +disagreeable to contemplate, and distressing to be obliged to admire. +One of the missions in society of Skye Terrier--who, when going before +a high wind, bears no unapt resemblance to a mop or a wisp of tow--was +to mop up Pug, and polish him off the hearth-rug of Fashion; a mission +which he appears to have at least partially accomplished. For now the +black muzzle of Pug is but seldom to be seen protruded from +carriage-window, biding his time for a snap at the first kid-gloved +finger that wags within range of his overlapping tusks in waving +salutation to his dowager mistress,--for, of the dowagers, above all, +he was one of the chronic calamities. Oftener, now, are the well-combed +whiskers and moustaches of Skye Dog to be recognized, dropping over the +drawing-room window-sill, or framed, like a portrait by Landseer, in +the panelled sash of the barouche, out of which he gazes pensively with +the impressive speculation of the true _flâneur_;--yea, for as men of +fashion are, so are their dogs; and so also of the fighting butcher, +who ever has his counterpart in the fighting bull-dog that glowers from +his gory stall. + +This exalted value of Skye Dog, in a commercial point of view, has, of +course, given rise to the manufacture of a spurious article; whence it +comes, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the animal palmed +off on the unsophisticated as genuine has nothing of the real stuff in +his constitution, but is simply a shallow imitation, compounded +according to prescription,--one part common cur-terrier to two parts +insignificant French poodle. And so I take leave of the Skye terrier +with a _caveat emptor_ to the purchaser who does not want to be sold +while he buys. + +The sense of humor must surely exist in individual dogs; otherwise it +would puzzle me to account for the singular practical jokes played off +by a water-spaniel once possessed by me. This individual, whose name +was Muff, was a rather small-sized one, of the pure Kentish blood; +liver-colored, with a white ring on his neck, and white paws; +close-curled, wicked-eyed, deep-chested, and remarkably powerful for +his size. Professionally a retriever,--and one of great promise, +although never fully tested with the gun,--his leisure hours, which +included every one in the twenty-four, were passed in the invention and +perpetration of curiously regulated mischiefs, with all of which he +took pains to combine an element of the ludicrous. His great spree was +to run amuck into a flock of small children coming out of school. If +there was a dirty crossing hard by, over which they had to pass, he +would wait until they had got half-way, and then, going through them +like a rocket, would chuck them down into the mud, right and left, as +he sped, keeping straight on in his career until far beyond range of +pedagogue's rod. His trick of making a sudden rush at the heels of +unsuspecting persons--and he invariably selected the right sort for his +purpose--might often have got me into ugly scrapes, but for the tact +with which he invariably ignored his master on such occasions. If +pursued, he never came near me for protection, but fled wildly on, +assuming the character of a dog "on the loose," belonging to nobody in +particular, and quite able to take care of himself. He had a decided +objection to street industrials in general, including Italian +organ-grinders and image-sellers. Once I saw him crouching stealthily +after one of the latter, who was passing through an open square with a +tray of casts upon his head; and before I could get up a whistle or +call him off by name, he had darted like a javelin at the legs of the +refugee, startling him so much out of the perpendicular that the +superstructure of plastic art came to the ground with a crash, +top-dressing the sterile soil of the Campus Martius with a coat of +manufactured plaster of Paris. Marius, blubbering over the shattered +chimney-stacks of Carthage, could not have displayed a more touching +classical spectacle than did that modern Roman lamenting to and fro +among the fragments of his collapsed martyrs and ruined saints; nor +were his pangs fully assuaged even by the application of the universal +panacea to an amount more than double the value of his lost wares. + +A great difficulty in training this dog was to bring him "to heel,"--a +still greater one to keep him there when he came. If thrashed into his +proper place in his master's wake, he always resented the indignity by +biting him pretty severely in the legs with a savage whimper. This he +invariably did on first leaving the house with me, sometimes nipping me +so severely, after we had gone a short distance, that I have hesitated +whether to go back for a pistol to shoot him, or forward for a +pennyworth of biscuit to buy him off. When told to "hie away," the +extravagance of his joy knew no bounds. He would have been as +invaluable to a tailor as was to the Parisian _décrotteur_ the poodle +instructed by him to sully with his paws the shoes of the passengers; +for, in the exuberance of his gladness, he but too often rent +insufferably the vestments of the hapless pedestrians in his line of +fire. Sometimes he would turn his assaults upon me, and, springing +suddenly at my "wide-awake," take it from my head, trailing it wildly +away through the mud, and dropping it in some place where it would be +difficult to get at it without wading. Then I would have to conciliate +him to fetch it,--a favor not to be obtained without much stratagem and +diplomacy. + +One of this dog's abnormal qualities was the bull-dog one of holding on +to his antagonist in a fight. But few dogs of his size were able to +cope with him; and I once saw him, when in grips with a fierce +bull-terrier by a riverside, precipitate the result by dragging his +adversary into the water, and dipping his head under. He would jump off +the highest bridge to fetch out of the water anything thrown in for +him, never failing to bring it to his master's feet,--except once, when +he steadily declined to recover from the raging element a cane with +which I had, some time previously, administered to him a sound +thrashing for some delinquency. On the first occasion of his being +accidentally left behind at a ferry across a very wide and rapid river, +he swam out some distance after the boat; but, finding the enterprise a +rather hopeless one, soon put back again and waited for the next boat, +on board of which he took his place with a tranquil and business-like +air. This he regularly did on subsequent occasions, without risking the +swim; and when on board, he always seated himself on the upper deck and +as far forward as possible, so as to catch early glimpses of his +friends in waiting. + +Among the gifts of this clever animal, I must not forget to reckon a +perception of the truthful in Art. I had a walking-stick, upon the +crooked handle of which was carved, with tolerable skill, a pointer's +head. This piece of sculpture was a source of frequent anxiety to +Muff,--his embarrassment apparently arising from the circumstance of +his not having the gift of speech wherewith to deliver himself of an +opinion on the subject. He would sometimes get up from the sunny spot +on the carpet where he lay, walk over to the corner in which the stick +was deposited, contemplate the handle attentively, with his head on one +side, for several minutes, and then, shaking his head doubtfully, +return to his lair with a sigh. Philanthropist as well as critic, he +once saved the life of a dissipated old sergeant of dragoons, to whom +he had taken a fancy, by rushing into a house which the man had just +quitted in a state of intoxication, and so rousing the inmates by his +gestures, that they at once followed him into the road, alongside of +which the beery old _sabreur_ was found prostrate in a pool of water, +setting his face pertinaciously against that hostile element, even to +what was very near being his last gasp. + +Large dogs often appear to take a humorous view of the futile attempts +of small ones to accomplish some feat beyond their strength or stature. +A friend of mine once possessed a very large animal of a cross between +the Mount St. Bernard dog and the English mastiff, and as remarkable +for his good-nature as for his great strength and courage. Rambling out +one day, accompanied by this trusty friend, they came upon a group of +rustics engaged in the ignoble diversion of baiting a badger, an animal +much in request among English dog-fanciers as a test for the pluck of +their terriers. "Drawing a badger" is the proper sporting-phrase,--the +animal being chained to a barrel, from the recesses of which he +contends savagely with the fierce little dogs pitted against each other +to drag him out within a given time. Nero looked on at the sport with a +majestic air of contempt, as dog after dog was withdrawn from the +conflict. At length, disgusted with the failures, he watched his +opportunity until the badger made a dive from his den at a retreating +foe, when, snapping him up by the collar, he thundered away down the +road with the barrel flying after, nor ever stopped until he reached +home, nearly a mile away, where he safely deposited badger and barrel +in the immediate vicinity of his private residence in the stable-yard. + +One of the worst vices by which a dog can be beset is a propensity for +killing sheep. It is not a common vice, but, where it exists, it +appears to be inveterate and beyond all hope of reform. Shutting up the +delinquent with a dangerous ram has often been recommended as a certain +mode of disgusting him with mutton, should he survive the discipline +inflicted on him by the avenger of the blood of his race. I can recall +but one instance within my experience in which this corrective was +tested. It was in the case of a sulky dog of a breed between the red +Irish setter and something larger, but less patrician, upon whom the +thirst for blood fell at uncertain intervals, impelling him then to +devastate the very sheepfolds of which in his capacity as watch-dog he +might have been considered as _ex officio_ the guardian. This vile +malefactor had been ordered for execution, and the noose was already +coiled for his caitiff neck, when a neighbor of his master's--a great +raiser of sheep--begged for him a reprieve, kindly volunteering the use +of a truculent, but valuable ram belonging to him, for the purpose of +illustrating the homaeopathic theory above alluded to. At nightfall the +ram was brought and turned into a paddock, where he was left fettered +to the dog with a couple of yards of chain. At the dawn of morning the +ram's master approached confidently the arena of discipline, secure of +a result triumphant for his theory. But theory was a delusion in this +instance; for the red dog Tanner sat there alone and surfeited with +mutton,--though there was a good deal of the ram still left. + +It is wonderful what an amount of crime can be committed, even +by a small dog, when, like the _Chourineur_ of Eugene Sue, he is +under the glamour of blood. Of this there came to my knowledge a +well-authenticated instance, one for the truth of which I can vouch. A +settler in a remote bush-district had been to the nearest village, +which was many miles from his clearing. It was in March, and the +surface of the snow--which was quite two feet deep--was frozen to a +hard crust, as he travelled homewards in his cutter, accompanied by a +currish dog, not nearly so large as an average pointer. About +nightfall, and when some two miles from home, a herd of nine deer +crossed his track, struggling away into the woods with uncertain +plunges, as the treacherous crust gave way beneath them at every bound. +While they were yet in sight, the dog gave chase, and they all +disappeared into the dark forest together; nor did the dog return to +the call of his master, who, after whistling to him for a short time, +proceeded on his way and drove home without him. Early next morning the +cur made his appearance, glutted and gory, and looking the very picture +of dissipation. Struck by his appearance, they took the back track on +his trail, which led them to a hollow in the bush, where the snow was +much trampled and draggled with blood, and in and around which every +one of the nine deer lay dead, pulled down and throttled by one +miserable cur, who had the mastery over them, because he could run on +the surface of the snow, through which they sunk. The dog's master--at +whose shanty I once stayed when on a fishing-excursion--was much +mortified at the occurrence, as the deer-hunting season was past, and +he was one of Nature's sportsmen, a game-keeper by instinct. + +I have but one more anecdote of a dog, for the present; and that is one +for the truth of which I distinctly decline to vouch. It was imparted +to me by a calker, who owned a woolly French poodle, which remarkable +animal, he informed me, used to swim out regularly once a week,--on +Saturday evenings, I think he said,--with a large wisp of tow in his +mouth, upon the ascension of his fleas into which place of refuge, he +would "let it slide" down the current and swim back tranquilly to the +shore, there to slumber away another week in comparative comfort.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The calker's dog had probably never read Olaus Magnus, +though that worthy Archbishop wrote something very like dog-Latin; but, +as dwellers on the margin of the "Atlantic," we have too great a +respect for a prelate who believed in the kraaken and the sea-serpent, +not to refer our valued Cynophilist to the Thirty-Ninth Chapter of the +Eighteenth Book _De Gentibus Septentrionalibus_, where he will find the +same story told of the fox.--_Eds. Atlantic._] + +Having thus calked my Dog-Talk--bark, in fact--with this very tough bit +of yarn, I now trustfully commit it to the mercies of the "Atlantic." + + + + +THE RECKONING. + + +Your thought may recur with mine + To a certain place in the city, +Where you sometimes have chanced to dine; + If not, why, the more's the pity! + +Did you notice the delicate way + Whereby, with the trencher and cup, +Comes a hint of the matter of pay, + In a counter laid _blank side up_? + +Now,--not to pervert the intent + Of a courtesy gentle and rare, +Or observance so civilly meant + With disparaging things to compare,-- + +By the token your messenger brings, + Did such services never suggest +A likeness to manifold things + Of the world, and the flesh, and--the rest? + +Command whatsoever you will, + To pamper your folly or pride; +You shall find, that unfailingly, still, + The _counter_ is laid beside, + +Silently,--seemingly fair,-- + Till an angel the disk shall turn, +And the soul's great debt, the inscription there, + On her vision shall burst and burn! + + + * * * * * + +A TRIP TO CUBA. + +MATANZAS. + + +A hot and dusty journey of some six hours brought us to Matanzas at +high noon. Our companions were Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and +game-chickens, that travel extensively in these parts, sometimes in +little baskets, with openings for the head and tail, sometimes in the +hands of their owners, secured only by a string fastened to one foot +and passed over the body. They seem to be objects of tender solicitude +to those who carry them; they are nursed and fondled like children, and +at intervals are visited all round by a negro, who fills his mouth with +water, and squirts it into their eyes and under their feathers. They +are curiously plucked on the back and about the tail, where only the +long tail-feathers are allowed to grow. Their tameness in the hands of +their masters is quite remarkable; they suffer themselves to be turned +and held in any direction. But when set down, at any stage of the +journey, they stamp their little feet, stretch their necks, crow, and +look about them for the other cock with most belligerent eyes. As we +have said that the negro of the North is an ideal negro, so we must say +that the game-cock of Cuba is an ideal chicken, a fowl that is too good +to be killed,--clever enough to fight for people who are too indolent +and perhaps too cowardly to fight for themselves,--in short, the +gladiator of the tropics. + +Well, as we have said, we and they arrived at our journey's end in the +extreme heat of the day; and having shown our paper and demanded our +trunks, we beat an instantaneous retreat before the victorious monarch +of the skies, and lo! the Ensor House, dirty, bare, and comfortless, +was to us as a fortress and a rock of defence. + +Here I would gladly pause, and, giving vent to my feelings, say how +lovely I found Matanzas. But ever since Byron's time, the author is +always hearing the public say, "Don't be poetical," etc., etc.; and in +these days both writer and reader seem to have discovered that life is +too short for long descriptions,--so that, when the pen of a G. P. R. +James, waiting for the inspirations of its master, has amused itself +with sketching a greater or less extent of natural scenery, the rule of +the novel-reader is invariably, "Skip landscape, etc., to event on +thirty-second page." Nevertheless, I will say that Matanzas is +lovely,--with the fair harbor on one hand and the fair hills on the +other, sitting like a mother between two beautiful daughters, who looks +from one to the other and wonders which she loves best. The air from +the water is cool and refreshing, the sky is clear and open, and the +country around seems to beckon one to the green bosom of its shades. +"Ob, what a relief after Havana!" one says, drawing a full breath, and +remembering with a shudder the sickening puffs from its stirring +streets, which make you think that Polonius lies unburied in every +house, and that you nose him as you pass the door and window-gratings. +With this exclamation and remembrance, you lower yourself into one of +Mr. Ensor's rocking-chairs,--twelve of which, with a rickety table and +a piano, four crimson tidies and six white ones, form the furniture of +the Ensor drawing-room,--you lean your head on your hand, close your +eyes, and wish for a comfortable room, with a bed in it. A tolerable +room you shall have; but for a bed, only a cot-bedstead with a sacking +bottom,--further, nothing. Now, if you are some folks that I know, you +will be able to establish very comfortable repose on this slender +foundation, Nature having so amply furnished you that you are your own +feather-bed, bolster, sofa-cushion, and easy-chair, a moving mass of +upholstery, wanting only a frame to be set down in and supported. But +if you should be one of Boston's normal skeletons, pinched in every +member with dyspepsia, and with the mark of the beast neuralgia on your +forehead, then your skin will have a weary time of it, holding your +bones, and you will be fain to entreat with tears the merciful +mediation of a mattress. + +Now I know very well that those of my readers who intend visiting Cuba +will be much more interested in statistics of hotels than in any +speculations, poetical or philosophical, with which I might be glad to +recompense their patience. Let me tell them, therefore, that the Ensor +House is neither better nor worse than other American hotels in Cuba. +The rooms are not very bad, the attendance not intolerable, the table +almost commendable. The tripe, salt-fish, and plantains were, +methought, much as at other places. There were stews of meat, onions, +sweet pippins, and _ochra_, which deserve notice. The early coffee was +punctual; the tea, for a wonder, black and hot. True, it was served on +a bare pine table, with the accompaniment only of a bit of dry +bread,--no butter, cake, nor _dulces_. But Mr. Ensor has heard, no +doubt, that sweet things are unwholesome, and is determined, at +whatever cost to his own feelings, to keep them out of the way of his +guests, who are, for the time, his children. Then there is an excellent +English servant called John, whom, though the fair Ensor did berate +him, we must enumerate among the comforts of the establishment. There +is a dark corner about _volantes_, which they are disposed to order for +you at a very unreasonable profit; but as there are plenty of livery +stables at hand, and street _volantes_ passing all the time, it will be +your own fault, if you pay six dollars where you ought to pay three. + +The first thing to be done at Matanzas is to drive out and see the +Cumbre, a hill in the neighborhood, and from it the valley of the +Yumori. The road is an improvement on those already described,--the +ruts being much deeper and the rocks much larger; the jolting is +altogether more complete and effective. Still, you remember the +doctrine that the _volante_ cannot upset, and this blind faith to which +you cling carries you through triumphantly. The Cumbre is lofty, the +view extensive, and the valley lovely, of a soft, light green, like the +early leaves and grass of spring, dotted everywhere with the palms and +their dark clusters. It opens far, far down at your feet, and on your +left you see the harbor quiet and bright in the afternoon sun, with a +cheering display of masts and pennons. You would look and linger long, +but that the light will wane, and you are on your way to Jenks his +sugar-plantation, the only one within convenient distance of the town. +Here the people are obviously accustomed to receive visitors, and are +decently, not superfluously, civil. The _major-domo_ hands you over to +a negro who speaks English, and who salutes you at once with, +"Good-bye, Sir!" The boiling here is conducted in one huge, open vat. A +cup and saucer are brought for you to taste the juice, which is dipped +out of the boiling vat for your service. It is very like balm-tea, +unduly sweetened; and after a hot sip or so you return the cup with +thanks. A loud noise, as of cracking of whips and of hurrahs, guides +you to the sugar-mill, where the crushing of the cane goes on in the +jolliest fashion. The building is octagonal and open. Its chief feature +is a very large horizontal wheel, which turns the smaller ones that +grind the cane. Upon this are mounted six horses, driven by as many +slaves, male and female, whose exertions send the wheel round with +sufficient rapidity. This is really a novel and picturesque sight. Each +negro is armed with a short whip, and their attitudes, as they stand, +well-balanced on the revolving wheel, are rather striking. They were +liberal of blows and of objurgations to the horses; but all their cries +and whipping produced scarcely a tenth of the labor so silently +performed by the invisible, noiseless slave that works the +steam-engine. From this we wandered about the avenues, planted with +palms, cocoas, and manifold fruit-trees,--visited the sugar-fields, +where many slaves were cutting the canes and piling them on enormous +ox-carts, and came at last to a great, open field, where many head of +cattle were quietly standing. Our negro guide had not been very lavish +or intelligible in his answers to our numerous questions. We asked him +about these cattle. "Dey cows," he replied. We asked if they gave milk, +and if butter was made on the plantation. He seemed quite puzzled and +confused, and finally exclaimed,--"Dat cows no got none wife." Coming +nearer, we found that the cows were draught oxen, employed in dragging +the canes and other produce of the plantation. Jenks his garden we +found in good order, and beautiful with many plants in full blossom; +but Jenks his house seemed dreary and desolate, with no books, a +wretched print or so, dilapidated furniture, and beds that looked like +the very essence of nightmare. Nothing suggested domestic life or +social enjoyment, or anything--; but as Jenks is perfectly unknown to +us, either by appearance or reputation, we give only a guess in the +dark, and would suggest, in case it may displease him, that he should +refurnish and repaint a little, and diffuse an air of cheerfulness over +his solitary villa, remembering that Americans have imaginations, and +that visitors will be very apt to construct an unknown host from his +surroundings. + +The second thing to be done in Matanzas, if you arrive on Saturday, is +to attend military mass at the Cathedral on Sunday morning. This +commences at eight o'clock; but the hour previous may be advantageously +employed in watching the arrival and arrangement of the female +aristocracy of Matanzas. These enter in groups of twos and threes, +carrying their prayer-books, and followed by slaves of either sex, who +bear the prayer-carpet of their mistresses. The ladies are wonderfully +got up, considering the early hour; and their toilettes suggest that +they may not have undressed since the ball of the night before. All +that hoops, powder, and puffery can do for them has been done; they +walk in silk attire, and their hair is what is technically termed +dressed. Some of them bring their children, bedizened like dolls, and +mimicking mamma's gestures and genuflexion in a manner more provoking +to sadness than to satire. If the dressing is elaborate, the crossing +is also. It does not consist of one simple cross, "_in nomine Patris_," +etc.; they seem to make three or four crosses from forehead to chin, +and conclude by kissing the thumb-nail, in honor of what we could not +imagine. Entering the middle aisle, which is divided from the rest by a +row of seats on either side, they choose their position, and motion to +the dark attendant to spread the carpet. Some of them evince +considerable strategic skill in the selection of their ground. All +being now in readiness, they drop on their knees, spread their +flounces, cross themselves, open their books, and look about them. +Their attendants retire a little, spread a handkerchief on the ground, +and modestly kneel behind them, obviously expecting to be saved with +the family. These are neatly, sometimes handsomely dressed. In this +status things remain until the music of the regiment is heard. With a +martial sound of trumpets it enters the church, and fills the aisles, +the officers taking place within the chancel, and a guard-of-honor of +eight soldiers ranging on either side of the officiating priest. And +now our devotions begin in good earnest; for, simultaneously with the +regiment, the _jeunesse dorée_ of Matanzas has made its appearance, and +has spread itself along the two long lines of demarcation which +separate the fair penitents from the rest of the congregation. The +ladies now spread their flounces again, and their eyes find other +occupation than the dreary Latin of their missals. There is, so to +speak, a lively and refreshing time between the youths of both sexes, +while the band plays its utmost, and _Evangel_, _Kyrie_, and _Credo_ +are recited to the music of Trovatore and Traviata. That child of four +years old, dressed in white and gold flounces, and white satin boots +with heels, handles her veil and uses her eyes like mamma, eager for +notice, and delighted with the gay music and uniforms. The moment comes +to elevate the Host, thump goes the drum, the guard presents arms, and +the soldiers, instead of kneeling, bend forward, in a most +uncomfortable manner. Another thump, and all that is over; the swords +are returned to their sheaths, and soon, the loud music coming to an +end, the regiment marches out of church, very much as it marched in, +its devotional experiences being known to Heaven alone. Ladies and +lovers look their last, the flounces rise in pyramids, the +prayer-carpets are rolled up, and, with a silken sweep and rush, Youth, +Beauty, and Fashion forsake the church, where Piety has hardly been, +and go home to breakfast. To that comfortable meal you also betake +yourself, musing on the small heads and villanous low foreheads of the +Spanish soldiery, and wondering how long it would take a handful of +resolute Yankees to knock them all into--But you are not a filibuster, +you know. + + +THE PASEO--THE PLAZA--DINING OUT. + + +"As this Sunday is Carnival, you cannot do better than drive about the +city, and then go to the Plaza to see the masks. My partner's wife, +with whom you have now so comfortably breakfasted, will call for you in +her _volante_, between five and six o'clock. She will show you the +Paseo, and we will go and see the masks afterwards." + +So spoke a banker, who, though not _our_ banker, is our friend, and +whose kind attentions we shall ever recall, when we remember Cuba. So +he spoke, and so it befell. The pretty American lady, Cubanized into +paleness, but not into sallowness, called at the appointed hour, and, +in her company, we visited the principal streets, and the favorite +drive of the Matanzasts. The Paseo is shorter than that of Havana, but +much prettier. We found it gay with _volantes_, whose fair occupants +kept up an incessant bowing and smiling to their friends in carriages +and on horseback. The Cubans are generally good riders, and their +saddle-horses have the easiest and pleasantest gait imaginable. The +heat of the climate does not allow the severe exercise of trot and +gallop, and so these creatures go along as smoothly and easily as the +waves of the sea, and are much better broken to obedience. The ladies +of Matanzas seem to possess a great deal of beauty, but they abuse the +privilege of powder, and whiten themselves with _cascarilla_ to a +degree that is positively ghastly. This _cascarilla_ is formed by the +trituration of eggshells; and the oval faces whitened with it resemble +a larger egg, with features drawn on it in black and red. In spite of +this, they are handsome; but one feels a natural desire to rush in +amongst them with a feather duster, and lay about one a little, before +giving an available opinion of their good looks. + +If the Paseo was gay, the streets of the city were gay also; the +windows filled with faces and figures in full dress, with little groups +of children at the feet of the grown people, like the two world-famous +cherubs at the feet of the Madonna di San Sisto. There were crowds of +promenaders too, everywhere, interspersed with parties of maskers, who +went about screaming at the public with high, shrill voices. Leaving +the _volante_, we descend to the Plaza, where is now the height and +centre of movement. We find it flanked on all sides with little movable +kitchens, where good things are cooked, and with tables, where they are +sold and eaten. Fried cakes, fish, and meats seem the predominant bill +of fare, with wine, coffee, and fruits. The masks are circulating with +great animation; men in women's clothes, white people disguised as +negroes, and negroes disguised as whites, prodigious noses, impossible +chins and foreheads; the stream of popular fancy ran chiefly in these +channels. We met processions consisting of a man carrying a rat in a +cage, and shouting out, "Catch this rat!" followed by a perfect +stampede of wild creatures, all yelling, "Catch that rat!" at the top +of their voices. The twanging of the guitar is heard everywhere, +accompanied by the high nasal voices of the natives, in various strains +of monotony. In some spots the music is more lively, accompanied by the +shaking of a gourd filled with dry seeds, which is called _ghiera_, and +whose "chick-a-chick, chick-chick" takes the place of the more poetical +castanets;--here you find one or more couples exhibiting their skill in +Cuban dances, with a great deal of applause and chattering from the +crowd around. Beside those of the populace, many aristocratic groups +parade the Plaza, in full dress, crowned with flowers and jewels;--a +more motley scene can hardly be imagined. Looking up, one sees in +curious contrast the tall palms with which the Plaza is planted, and +the quiet, wondering stars set in the deep tropical heavens. + +But in our evening's programme, tea has been omitted; now, what +availeth a Bostonian without his tea? By eight o'clock, we are pensive, +"most like a tired child at a show,"--by half-past eight, stupid,--by +nine, furious. Two hours of folly, taken on an empty stomach, alarm us +for our constitution. A visit to the _café_ is suggested and adopted. +It proves to be crowded with people in fancy attire, who have laid +aside their masks to indulge in beer, orgeat, and sherbet. While our +Cuban friends regale themselves with soursop and _zapote_ ice sweetened +with brown sugar, we call for a cup of delicious Spanish chocolate, +which is served with a buttered toasted roll, worthy of all imitation. +Oh, how much comfort is in a little cup of chocolate! what an +underpinning does it afford our spiritual house, a material basis for +our mental operations! In its support, we go it a little longer on the +Plaza, see more masks, hear more guitars and "catch-this-rat!" and +finally return, in a hired _volante_, to the Ensor House, where rest +and the bedless cots await us. + +But we have friends in Matanzas, real born Cubans, who will not suffer +us to remain forever in the Ensor House. They send their _volante_ for +us, one day, and we visit them. Their house, of the inevitable Cuban +pattern, is richly furnished; the marbles of the floor are pure and +smooth, the rug ample and velvety; the wainscoting of the walls, so to +speak, is in handsome tiling,--not in mean, washy painting; the cane +chairs and sofas are fresh and elegant, and there is a fine Erard +piano. The master of the house is confined to his room by illness, but +will be happy to see us. His son and daughters speak English with +fluency. They inform us, that the epidemic colds which prevail in Cuban +winters are always called by the name of some recent untoward +occurrence, and that their father, who suffers from severe influenza, +has got the President's Message. We find Don José in a bedroom darkened +by the necessary closing of the shutters, there being no other way of +excluding the air. The bedsteads are of gilded iron, with luxurious +bedding and spotless mosquito-nettings. His head is tied up with a silk +handkerchief. He rises from his rocking-chair, receives us with great +urbanity, and expresses his appreciation of the American nation and +their country, which he himself has visited. After a short interview we +leave him, but not until he has placed his house and all it contains +_"á la disposicion de Usted."_ We are then shown the pretty bedroom of +the young ladies, whose toilettes are furnished in silver, the bath +lined with tiling, the study, and the dining-room, where luncheon +awaits us. We take leave, with a kind invitation to return and dine the +next day, which, upon mature deliberation, we accept. + +The _volante_ comes for us next day, with Roque, brightest of all +living _caleseros_, fixed in his boots and saddle. After a pleasant +drive we attain the house, and are received by its hospitable inmates +as before. The interval before dinner, a tolerably long one, is filled +up by pleasant chitchat, chiefly in English. The lady of the house does +not, however, profess our vernacular, and to her understanding we lay +siege in French, Italian, and laughter-provoking Spanish. Before dining +we pay a second visit to the host, who is still busy digesting the +President's Message. Obviously, the longer he has it under +consideration, the worse he finds it. He has nausea from its bragging, +his head aches with its loudness, and its emptiness fills him with +wind. We are at our wits' end to prescribe for him, and take our leave +with grave commiseration, telling him that we, too, have had it, but +that the symptoms it produces in the North are a reddening in the cheek +and a spasmodic contraction of the right arm. Now comes great dinner +on. A slave announces it, and with as little ceremony as may be we take +our places. And here we must confess that our friend the banker had +rendered us an important service. For he had said,--"Look not upon the +soup when it is hot, neither let any victuals entice thee to more than +a slight and temporary participation; for the dishes at a Cuban dinner +be many, and the guest must taste of all that is presented; wherefore, +if he indulge in one dish to his special delectation, he shall surely +die before the end." And it came to pass that we remembered this, and +walked through the dinner as on egg-shells, gratifying curiosity, on +the one hand, and avoiding satiety, on the other, with the fear of +fulness, as it were, before our eyes. For, oh, my friends! what pang is +comparable to too much dinner, save the distress of being refused by a +young woman, or the comfortless sensation, in times of economy, of +having paid away a five-dollar gold piece in place of a silver quarter +of a dollar? + +But you, Reader, would like more circumstantiality in the account of +this dinner, which united many perfections. It was handsome, but not +splendid,--orderly, but, not stately,--succulent, but not unctuous. It +kept the word of promise to the smell and did not break it to the +taste. It was a dinner such as we shall wish only to our best friends, +not to those acquaintances who ask how we do when they meet us, and +wish we were dead before we part. As for particulars, we should be glad +to impart much useful information and many choice receipts; but the +transitory nature of such an entertainment does not allow one to +improve it as one could wish. One feature we remember, which is that +the whole dinner was placed on the table at once, and so you had the +advantage of seeing your work cut out before you. None of that hope +deferred, when, after being worried through a dozen stews and +_entrées_, you are rewarded at last with an infinitesimal fragment of +the _rôti_. Nor, on the other hand, the unwelcome surprise of three +supplementary courses and a dessert, when you have already dined to +repletion, and feel yourself at peace with all the world. Here, all was +fair play; you knew what to expect and what was expected of you. Soup, +of course, came first,--then fish,--then meat stewed with potatoes and +onions,--then other meat with _ochra_ and tomatoes,--then boiled +chicken, which is eaten with a _pilaff_ of rice colored with +saffron,--then delicious sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, and +vegetables of every sort,--then a kind of pepper, brought, we think, +from the East Indies, and intensely tropical in its taste,--then a +splendid roast turkey, and ham strewed with small colored +sugar-plums,--then--well, is not that enough for one person to have +eaten at a stretch, and that person accustomed to a Boston diet? Then +came such a display of sweetmeats as would exercise the mind of a New +England housekeeper beyond all power of repose,--a pudding,--a huge +tart with very thick crust,--cakes of _yuca_,--a dish of cocoanut, made +into a sort of impalpable preserve, with eggs and sugar,--then a course +of fruits,--then coffee, of the finest quality, from the host's own +plantation,--and then we arose and went into the drawing-room, with a +thankful recollection of what we had had, and also a thankful assurance +that we should have no more. + +A drive by moonlight was now proposed, to see the streets and the +masks, it being still Carnival. So the _volante_ was summoned, with its +smiling, silent Roque, and the pretty daughter of the house took seat +beside us. The streets around the Plaza proved quite impassable from +the crowd, whose wild movements and wilder voices went nigh to scaring +the well-trained horses. The little lady was accustomed, apparently, to +direct every movement of her charioteer, and her orders were uttered in +a voice high and sweet as a bird-call. "_Dobla al derecho, Roque! +Roque, dobla al derecho_!" Why did not Roque go mad, and +exclaim,--"Yes, Señorita, and to heaven itself, if you bid me so +prettily!" But Roque only doubled as he was bid, and took us hither and +thither, and back to the nest of his lady-bird, where we left her and +the others with grateful regrets, and finally back to the Ensor House, +which on this occasion seemed to us the end of all things. + + +GAME-CHICKENS--DON RODRIGUEZ--DAY ON THE PLANTATION--DE-PARTURE. + + +As there are prejudices in Cuba, and elsewhere, touching the +appropriate sphere of woman, Halia was not taken to the cockpit, as she +had demanded and expected,--not to see the chickens fight, but to see +the Spaniards see it. + +Forgive her, ye Woman's-Righters, if on this occasion she was weak and +obedient! You would have gone, no doubt,--those of you who have not +husbands; but such as have must know how much easier it is to deal with +the article man in his theoretical than in his real presence. You may +succeed in showing by every convincement, that you are his natural +master and superior, and that there is every reason on earth why you +should command and direct him. "No! ---- ," says the wretch, shaking +his fist, or shrugging his shoulders; and whatever your intimate +convictions may be, the end is, that you do not. + +Propitiated by that ready obedience which is safest, dear sisters, in +these contingencies, the proprietor of Halia takes her, one morning, to +see the establishment of a man of fortune in the neighborhood, where +one hundred and forty game-chickens are kept for training and fighting. +These chickens occupy two good-sized rooms, whose walls are entirely +covered with compartments, some two feet square, in each of which +resides a cock, with his little perch and drinking-vessel. They are +kept on allowance of water and of food, lest they should get beyond +fighting-weight. Their voices are uplifted all day long, and on all +moonlight nights. An old woman receives us, and conducts us to the +training-pit, pointing out on the way the heroes of various battles, +and telling us that this cock and the other have won _mucho dinero_, +"much money." Each has also its appointed value;--this cock is worth +forty dollars, this four ounces, this one six ounces,--oh, he is a +splendid fellow! No periodal and sporadic hen-fever prevails here, but +the gallo-mania is the chronic madness of the tropics. + +The training-pit is a circular space inclosed with boards, perhaps some +twelve feet in diameter. Here we find the proprietor, Don Manuel +Rodriguez, with a negro assistant, up to the ears in business. Don +Manuel is young, handsome, and vivacious, and with an air of good +family that astonishes us. He receives us with courtesy, finds nothing +unusual in the visit of a lady, but is too much engrossed with his +occupation to accord us more than a passing notice. This is exactly as +we could wish,--it allows us to study the Don, so to speak, _au +naturel_. He is engaged at first in weighing two cocks, with a view to +their subsequent fighting. Having ascertained their precise weight, +which he registers in his pocket-memorandum, he proceeds to bind strips +of linen around their formidable spurs, that in their training they may +not injure each other with them. This being accomplished,--he all the +while delivering himself with great volubility to his black +second,--the two cocks are taken into the arena; one is let loose +there; the negro holds the other, and knocks the free fowl about the +head with it. Sufficient provocation having been given, they are +allowed to go at each other in their own fashion, and their attacks and +breathing-spells are not very unlike a bout of fencing. They flap, fly +at each other, fly over, peck, seize by the neck, let go, rest a +moment, and begin again, getting more and more excited with each round. +The negro separates them, when about to draw blood. And as for Don +Manuel, he goes mad over them, like an Italian _maestro_ over his +favorite pupil. "_Hombre, hombre!_" he cries to the negro, "what a +cock! By Heaven, what a couple! _Ave María santísima!_ did one ever see +such spirit? _Santísima Trinidad!_ is there such fighting in all +Matanzas?" Having got pretty well through with the calendar of the +saints, he takes out his watch;--the fight has lasted long enough. One +of the champions retires to take a little repose; another is brought in +his place; the negro takes him, and boxes him about the ears of the +remaining fowl,--brushing him above his head, and underneath, and on +his back, to accustom him to every method of attack. Don Manuel informs +us that the cock made use of in this way is the father of the other, +and exclaims, with an air of mock compassion, _Pobre padre!_ "Poor +father!" The exercise being concluded, he takes a small feather, and +cleans out therewith the throat of either chicken, which proves to be +full of the sand of the arena, and which he calls _porquería_, "dirt." + +We leave Don Manuel about to employ himself with other cocks, and, as +before, too much absorbed to give our departure much notice. Strange to +say, Hulia is so well satisfied with this rehearsal, that she expresses +no further desire to witness the performance itself. We learn +subsequently that Don Manuel is a man of excellent family and great +wealth, who has lavished several fortunes on his favorite pursuit, and +is hurrying along on the road to ruin as fast as chickens' wings can +carry him. We were very sorry, but couldn't possibly interfere. +Meantime, he appeared excessively jolly. + +Our kind friends of the dinner were determined to pay us, in their +persons, all the debts of hospitality the island might be supposed to +contract towards strangers and Americans. Arrangements were accordingly +made for us to pass our last day in Matanzas at a coffee-plantation of +theirs, some four miles distant from town. They would send their +travelling _volante_ for us, they said, which was not so handsome as +the city _volante_, but stronger, as it had need to be, for the roads. +At eleven o'clock, on a very warm morning, this vehicle made its +appearance at the door of the Ensor House, with Roque in the +saddle,--Roque with that mysterious _calesero_ face of his, knowing +everything, but volunteering nothing until the word of command. Don +Antoñito, he tells us, has gone before us on horseback;--we mount the +_volante_, and follow. Roque drives briskly at first, a slight breeze +refreshes us, and we think the road better than is usual. But wait a +bit, and we come to what seems an unworked quarry of coral rock, with +no perceptible way over it, and Roque still goes on, slowly indeed, but +without stop or remark. The strong horses climb the rough and slippery +rocks, dragging the strong _volante_ after them. The _calesero_ picks +his way carefully; the carriage tips, jolts, and tumbles; the centre of +gravity appears to be nowhere. The breeze dies away; the vertical sun +seems to pin us through the head; we get drowsy, and dream of an uneasy +sea of stones, whose harsh waves induce headache, if not seasickness. +We wish for a photograph of the road;--first, to illustrate the +inclusive meaning of the word; second, to serve as a remembrance, to +reconcile us to all future highways. + +Why these people are content to work out their road-tax by such sore +travail of mind and body appeareth to us mysterious. The breaking of +stone in state-prison is not harder work than riding over a Cuban road; +yet this extreme of industry is endured by the Cubans from year to +year, and from one human life to another, without complaint or effort. +An hour or more of these and similar reflections brings us to a bit of +smooth road, and then to the gate of the plantation, where a fine +avenue of palms conducts us to the house. Here resides the relative and +partner of our Matanzas friends, a man of intelligent and humane +aspect, who comes to greet us, with his pleasant wife, and a pretty +niece, their constant guest. This lady has made use of her retirement +for the accomplishment of her mind. She has some knowledge of French +and Italian, and, though unwilling to speak English, is able to +translate from that language with entire fluency. The plantation-house +is very pretty, situated just at the end of the palm-avenue, with all +the flowers in sight,--for these are planted between the palms;--it has +a deep piazza in front, and the first door opens into one large room, +with sleeping-apartments on either side. Opposite this door is another, +opening upon the court behind the house, and between the two our chairs +are placed, courting the draught.--_N.B._ In Cuba, no one shuns a +draught; you ride, drive, sit, and sleep in one, and, unless you are a +Cuban, never take cold. The floor of this principal room is merely of +clay, rubbed with a red powder, which, mixed with water, hardens into a +firm, polished surface. The house has but one story; the timbers of the +roof, unwhitened, forming the only ceiling. The furniture consists of +cane easy-chairs, a dining-table, and a pretty hammock, swung across +one end of the room. Here we sit and talk long. Our host has many good +books in French and Spanish,--and in English, Walter Scott's Novels, +which his wife fully appreciates. + +A walk is proposed, and we go first to visit _los negros +chiquitos,--Anglicè_, "the small niggers," in their nursery. We find +their cage airy enough; it is a house with a large piazza completely +inclosed in coarse lattice-work, so that the _pequeñuelos_ cannot +tumble out, nor the nurses desert their charge. Our lady friend +produces a key, unlocking a small gate which admits us. We found, as +usual, the girls of eight and upwards tending the babies, and one +elderly woman superintending them. On our arrival, African drums, +formed of logs hollowed out, and covered with skin at the end, were +produced. Two little girls proceeded to belabor these primitive +instruments, and made a sort of rhythmic strumming, which kept time to +a monotonous chant. Two other girls executed a dance to this, which, +for its slowness, might be considered an African minuet. The dancing +children were bright-looking, and not ungraceful. Work stops at noon +for a recess; and the mothers run from the field to visit the +imprisoned babies, whom they carry to their own homes and keep till the +afternoon-hour for work comes round, which it does at two P.M. We went +next to the negro-houses, which are built, as we have described others, +contiguous, in one hollow square. On this plantation the food of the +negroes is cooked for them, and in the middle of the inclosed square +stood the cooking-apparatus, with several large caldrons. Still, we +found little fires in most of the houses, and the inmates employed in +concocting some tidbit or other. A hole in the roof serves for a +chimney, where there is one, but they as often have the fire just +before their door. The slaves on this plantation looked in excellent +condition, and had, on the whole, cheerful countenances. The good +proportion of their increase showed that they were well treated, as on +estates where they are overworked they increase scarcely or not at all. +We found some of the men enjoying a nap between a board and a blanket. +Most of the women seemed busy about their household operations. The +time from twelve to two is given to the negroes, besides an hour or two +after work in the evening, before they are locked up for the night. +This time they improve mostly in planting and watering their little +gardens, which are their only source of revenue. The negroes on this +estate had formed a society amongst themselves for the accumulation of +money; and our friend, the manager of the plantation, told us that they +had on his books two thousand dollars to their credit. One man alone +had amassed six hundred dollars, a very considerable sum, under the +circumstances. We visited also the house of the mayoral, or overseer, +whose good face seemed in keeping with the general humane arrangements +of the place,--as humane, at least, as the system permits. The negroes +all over the island have Sunday for themselves; and on Sunday +afternoons they hold their famous balls, which sometimes last until +four o'clock on Monday morning. Much of the illness among the negroes +is owing to their imprudence on these and like occasions. Pneumonia is +the prevalent disease with them, as with the slaves in our own South; +it is often acute and fatal. Everything in Cuba has such a tendency to +go on horseback, that we could not forbear asking if dead men did, and +were told that it was so,--the dead negroes being temporarily inclosed +in a box, and conveyed to the cemetery on the back of a horse. Our +friend, seeing our astonishment, laughed, and told us that the poor +whites were very glad to borrow the burial-horse and box, to furnish +their own funerals. + +Dinner was served at four o'clock, quite informally, in the one +sitting-room of the house. A black girl brushed off the flies with a +paper fly-brush, and another waited on table. The dinner was excellent; +but I have already given so many bills of fare in these letters, that I +will content myself with mentioning the novelty of a Cuban +country-dish, a sort of stew, composed of ham, beef, mutton, potatoes, +sweet potatoes, _yuca_, and yams. This is called _Ayacco_, and is a +characteristic dish, like eel-soup in Hamburg, or salt codfish in +Boston;--as is usual in such cases, it is more relished by the +inhabitants than by their visitors. On the present occasion, however, +it was only one among many good things, which were made better by +pleasant talk, and were succeeded by delicious fruits and coffee. After +dinner we visited the vegetable garden, and the well, where we found +Candido, the rich negro who had saved six hundred dollars, drawing +water with the help of a blind mule. Now the philanthrope of our party +was also a phrenologist, and had conceived a curiosity to inspect the +head of the very superior negro who had made all this money; so, at his +request, Candido was summoned from the well, and ordered to take off +his hat. This being removed disclosed the covering of a cotton +handkerchief, of which he was also obliged to divest himself. Candido +was much too well bred to show any signs of contumacy; but the +expression of his countenance varied, under the observation of the +phrenologist, from wonder to annoyance, and from that to the extreme of +sullen, silent wrath. The reason was obvious,--he supposed himself +brought up with a view to bargain and sale; and when informed that he +had a good head, he looked much inclined to give somebody else a bad +one. He was presently allowed to go back to his work; and our +sympathies went with him, as it would probably take some days to efface +from his mind the painful impression that he was to be sold, the last +calamity that can happen to a negro who is in kind hands. We now +wandered through the long avenues of palm and fruit trees with which +the estate was planted, and saw the stout black wenches at their +out-door occupations, which at this time consisted chiefly in raking +and cleansing the ground about the roots of the trees and flowers. +Their faces brightened as their employers passed, and the smaller +children kissed hands. Returned to the house, we paused awhile to enjoy +the evening red, for the sun was already below the horizon. Then came +the _volante_, and with heartfelt thanks and regrets we suffered it to +take us away. + +And who had been the real hero of this day? Who but Roque, fresh from +town, with his experience of Carnival, and his own accounts of the +masked ball, the Paseo, and the Señorita's beaux? All that durst +followed him to the gate, and kissed hands after him. _"Adios, Roque! +Roque, adios!"_ resounded on all sides; and Roque, the mysterious one, +actually smiled in conscious superiority, as he nodded farewell, and +galloped off, dragging us after him. + +As we drove back to Matanzas in the moonlight, a sound of horses' feet +made us aware that Don Antoñito, the young friend who had planned and +accompanied our day's excursion, was to be our guard of honor on the +lonely road. A body-servant accompanied him, likewise mounted. Don +Antoñito rode a milk-white Cuban pony, whose gait was soft, swift, and +stealthy as that of a phantom horse. His master might have carried a +brimming glass in either hand, without spilling a drop, or might have +played chess, or written love-letters on his back, so smoothly did he +tread the rough, stony road. All its pits and crags and jags, the pony +made them all a straight line for his rider, whose unstirred figure and +even speech made this quite discernible. For when a friend talks to you +on the trot, much gulping doth impede his conversation,--and there is +even a good deal of wallop in a young lady's gallop. But our friend's +musical Spanish ran on like a brook with no stones in it, that merely +talks to the moonlight for company. And such moonlight as it was that +rained down upon us, except where the palm-trees spread their inverted +parasols, and wouldn't let it! And such a glorification of all trees +and shrubs, including the palm, which we are almost afraid to call +again by name, lest it should grow "stuck up," and imagine there were +no other trees but itself! And such a combination of tropical silence, +warmth, and odor! Even in the night, we did not forget that the +aloe-hedges had red in them, which made all the ways beautiful by day. +Oh! it was what good Bostonians call "a lovely time"; and it was with a +sigh of fulness that we set down the goblet of enjoyment, drained to +the last drop, and getting, somehow, always sweeter towards the bottom. + +For it was set down at the Ensor House, which we are to leave to-night, +half-regretful at not having seen the scorpion by which we always +expected to be bitten; for we had heard such accounts of it, patrolling +the galleries with its venomous tail above its head, that we had +thought a sight might be worth a bite. It was not to be, however. The +luggage is brought; John is gratified with a _peso_; and we take leave +with entire goodwill. + +I mention our departure, only because it was Cuban and characteristic. +Returning by boat to Havana, we were obliged to be on board by ten +o'clock that evening, the boat starting at eleven. Of course, the +steamer was nowhere but a mile out in the stream; and a little +cockle-shell of a row-boat was our only means of attaining her. How +different, ye good New Yorkers and Bostonians, from your afternoon walk +on board the "Bay State," with valise and umbrella in hand, and all the +flesh-pots of Egypt in--well, in remembrance! After that degree of +squabbling among the boatmen which serves to relieve the feelings of +that habitually disappointed class of men, we chose our craft, and were +rowed to the steamer, whose sides were steep and high out of water. The +arrangements on board were peculiar. The body of the main deck was +occupied by the _gentlemen's_ cabin, which was large and luxurious. A +tiny after-cabin was fitted up for the ladies. In the region of the +machinery were six horrible staterooms, bare and dirty, the berths +being furnished simply with cane-bottoms, a pillow, and one unclean +sheet. Those who were decoyed into these staterooms endured them with +disgust while the boat was at anchor; but when the paddle-wheels began +to revolve, and dismal din of clang and bang and whirr came down about +their ears, and threatened to unroof the fortress of the brain, why, +then they fled madly, precipitately, leaving their clothes mostly +behind them. But I am anticipating. The passengers arrived and kept +arriving; and we watched, leaning over the side, for Don Antoñito, who +was to accompany our voyage. Each boat had its little light; and to see +them dancing and toppling on the water was like a fairy scene. At last +came our friend; and after a little talk and watching of the stars, we +betook ourselves to rest. + +Many of the Dons were by this time undressed, and smoking in their +berths. As there was no access to the ladies' cabin, save through the +larger one, she who went thither awaited a favorable moment and ran, +looking neither to the right hand nor the left. The small space was +tolerably filled by Cuban ladies in full dress.--_Mem_. They always +travel in their best clothes.--The first navigation among them was a +real balloon-voyage, with collisions; but they soon collapsed and went +to bed. All is quiet now; and she of whom we write has thrown herself +upon the first vacant bed, spreading first a clean napkin on the +extremely serviceable pillow. Sleep comes; but what is this that +murders sleep? A diminutive male official going to each berth, and +arousing its fair occupant with "Doña Teresita," or whatever the name +may be, "favor me with the amount of your passage-money." No comment is +necessary; here, no tickets,--here, no stewardess to mediate between +the unseen captain and the unprotected female! The sanctuary of the sex +invaded at midnight, without apology and without rebuke! Think of that, +_those_ passengers who have not paid their fare, and, when invited to +call at the captain's office and settle, do so, and be thankful! The +male passengers underwent a similar visitation. It is the Cuban idea of +a compendious and economic arrangement. + +And here ends our account of Matanzas, our journey thither, stay, and +return. Peace rest upon the fair city! May the earthquake and hurricane +spare it! May the hateful Spanish government sit lightly on its strong +shoulders! May the filibusters attack it with kisses, and conquer it +with loving-kindness! So might it be with the whole island-vale! + + * * * * * + + +THE FIRST AND THE LAST. + + +It was the last December of the eighteenth century. All night a fierce +northeast snow-storm had been hissing and drifting through the frozen +air, pelting angrily at the shuttered and curtained windows of the +rich, and shrieking with scornful laughter as it forced its way through +the ill-fitting casements and loose doors of the poor, clutching at +them with icy fingers as they cowered over their poor fires, and +spreading over the garret-beds in which they sought to hide from him a +premature shroud of cold white snow. + +But with morning the storm ceased, and a little before noon the sun, +peering from behind his clouds, seemed to wink with astonishment at +seeing how much had been done in his absence. + +Not only the sun, but Mr. Phineas Coffin, guardian of the "town's +poor," in the town of Newport, was astir, and, standing at the door of +the "poor-'us," bent a contemplative eye upon the progress made by two +stout youths who were clearing the snow from the sidewalks and paths +upon his premises. + +Mr. Coffin perceived that a trial of skill and speed was going on +between one of his own pioneers and a lad similarly engaged on behalf +of the next estate. About half-way between the rapidly approaching +competitors stood a rough-hewn block of stone, marking the boundaries +of the two estates. + +To first reach this, the winning-post, was evidently the emulous desire +of each. As they approached near and nearer, the snow flew from their +shovels with a force and velocity which would certainly have reminded +Mr. Coffin of a steam snow-plough, had he ever seen or heard, of such a +thing, which he most assuredly never had. + +Each boy performed prodigies of skill and valor. The "poor-'us" lad +evidently gained, and his patron did not conceal a wide smile of +satisfaction; the rival looked up, saw it, was stung with generous +rage, threw himself with fury upon his shovel, and in three enormous +plunges laid bare his own side of the post, before "poor-'us" had come +within a foot of it. + +Then, clapping his numb fingers upon his thighs, the successful +champion uttered a melodious crow, which so disgusted the spectator +that he was about to retire within doors, when his eyes fell upon a +thinly clad, timid-looking woman who was advancing along the newly +opened path, casting deprecating glances at the two boys, who from +peaceful rivalry were now proceeding to open warfare, carried on with +the ammunition so plentifully spread before them. + +Nor was the alarm of the poor woman groundless; for, as she advanced +into the battle-field, she found herself saluted upon the breast with +an immense snow-ball, which, being of loose construction, adhered to +the red broadcloth cloak of the pedestrian, forming a conspicuous and +remarkable ornament to that garment. + +"Come, stop that, you young limbs, or I'll----," shouted the chivalric +Phineas, hastily gathering, as he spoke, material for a formidable +missile, which, being completed before the sentence, was used by him as +a ready means of rounding his period, being at once more forcible and +easier to come at than the words which most men would have used. + +Besides, Nathaniel, the poorhouse lad, turning round at sound of his +master's voice, presented so fair a mark, with his gaping mouth, that, +half involuntarily, the snow-ball left Mr. Coffin's hand, and the next +instant formed the contents of Nathaniel's open mouth, leaving, +however, a liberal surplusage to ornament his cheeks, chin, and nose. +The recipient of this bulletin choked, spluttered, and pawed at his +face after the manner of a cat who has tried to eat a wasp. + +His rival did not seek to conceal the expression of his triumph and +derision, the consequence of which was, that, as soon as "poor-'us" +could see, he fell upon his antagonist, and both immediately +disappeared from view in the bosom of an enormous drift. + +"Come right along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken +woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering +and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet +extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried +heroes,--"come right along, and don't be scaart of them young uns. +They're dreffal rude, I know; but then boys will be boys." + +The woman returned no answer to this time-honored defence of youthful +enormities, but, hurrying on, reached the door, saying,-- + +"How's your health this morning, Mr. Coffin?" + +"Waal, Ma'am, I'm pooty middlln' well, thank ye," replied Phineas, +slowly, and with an evident effort at recollection; then suddenly +added, with more vivacity,-- + +"Why, it's Widder Janes,--a'n't it? Declare to goodness I didn't know +ye, with yer hood over yer face. Walk in, Miss Janes, and see my +woman,--won't ye?" + +"Waal, I dunno as I can stop," replied the widow, beginning, +nevertheless, to shake the snow from her scanty skirts, and to stamp +her numb feet, which were protected from the biting cold by a pair of +old yarn socks, drawn over the shoes. + +"I was wantin' to see ye, a minit," continued she; "but Miss Coffin +allers keeps cleaned up so slick, I don't hardly darst to come in." + +"Oh, waal," replied Phineas, with a chuckle of satisfaction at the +compliment to his wife. "Ye look nice enough for anybody's folks. Come +right in, this way." + +"I dunno how 'tis," continued the visitor, as she followed her host +through the long entry, "that Miss Coffin can allers be so forehanded +with her work, an' do sich a master sight on't, too. She don't never +seem to be in the suds, Monday nor no time." + +Mr. Coffin had reached the door of the "keeping-room" as the widow +concluded her last remark; but pausing, with his thumb upon the latch, +he turned, and, looking over his shoulder, whispered, with an emphatic +nod,-- + +"Fact is, Miss Janes, there a'n't sich a great many women jest like +Miss Coffin." + +"There a'n't no two ways about that," murmured Miss Janes, assentingly, +as the door was thrown open. + +"Walk right in. Here, Marthy, the widder Janes has called to see you +this morning." + +A quiet, middle-aged woman turned round from the table, where she was +fitting patches to a pair of pauper trousers. Her face was sweet, her +voice low, and, though she was of middle age, every one agreed that +"Miss Coffin was a real pooty woman, an' a harnsome woman too." + +"How does thee do, Keziah Janes? I am glad to see thee. Take a seat by +the fire, and warm thee after thy cold walk." + +"I can't stop a minit; but it's as cheap settin' as stannin', I do +suppose," replied the widow, with a nervous little laugh, as she seated +herself in the proffered chair upon the clean red hearth, and commenced +her business by saying,-- + +"I was wantin' to speak with you, Mr. Coffin, about poor Mr. +Widdrinton." + +"Widdrinton,--who's he?" inquired Phineas. + +"Waal," commenced the widow, settling herself in her chair, and +assuming the air of one who has a story to narrate. "You know I have my +thirds in the house my poor husband left. It wa'n't sold, as it had +ought to ben,--for Samooel (that's _his_ brother) never's ben easy that +I should have the rooms I have; but they're what was set off for me, +an' so he can't help himself; on'y he's allers a-thornin.' when he gits +a chance. + +"But that a'n't nyther here nor there. What I was a-comin' to was this. +Ruther better 'n a year ago, a man come to me and wanted to know ef I +used all my rooms. I told him I hadn't no use for the garrit, 'cept to +dry my yarbs in (for I think yarbs are drefful good in case o' +sickness, Miss Coffin,--don't you?) An' then he said he wanted a place +to sleep in, an' his breakfast an' supper, an' wanted to know if I +would take him so. + +"Waal, I thought about it a spell, an' I concluded I was too old to +mind the speech o' people, and I hadn't no other objection, so I said +he might come,--an' he did, that very day. + +"Waal, at fust he had some kind o' work to do writin', an' he seemed to +git along very comf'table,--at least, fur's I know,--for I was out +tailorin' all day mostly, same as I be now; but last fall the writin' +seemed to gin out all to oncet, an' he begun to kerry off his furnitoor +an' books to sell, an' finally he paid up all he was owin' of me, an' +told me he didn't want no more meals, but would find himself. + +"Waal, I told him, that, seein' things wuz as they wuz with him, I +shouldn't take no rent for the garrit, an' I could dry my yarbs there +jest as well as ef he warn't there; an' he looked kind o' red, and held +his head up a minit, an' then he thanked me, an' said, 'God bless you!' +an' said he'd pay me, ef he got any more work. + +"Waal, he didn't git no more; an' after the furnitoor an' the books, +his cloze begun to go. + +"Then I begun to be afeard he didn't have nothin' to eat, an' oncet in +a while I'd kerry him up a mess o' vittles; but it allers seemed +drefful hard for him to take 'em, an' fin'ly he told me not to do so no +more, an' said suthin' to himself about devourin' widders. So I didn't +darst to go up agin, he looked so kind o' furce an' sharp, till, last +night, I reck'n'd the snow would sift in through the old ruff, an' I +went up to offer him a comf'table for his bed. I knocked; but he didn't +make no answer, so I pushed the door open an' went in. It was a good +while sence I'd seen the inside o' the room,--for when he heerd me +comin' up, he'd open the door a crack an' peek out while he spoke to +me; so when I got inside the room and looked about, I was all took +aback an' gawped round like a fool, an' no wunder nyther; for of all +the good furnitoor and things he'd brought, there wa'n't the fust thing +to be seen, save and 'xcept a kind o' frame covered with cloth stannin' +ag'inst the wall, an' an old straw-bed on the floor, with him on it, +an' a mis'able old comf'table kivered over him." + +"And this bitter weather, too! Oh, Keziah, what did thee do?" asked +Mrs. Coffin, in a tearful voice. + +"Why, I went up to the bedside, (ef you may call it so,) an' said, sez +I, 'Why, Lor' sakes, Mr. Widdrinton,'----an' then I hild up, for I +ketchcd a sight of his face, an' I thought he wuz gone for sartin. He +wuz as cold an' as white as that 'ere snow, an' it warn't till I'd felt +of his heart an' foun' that it beat a little that I thought of sich a +thing as his comin' to. But as soon as I found he'd got a breath o' +life in him, I didn't waste much time till I'd got him wropped up in a +hot blanket with a jug o' water to his feet, an' some hot tea inside on +him. Then he come to a little, an' said he hadn't eat nor drank for two +days an' nights." + +"Oh, Keziah!" sobbed Mrs. Coffin; while her husband, plunging his hands +deep into his breeches-pockets, and elevating his eyebrows till they +were lost in his shaggy hair, exclaimed,-- + +"Good Je-hosaphat!" which was the nearest approach to an oath in which +he ever indulged. + +"An' so," pursued the widow, after enjoying for a moment the +consternation of her audience,--"an' so I thought I had better come an' +see ef he couldn't be took in here; not that I wouldn't do for him, an' +be glad to, fur as I could, but he a'n't in a state to be left alone, +an' you know my trade takes me away consid'able from home,--an' which, +if I don't foller it, why, when I git a little older, I shall have to +come here myself, an' be a burden on your hands an' the town's." + +"We would take good care of thee, if thee did come, Keziah," said Mrs. +Coffin, in whom the habitual equanimity of the "Friend" had conquered +the emotion of the woman. "Though I do not deny that it is pleasanter +and better for thee to support thyself, as thee always has done." + +"I don't doubt you would be good to me, Miss Coffin, an' thank ye, +Ma'am, kindly for a-sayin' of it; but you know innerpendance is sweet +to all on us." + +"Surely, surely, Keziah; and now, Phineas, I suppose thee will see at +once about this poor man, won't thee?" + +"Yes, Marthy, yes. I'll go right off and see one of the selectmen; and +I reckon, by the time you git a bed ready for him, we shall be along." + +Phineas accordingly bustled out of the room; and Mrs. Janes, after +lingering a few moments, took her leave and returned to her charge, +inwardly congratulating herself on having so new and interesting a +piece of intelligence with which to lighten her next day's "tailoring." + +Mrs. Coffin, left alone, stood for a moment considering, and then, +opening a door, called gently,-- + +"Faith!" + +"Yes, mother," replied a voice whose soft tones seemed the echo of her +own. A moment after, a slender, dark-eyed girl, about twenty years of +age, entered the room, and said cheerfully,-- + +"What is it, mother?" + +"I have somewhat to tell thee, Faith." + +And the Quakeress repeated, in calm, unemphatic language, the story +narrated by Mrs. Janes. + +"The poor man will soon be here, Faith," continued she, "and I wanted +to ask what thee thinks should be done with him. Thee knows there is no +room that can have a fire in it, except the one where Polly and Susan +sleep, and they are both too sick to be moved into the cold"-- + +"He shall have my room, mother," said Faith, quietly. + +"Thy room, child?" + +"Yes, mother; and I will sleep here on the couch. I should like it very +much indeed; for you know I never have been able to be quite the +orderly and regular girl you have tried to make me." + +"Thee is a good girl," said the mother, quietly. + +"Not half so good a girl as I ought to be, with so good a mother," +replied Faith, throwing her arms about her mother's neck and kissing +her fondly. + +The elder woman returned the caress with an involuntary warmth, which, +pure and natural though it might be, was yet at variance with the +strict rule of her sect, which had taught her to avoid everything like +compliment or caress, as savoring of the manners of the "world's +people." + +She therefore, after one kiss, gently repelled the girl, saying,-- + +"Nay, Faith, but it sufficeth. Go, then, if thee will, and make ready +thy chamber for this sick man, while I prepare him some broth." + +An hour later, a pung or box-sleigh drew up at the poor-house door, +from which was lifted a long, gaunt figure, carefully enveloped in +blankets and cloaks. As he was taken from the sleigh, he feebly +murmured a few words, to which Phineas Coffin replied kindly,-- + +"Don't be scart,--it's all safe, and Nathaniel will fetch it right in +after us." + +"What! this 'ere?" queried the youth called Nathaniel, while he lifted +from the sleigh, somewhat contemptuously, a long flat something, +carefully enveloped in a cotton case. + +"Yes. Fetch it along this way," replied Phineas; and Nathaniel followed +the chair, in which the sick man was carried, into the pretty little +maiden chamber which Faith had so quietly relinquished to one who she +thought needed it more than herself. + +Mother and daughter stood ready to receive their new charge, and see +him comfortable in the warm, soft bed which they had prepared for him. + +"Thee will soon get rested now, friend, and go to sleep,--won't thee?" +said Mrs. Coffin, in her gentle voice, as she turned down the sheet a +little more evenly. + +"Where is it?" panted the exhausted sufferer, trying to look beyond his +kind nurse into the room. + +"What does thee mean, friend?" + +"It is this thing, mother," said Faith, bringing it forward, and +leaning it against the wall at the foot of the bed. "He brought it with +him," continued she, in a low voice; "and father says, he didn't seem +to care half so much about his own comfort as to have _that_ safe." + +"It is my--property,--all I have--left. I won't be--parted from it. +You--sha'n't take it--away," gasped the sick man, in an excited tone. + +"Thee shall not be parted from it, friend," said Mrs. Coffin, +soothingly. "Surely we would not deprive thee of what is thine own, and +what thee seems to value so much. Now if thee will try to go to sleep, +I will stay with thee the while, and when thee wakes give thee some +broth to strengthen thee." + +"Let--let _her_ stay.--Go away,--the rest of you," whispered the feeble +voice, while the weary eyes rested upon Faith's grave, sweet face. + +"Thee means my daughter? Faith, does thee wish to stay? or had thee +rather I should?" + +"I will stay, mother, if he wishes it." + +"Very well, daughter. When thee is weary, come down, and I, or one of +the women, will take thy place." + +Mrs. Coffin left the room, and Faith, her sewing in her hand, was about +seating herself by the fire, when the voice of the stranger summoned +her to the bedside. + +Turning, she found his hollow and gleaming eyes fixed sternly upon her, +while a long, lean finger was pointed alternately at her and the frame +leaning against the wall. + +"Girl!" + +"Can I do something for you?" asked Faith, kindly. + +"Don't you look at it--or let any one--else, while I'm--asleep." + +"I certainly will not." + +"Promise!" + +"I do promise." + +"Swear!" + +"Nay, friend, that would be wrong," replied the girl, unconsciously +adopting the phraseology of the Quakers, while expressing a sentiment +learned from them; for though Faith had been brought up outwardly in +the creed of her father, she had, without being aware of it, adopted +many of the tenets to which her mother held. + +"I will promise you very solemnly, however," continued she, "that I +will neither look at yonder thing nor allow any one else to do so; and +you will be wrong to doubt my word." + +"I don't.--What is your name?" + +"Faith." + +"A good omen. Mine is--Ichabod." + +"Ichabod Widdrinton?" + +"Ichabod. Call me so,--all of you." + +"Very well, if it is your name, we will. Now you must go to sleep." + +"Sit there,--where I can see you." + +Faith complied with this request, although uncertain whether it was not +prompted by a distrust of her promise. The stranger soon slept, and his +young nurse then made a more attentive survey of his features than she +had yet done. He seemed not over forty years of age, and would, in +health, have been considered a handsome man,--although the fine silky +hair, thin beard, sensitive nostril, and delicate mouth could never +have expressed much of strength or resolution. + +The traces of disease and starvation were painfully apparent; but it +seemed to the thoughtful Faith that behind these she could perceive in +the sorrowful, downward curve of the lips, in the lines of the hollow, +throbbing temples, in the gloomy light of the dark eyes, symptoms of a +long corroding care, which, though secretly, had done its work of +devastation more surely and more ruthlessly than the more apparent +foes. + +"How he must have suffered!" murmured she. It seemed as if the tone of +gentle pity had penetrated the light slumber, and reached the heart of +the sick man,--for, opening his eyes, he smiled upon the girl, a wan, +sad smile, which was at once an assent and a benison. + +From that moment, until the welcome end of that sad life, Ichabod would +patiently endure no tendance but Faith's; and she, with the calm and +silent self-abnegation of her order, (for Florence Nightingale is but a +type, and there are those all about us who lack but her opportunities,) +devoted herself to him. + +Her mother sometimes remonstrated, and begged her to yield her place in +the sick-chamber to her or to one of the pauper women; but Faith, whose +grave sweetness concealed more determination than a stranger would have +guessed, would simply say,-- + +"Dear mother, what is a little fatigue to one as well as I am, compared +with the pleasure of making this poor stranger's death-bed happy and +quiet?--which it certainly would not be, if he was crossed in his fancy +for seeing me about him." And the conscientious mind of the mother was +forced to yield assent to this simple logic. + +A few weeks thus passed, and then the sick man became a dying man. The +pauper inmates of the house were all willing and anxious to watch +beside him through the long nights, but Ichabod received all their +attentions very ungraciously; nor was it till Faith told him, in her +kind, decided way, that she could not stay with him at night, that he +consented to allow the others to do so. + +At last there came the evening when the physician said to Mrs. Coffin, +as he entered the room where she sat with her husband,-- + +"He won't last till morning,--'tis impossible." + +"Then thee had better watch beside him, Phineas. It is not fitting that +Faith should do so." + +"Certain. I'll go right up, and send her down," replied Phineas, +readily. + +But when the arrangements for the night were made known to Ichabod, he +caught hold of Faith's dress, as she stood at his bedside bidding him +good-night, and gasped out,-- + +"No, no!--you!--I must have--you!--I shall die--die to-night!--And--and +I want to tell--to tell you something.--Stay,--stay, Faith!--it's the +last--last time, and I--I shall never trouble any one--any more." + +"Let me stay, mother; father, do!" pleaded Faith, looking from one to +the other. "I should be very unhappy, always, if I was obliged to deny +him this last request. I shall not be afraid, mother; and Betty can +sleep in the chair by the fire, if you wish it, so as to be at hand, if +"---- + +"Well, child, if thee feels a call to do so, and it will make thee +unhappy to be denied, I will hold my peace. But thee must certainly +have Betty here, and promise to send her to call me, if Ichabod should +be worse,--won't thee?" + +Faith gave the required promise, and in a short time the chamber was +prepared for night. The old woman (whose skill in the last awful rites +which man pays to man caused her always to be selected for such +occasions) slept soundly beside the glowing fire, the dying man dozed +uneasily, and Faith, shading the light from his eyes, opened the +large-print Bible, which her mother, careful both for the well-being of +her daughter's immortal soul and temporal eyesight, had recommended for +her night's perusal. + +The hours passed slowly on, unmarked by change, until Faith had counted +three solemn strokes from the old clock in the entry, when the sick man +suddenly awoke. + +As Faith came to his bedside, to offer him the draught for which he +always asked on awakening, she was struck with a change in his face. +The eyes were at once calmer and brighter, the look of uneasy pain had +disappeared, and the thin lips wore almost a smile. + +"Dear Faith," said he, in a gentle voice, which yet was stronger and +more unbroken than any she had heard from him before, "how good you +have been to me! I am dying; but do not call any one yet. I want to +talk to you a little, first. Put another pillow under my head, and +raise me,--so. Now light your other candle, stir the fire to a brighter +blaze, and then uncover--it." + +Faith, pale and quiet, did as she was bid, stirred the fire, till its +ruddy glow brightened every nook of the little white-washed chamber, +and made the old crone beside it wince and mutter in her sleep. Having +shielded her from its fierce light, she then, with trembling fingers, +opened a little penknife which lay upon the table, and cut the twine +with which the cover was sewed at the back. The last stitch severed, +the cloth fell with a solemn rustle at her feet, and disclosed--a +picture. + +Faith examined it with much attention and some curiosity. It was the +full-length figure of a man, dressed in rich robes of office, his +powdered hair put back from his forehead, his left hand resting on the +pommel of his sword, and his right clasping a roll of parchment. The +expression of his face was grave, majestic, and noble; and yet between +those handsome features and the attenuated face of the dying pauper +Faith soon perceived one of those resemblances, strong, yet +indefinable, which are so apparent to some persons, so undiscoverable +by others. + +"A noble gentleman, Faith,--was he not?" said Ichabod, at length. "And +they say his picture does not do him justice. He was an English +gentleman of property and station,--the heir of a good fortune and +honorable name; but he left all to come here and help found this new +country,--this glorious land of freedom and conscience,--where every +man has perfect liberty--to starve in his own fashion. + +"He came and was a great man among them. He built the finest house in +the village of Boston, and then came hither, where they made him +governor and named a bay after him. + +"He went home for a visit to England, and there he had this picture +painted by the court-painter of those days, and brought it back with +him as a present to his wife. + +"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a +very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as +they say in storybooks. + +"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small +portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried. + +"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family +found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the +traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches +of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an +end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the +family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They +met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short +conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name, +alive. + +"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by +uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it +more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the +glory has departed.' + +"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered +their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their +first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and +which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and +despair. + +"The husband soon died. Man breaks, woman bends, beneath the crushing +weight of such a life. My mother lived, a dark and silent woman, till +five years ago. Then she died, too, and I inherited my ancestor's +portrait and the curse of the Withringtons. + +"I tried to work, to earn my bread, as men all about me were doing. But +no,--the fate was upon me, the curse pursued me. Everything failed +which I attempted. I sunk lower and lower, until the name and the +picture, which had been my pride, became a shame and a reproach to me. +I abandoned the one and concealed the other, resolved to reveal neither +until the moment arrived when death should wipe out the squalor of +life, conquer fate, and expiate the curse. + +"Quick, Faith, quick! The hour has come. Take the knife you just +held,--cut the canvas from its frame,--cut it in fragments,--lay it on +the blazing fire. We will perish together,--the First and--the Last." + +"Nay, Ichabod, give it to me," said Faith, shrinking from the proposed +holocaust "I will always keep it, and value it." + +"Would you see me fall dead at your feet, while attempting to do for +myself what you refuse to do for me?" asked the dying man, with +feverish ardor, and half rising, as if to leave his bed. + +"No, no,--I will do it, since it must be so," exclaimed Faith, eagerly. +"Lie down again and watch me." + +Ichabod sunk back upon his pillows, and gazed with eyes of fitful light +upon the girl, while she, opening the keen knife, cut slowly and +laboriously round the margin of the stout canvas, which shrieked +beneath the blade, as if the spirit of the effigy which it bore were +resisting the fearful doom which threatened it. + +At last the canvas was entirely released, and Faith silently held it up +before the eyes of the dying man, upon whose face had come a dull, +leaden blankness, and whose eyes were painful to watch as they +struggled to pierce the film which was gathering over them. + +"Burn," he hoarsely murmured. + +With a sigh, Faith cut the picture into strips, and laid them gently, +reverently, upon the coals heaped in the large fireplace. + +The greedy flames leaped up to grasp their prey, and Faith turned sick +and faint as she watched them fasten upon that noble face, which seemed +to contract and shrivel in its anguish as they seized upon it. + +She gazed a moment, painfully fascinated, then turned toward the +bed,--but as her eyes fell upon Ichabod's face, she started back, and, +rousing the old woman from her slumber, sent to summon her mother. + +Mrs. Coffin came immediately,--but when she entered the little chamber, +the last fragment of the canvas was shrivelling in the flames, the last +sigh of the dying man was parting from his white lips. + +They had perished together,--the First--and the Last. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + +WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW. + + +You will know, perhaps, in the course of half an hour's reading, what +has been haunting my hours of sleep and waking for months. I cannot +tell, of course, whether you are a nervous person or not. If, however, +you are such a person,--if it is late at night,--if all the rest of the +household have gone off to bed,--if the wind is shaking your windows as +if a human hand were rattling the sashes,--if your candle or lamp is +low and will soon burn out,--let me advise you to read the "Critical +Notices" or some other paper contained in this number, if you have not +already devoured them all, and leave this to be read by daylight, with +cheerful voices round, and people near by who would hear you, if you +slid from your chair and came down in a lump on the floor. + +I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did, I am willing to +confess, when I entered the dim chamber. Did I not tell you that I was +sensitive and imaginative, and that I had lain awake with thinking what +were the strange movements and sounds which I heard late at night in my +little neighbor's apartment? It had come to that pass that I was truly +unable to separate what I had really heard from what I had dreamed in +these nightmares to which I have been subject, as before mentioned. So, +when I walked into the room, and Bridget, turning back, closed the door +and left me alone with its tenant, I do believe you could have grated a +nutmeg on my skin, such a "goose-flesh" shiver ran over it. It was not +fear, but what I call nervousness,--unreasoning, but irresistible; as +when, for instance, one looking at the sun going down says, "I will +count fifty before it disappears"; and as he goes on and it becomes +doubtful whether he will reach the number, he gets strangely flurried, +and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and hell as the +issues depending on the completion or non-completion of the fifty he is +counting. Extreme curiosity will excite some people as much as fear, or +what resembles fear, acts on some other less impressible natures. + +I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little +conjurer's room. Or, again, there may be nothing in this poor invalid's +chamber but some old furniture, such as they say came over in the +Mayflower. All this is just what I mean to find out while I am looking +at the Little Gentleman, who has suddenly become my patient. The +simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries; the most +mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace objects in +disguise. + +I wonder whether the boys that live in Roxbury and Dorchester are ever +moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the rocks +and fragments of "puddingstone" abounding in those localities. I have +my suspicions that those boys "heave a stone" or "fire a brick-bat," +composed of the conglomerate just mentioned, without any more tearful +or philosophical contemplations than boys of less favored regions +expend on the same performance. Yet a lump of puddingstone is a thing +to look at, to think about, to study over, to dream upon, to go crazy +with, to beat one's brains out against. Look at that pebble in it. From +what cliff was it broken? On what beach rolled by the waves of what +ocean? How and _when_ imbedded in soft ooze, which itself became stone, +and by-and-by was lifted into bald summits and steep cliffs, such as +you may see on Meetinghouse-Hill any day,--yes, and mark the scratches +on their faces left when, the boulder-carrying glaciers planed the +surface of the continent with such rough tools that the storms have not +worn the marks out of it with all the polishing of ever so many +thousand years? + +Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in spring-time, take from it +any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time. Some +little worm-shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are fastened +to the stick: eggs of a small snail-like shell-fish. One of these +specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an opaque mass +in its centre. And while you are looking, the opaque mass begins to +stir, and by-and-by slowly to turn upon its axis like a forming +planet,--life beginning in the microcosm, as in the great worlds of the +firmament, with the revolution that turns the surface in ceaseless +round to the source of life and light. + +A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their +mysteries, this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified slag, +or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces. Mysteries are common +enough, at any rate, whatever the boys in Roxbury and Dorchester think +of "brickbats" and the spawn of creatures that live in roadside +puddles. + +But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly plain, +when we can get at them so as to turn them over. How many ghosts that +"thick men's blood with cold" prove to be shirts hung out to dry! How +many mermaids have been made out of seals! How many times have +horse-mackerels been taken for the sea-serpent! + +----Let me take the whole matter coolly, while I see what is the matter +with the patient. That is what I say to myself, as I draw a chair to +the bedside.--The bed is an old-fashioned, dark mahogany four-poster. +It was never that which made the noise of something moving. It is too +heavy to be pushed about the room.--The Little Gentleman was sitting, +bolstered up by pillows, with his hands clasped and their united palms +resting on the back of the head,--one of the three or four positions +specially affected by persons whose breathing is difficult from disease +of the heart or other causes. + +Sit down, Sir,--he said,--sit down! I have come to the hill Difficulty, +Sir, and am fighting my way up. His speech was laborious and +interrupted. + +Don't talk,--I said,--except to answer my questions.--And I proceeded +to "prospect" for the marks of some local mischief, which you know is +at the bottom of all these attacks, though we do not always find it. I +suppose I go to work pretty much like other professional folks of my +temperament. Thus:-- + +Wrist, if you please.--I was on his right side, but he presented his +left wrist, crossing it over the other.--I begin to count, holding +watch in left hand. One, two, three, four,----What a handsome +hand!--wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle.--One, two, three, +four, five, six, seven,----Can't see much, it is so dark, except one +white object.--One, two, three, four,----Hang it! eighty or ninety in +the minute, I guess.--Tongue, if you please.--Tongue is put out. Forget +to look at it, or, rather, to take any particular notice of it;--but +what _is_ that white object, with the long arm stretching up as if +pointing to the sky, just as Vesalius and Spigelius and those old +fellows used to put their skeletons? I don't think anything of such +objects, you know; but what should _he_ have it in his chamber for?--As +I had found his pulse irregular and intermittent, I took out a +stethoscope, which is a pocket-spyglass for looking into men's chests +with your ears, and laid it over the place where the heart beats. I +missed the usual beat of the organ.--How is this?--I said,--where is +your heart gone to?--He took the stethoscope and shifted it across to +the right side; there was a displacement of the organ.--I am +ill-packed,--he said;--there was no room for my heart in its place as +it is with other men.--God help him! + +It is hard to draw the line between scientific curiosity and the desire +for the patient's sake to learn all the details of his condition. I +must look at this patient's chest, and thump it and listen to it. For +this is a case of _ectopia cordis_, my boy,--displacement of the heart; +and it isn't every day you get a chance to overhaul such an interesting +malformation. And so I managed to do my duty and satisfy my curiosity +at the same time. The torso was slight and deformed; the right arm +attenuated,--the left full, round, and of perfect symmetry. It had run +away with the life of the other limbs,--a common trick enough of +Nature's, as I told you before. If you see a man with legs withered +from childhood, keep out of the way of his arms, if you have a quarrel +with him. He has the strength of four limbs in two; and if he strikes +you, it is an arm-blow _plus_ a kick administered from the shoulder +instead of the haunch, where it should have started from. + +Still examining him as a patient, I kept my eyes about me to search all +parts of the chamber, and went on with the double process, as +before.--Heart hits as hard as a fist,--_bellows-sound over mitral +valves_ (professional terms you need not attend to).--What the deuce is +that long case for? Got his witch grandmother mummied in it? And three +big mahogany presses,--hey?--A diabolical suspicion came over me which +I had had once before,--that he might be one of our modern +_alchemists_,--you understand,--make gold, you know, or _what looks +like it_, sometimes with the head of a king or queen or of Liberty to +embellish one side of the piece.--Don't I remember hearing him shut a +door and lock it once? What do you think was kept under that lock? +Let's have another look at his hand, to see if there are any calluses. +One can tell a man's business, if it is a handicraft, very often by +just taking a look at his open hand.--Ah! Four calluses at the end of +the fingers of the right hand. None on those of the left. Ah, ha! What +do those mean? + +All this seems longer in the telling, of course, than it was in fact. +While I was making these observations of the objects around me, I was +also forming my opinion as to the kind of case with which I had to +deal. + +There are three wicks, you know, to the lamp of a man's life: brain, +blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out, +followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all +three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the +fluid ceases to supply the other centres of flame, and all is soon +stagnation, cold, and darkness. The "tripod of life" a French +physiologist called these three organs. It is all clear enough which +leg of the tripod is going to break down here. I could tell you exactly +what the difficulty is;--which would be as intelligible and amusing as +a watchmaker's description of a diseased timekeeper to a ploughman. It +is enough to say, that I found just what I expected to, and that I +think this attack is only the prelude of more serious consequences, +--which expression means you very well know what. + +And now the secrets of this life hanging on a thread must surely come +out. If I have made a mystery where there was none, my suspicions will +be shamed, as they have often been before. If there is anything +strange, my visits will clear it up. + +I sat an hour or two by the side of the Little Gentleman's bed, after +giving him some henbane to quiet his brain, and some foxglove, which an +imaginative French professor has called the "Opium of the Heart." Under +their influence he gradually fell into an uneasy, half-waking slumber, +the body fighting hard for every breath, and the mind wandering off in +strange fancies and old recollections, which escaped from his lips in +broken sentences. + +----The last of 'em,--he said,--the last of 'em all,--thank God! And +the grave he lies in will look just as well as if he had been straight. +Dig it deep, old Martin, dig it deep,--and let it be as long as other +folks' graves. And mind you get the sods flat, old man,--flat as ever a +straight-backed young fellow was laid under. And then, with a good tall +slab at the head, and a footstone six foot away from it, it'll look +just as if there was a man underneath. + +A man! Who said he was a man? No more men of that pattern to bear _his_ +name!--Used to be a good-looking set enough.--Where's all the manhood +and womanhood gone to since his great-grand-father was the strongest +man that sailed out of the town of Boston, and poor Leah there the +handsomest woman in Essex, if she was a witch? + +----Give me some light,--he said,--more light,--I want to see the +picture. + +He had started either from a dream or a wandering reverie. I was not +unwilling to have more light in the apartment, and presently had +lighted an astral lamp that stood on a table.--He pointed to a portrait +hanging against the wall.--Look at her,--he said,--look, at her! +Wasn't that a pretty neck to slip a hangman's noose over? + +The portrait was of a young woman, something more than twenty years +old, perhaps. There were few pictures of any merit painted in New +England before the time of Smibert, and I am at a loss to know what +artist--could have taken this half-length, which was evidently from +life. It was somewhat stiff and flat, but the grace of the figure and +the sweetness of the expression reminded me of the angels of the early +Florentine painters. She must have been of some consideration, for she +was dressed in paduasoy and lace with hanging sleeves, and the old +carved frame showed how the picture had been prized by its former +owners. A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was +that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George +Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the +artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I +suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of +young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good +evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I +should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she +had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some +devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers, +with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his +pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight +suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to +leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly +maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses? + +She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I +are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted +me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the +board-fences. They said the doctors would want my skeleton when I was +dead.--You are my friend, if you are a doctor,--a'n't you? + +I just gave him my hand. I had not the heart to speak. I want to lie +still,--he said,--after I am put to bed upon the hill yonder. Can't you +have a great stone laid over me, as they did over the first settlers in +the old burying-ground at Dorchester, so as to keep the wolves from +digging them up? I never slept easy over the sod;--I should like to lie +quiet under it. And besides,--he said, in a kind of scared whisper,--I +don't want to have my bones stared at, as my body has been. I don't +doubt I was a _remarkable case_; but, for God's sake, oh, for God's +sake, don't let 'em make a show of the cage I have been shut up in and +looked through the bars of for so many years! + +I have heard it said that the art of healing makes men hardhearted and +indifferent to human suffering. I am willing to own that there is often +a professional hardness in surgeons, just as there is in +theologians,--only much less in degree than in these last. It does not +commonly improve the sympathies of a man to be in the habit of +thrusting knives into his fellow-creatures and burning them with +red-hot irons, any more than it improves them to hold the +blinding-white cautery of Gehenna by its cool handle and score and +crisp young souls with it until they are scorched into the belief of +--Transubstantiation or the Immaculate Conception. And, to say the +plain truth, I think there are a good many coarse people in both +callings. A delicate nature will not commonly choose a pursuit which +implies the habitual infliction of suffering, so readily as some +gentler office. Yet, while I am writing this paragraph, there passes by +my window, on his daily errand of duty, not seeing me, though I catch a +glimpse of his manly features through the oval glass of his chaise, as +he rides by, a surgeon of skill and standing, so friendly, so modest, +so tender-hearted in all his ways, that, if he had not approved himself +at once adroit and firm, one would have said he was of too kindly a +mould to be the minister of pain, even if it were saving pain. You +may be sure that some men, even among those who have chosen the task of +pruning their fellow-creatures, grow more and more thoughtful and truly +compassionate in the midst of their cruel experience. They become less +nervous, but more sympathetic. They have a truer sensibility for +others' pain, the more they study pain and disease in the light of +science. I have said this without claiming any special growth in +humanity for myself, though I do hope I grow tenderer in my feelings as +I grow older. At any rate, this was not a time in which professional +habits could keep down certain instincts of older date than these. +This poor little man's appeal to my humanity against the supposed +rapacity of Science, which he feared would have her "specimen," if his +ghost should walk restlessly a thousand years, waiting for his bones to +be laid in the dust, touched my heart. But I felt bound to speak +cheerily.--We won't die yet awhile, if we can help it,--I said,--and +I trust we can help it. But don't be afraid; if I live longest, I will +see that your resting-place is kept sacred till the dandelions and +buttercups blow over you. He seemed to have got his wits together by +this time, and to have a vague consciousness that he might have been +saying more than he meant for anybody's ears.--I have been talking a +little wild, Sir, eh?--he said.--There is a great buzzing in my head +with those drops of yours, and I doubt If my tongue has not been a +little looser than I would have it, Sir. But I don't much want to live. +Sir; that's the truth of the matter; and it does rather please me to +think that fifty years from now nobody will know that the place where I +lie doesn't hold as stout and straight a man as the best of 'em that +stretch out as if they were proud of the room they take. You may get me +well, if you can, Sir, if you think it worth while to try; but I tell +you there has been no time for this many a year when the smell of fresh +earth was not sweeter to me than all the flowers that grow out of it. +There's no anodyne like your good clean gravel, Sir. But if you can +keep me about awhile, and it amuses you to try, you may show your skill +upon me, if you like. There is a pleasure or two that I love the +daylight for, and I think the night is not far off, at best.--I believe +I shall sleep now; you may leave me, and come, if you like, in the +morning. Before I passed out, I took one more glance round the +apartment. The beautiful face of the portrait looked at me, as +portraits often do, with a frightful kind of intelligence in its eyes. +The drapery fluttered on the still outstretched arm of the tall object +near the window;--a crack of this was open, no doubt, and some breath +of wind stirred the hanging folds. In my excited state, I seemed to see +something ominous in that arm pointing to the heavens. I thought of the +figures in the Dance of Death at Basle, and that other on the panels of +the covered Bridge at Lucerne; and it seemed to me that the grim mask +who mingles with every crowd and glides over every threshold was +pointing the sick man to his far home, and would soon stretch out his +bony hand and lead him or drag him on the unmeasured journey towards +it. The fancy had possession of me, and I shivered again as when I +first entered the chamber. The picture and the shrouded shape; I saw +only these two objects. They were enough. The house was deadly still, +and the night-wind, blowing through an open window, struck me as from a +field of ice, at the moment I passed into the creaking corridor. As I +turned into the common passage, a white figure, holding a lamp, stood +full before me. I thought at first it was one of those images made to +stand in niches and hold a light in their hands. But the illusion was +momentary, and my eyes speedily recovered from the shock of the bright +flame and snowy drapery to see that the figure was a breathing one. It +was Iris, in one of her statue-trances. She had come down, whether +sleeping or waking, I knew not at first, led by an instinct that told +her she was wanted,--or, possibly, having overheard and interpreted the +sound of our movements,--or, it may be, having learned from the servant +that there was trouble which might ask for a woman's hand. I sometimes +think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they +cannot see or hear, are in suffering. How surely we find them at the +bedside of the dying! How strongly does Nature plead for them, that we +should draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last +upon their faithful breasts! + +With white, bare feet, her hair loosely knotted, dressed as the +starlight knew her, and the morning when she rose from slumber, save +that she had twisted a scarf round her long dress, she stood still as a +stone before me, holding in one hand a lighted coil of wax-taper, and +in the other a silver goblet. I held my own lamp close to her, as if +she had been a figure of marble, and she did not stir. There was no +breach of propriety then, to scare the Poor Relation with and breed +scandal out of. She had been "warned in a dream," doubtless suggested +by her waking knowledge and the sounds which had reached her exalted +sense. There was nothing more natural than that she should have risen +and girdled her waist, and lighted her taper, and found the silver +goblet with "_Ex dono pupillorum_" on it, from which she had taken her +milk and possets through all her childish years, and so gone blindly +out to find her place at the bedside,--a Sister of Charity without the +cap and rosary; nay, unknowing whither her feet were leading her, and +with wide, blank eyes seeing nothing but the vision that beckoned her +along.--Well, I must wake her from her slumber or trance. I called her +name, but she did not heed my voice. + +The Devil put it into my head that I would kiss one handsome young girl +before I died, and now was my chance. She never would know it, and I +should carry the remembrance of it with me into the grave, and a rose +perhaps grow out of my dust, as out of Lord Lovel's, in memory of that +immortal moment! Would it wake her from her trance? and would she see +me in the flush of my stolen triumph, and hate and despise me ever +after? Or should I carry off my trophy undetected, and always from that +time say to myself, when I looked upon her in the glory of youth and +the splendor of beauty, "My lips have touched those roses and made +their sweetness mine forever"? You think my cheek was flushed, perhaps, +and my eyes were glittering with this midnight flash of opportunity. On +the contrary, I believe I was pale, very pale, and I know that I +trembled. Ah, it is the pale passions that are the fiercest,--it is the +violence of the chill that gives the measure of the fever! The +fighting-boy of our school always turned white when he went out to a +pitched battle with the bully of some neighboring village; but we knew +what his bloodless cheeks meant,--the blood was all in his stout +heart,--he was a slight boy, and there was not enough to redden his +face and fill his heart both at once. + +Perhaps it is making a good deal of a slight matter, to tell the +internal conflicts in the heart of a quiet person something more than +juvenile and something less than senile, as to whether he should be +guilty of an impropriety, and, if he were, whether he would get caught +in his indiscretion. And yet the memory of the kiss that Margaret of +Scotland gave to Alain Chartier has lasted four hundred years, and put +it into the head of many an ill-favored poet, whether Victoria or +Eugénie would do as much by him, if she happened to pass him when he +was asleep. And have we ever forgotten that the fresh cheek of the +young John Milton tingled under the lips of some high-born Italian +beauty, who, I believe, did not think to leave her card by the side of +the slumbering youth, but has bequeathed the memory of her pretty deed +to all coming time? The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a +cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer. + +There is one disadvantage which the man of philosophical habits of mind +suffers, as compared with the man of action. While he is taking an +enlarged and rational view of the matter before him, he lets his chance +slip through his fingers. Iris woke up, of her own accord, before I had +made up my mind what I was going to do about it. + +When I remember how charmingly she looked, I don't blame myself at all +for being tempted; but if I had been fool enough to yield to the +impulse, I should certainly have been ashamed to tell of it. She did +not know what to make of it, finding herself there alone, in such +guise, and me staring at her. She looked down at her white robe and +bare feet, and colored,--then at the goblet she held in her hand,--then +at the taper; and at last her thoughts seemed to clear up. + +I know it all,--she said.--He is going to die, and I must go and sit by +him. Nobody will care for him as I shall, and I have nobody else to +care for. + +I assured her that nothing was needed for him that night but rest, and +persuaded her that the excitement of her presence could only do harm. +Let him sleep, and he would very probably awake better in the morning. +There was nothing to be said, for I spoke with authority; and the young +girl glided away with noiseless step and sought her own chamber. + +The tremor passed away from my limbs, and the blood began to burn in my +cheeks. The beautiful image which had so bewitched me faded gradually +from my imagination, and I returned to the still perplexing mysteries +of my little neighbor's chamber. All was still there now. No plaintive +sounds, no monotonous murmurs, no shutting of windows and doors at +strange hours, as if something or somebody were coming in or going out, +or there was something to be hidden in those dark mahogany presses. Is +there an inner apartment that I have not seen? The way in which the +house is built might admit of it. As I thought it over, I at once +imagined a Bluebeard's chamber. Suppose, for instance, that the narrow +bookshelves to the right are really only a masked door, such as we +remember leading to the private study of one of our most distinguished +townsmen, who loved to steal away from his stately library to that +little silent cell. If this were lighted from above, a person or +persons might pass their days there without attracting attention from +the household, and wander where they pleased at night,--to Copp's-Hill +burial-ground, if they liked,--I said to myself, laughing, and pulling +the bed-clothes over my head. There is no logic in superstitious +fancies any more than in dreams. A she-ghost wouldn't want an inner +chamber to herself. A live woman, with a valuable soprano voice, +wouldn't start off at night to sprain her ankles over the old graves of +the North-End cemetery. + +It is all very easy for you, middle-aged reader, sitting over this page +in the broad daylight, to call me by all manner of asinine and anserine +unchristian names, because I had these fancies running through my head. +I don't care much for your abuse. The question is not, what it is +reasonable for a man to think about, but what he actually does think +about, in the dark, and when he is alone, and his whole body seems but +one great nerve of hearing, and he sees the phosphorescent flashes of +his own eyeballs as they turn suddenly in the direction of the last +strange noise,--what he actually does think about, as he lies and +recalls all the wild stories his head is full of, his fancy hinting the +most alarming conjectures to account for the simplest facts about him, +his common-sense laughing them to scorn the next minute, but his mind +still returning to them, under one shape or another, until he gets very +nervous and foolish, and remembers how pleasant it used to be to have +his mother come and tuck him up and go and sit within call, so that she +could hear him at any minute, if he got very much scared and wanted +her. Old babies that we are! + +Daylight will clear up all that lamplight has left doubtful. I longed +for the morning to come, for I was more curious than ever. So, between +my fancies and anticipations, I had but a poor night of it, and came +down tired to the breakfast-table. My visit was not to be made until +after this morning hour;--there was nothing urgent, so the servant was +ordered to tell me. + +It was the first breakfast at which the high chair at the side of Iris +had been unoccupied.--You might jest as well take away that +chair,--said our landlady,--he'll never want it again. He acts like a +man that's struck with death, 'n' I don't believe he'll ever come out +of his chamber till he's laid out and brought down a corpse.--These +good women do put things so plainly! There were two or three words in +her short remark that always sober people, and suggest silence or brief +moral reflections. + +----Life is dreadful uncerting,--said the Poor Relation,--and pulled in +her social tentacles to concentrate her thoughts on this fact of human +history. + +----If there was anything a fellah could do,--said the young man John, +so called,--a fellah'd like the chance o' helpin' a little cripple like +that. He looks as if he couldn't turn over any handier than a turtle +that's laid on his back; and I guess there a'n't many people that know +how to lift better than I do. Ask him if he don't want any watchers. I +don't mind settin' up any more 'n' a cat-owl. I was up all night twice +last month. + +[My private opinion is, that there was no small amount of punch +absorbed on those two occasions, which I think I heard of at the +time;--but the offer is a kind one, and it isn't fair to question how +he would like sitting up without the punch and the company and the +songs and smoking. He means what he says, and it would be a more +considerable achievement for him to sit quietly all night by a sick man +than for a good many other people. I tell you this odd thing: there are +a good many persons, who, through the habit of making other folks +uncomfortable, by finding fault with all their cheerful enjoyments, at +last get up a kind of hostility to comfort in general, even in their +own persons. The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is +hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors. Look at old misers; first +they starve their dependants, and then themselves. So I think it more +for a lively young fellow to be ready to play nurse than for one of +those useful but forlorn martyrs who have taken a spite against +themselves and love to gratify it by fasting and watching.] + +----The time came at last for me to make my visit. I found Iris sitting +by the Little Gentleman's pillow. To my disappointment, the room was +darkened. He did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept +nearly closed. It was good enough for me;--what business had I to be +indulging my curiosity, when I had nothing to do but to exercise such +skill as I possessed for the benefit of my patient? There was not much +to be said or done in such a case; but I spoke as encouragingly as I +could, as I think we are always bound to do. He did not seem to pay any +very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life +and more than her own life were depending on the words I uttered. She +followed me out of the room, when I had got through my visit. + +How long?--she said. + +Uncertain. Anytime; to-day,--next week,--next month,--I answered.--One +of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or +slow. + +The women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. But +Iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and +kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she'd +be killin' herself; if she begun at that rate, and haf to give up, if +she didn't want to be clean beat out in less than a week. + +At the table we were graver than common. The high chair was set back +against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her +nearest neighbor's on the right. But the nest morning, to our great +surprise, that good-looking young Marylander had very quietly moved his +own chair to the vacant place. I thought he was creeping down that way, +but I was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous +parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. There was +no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair, as they sat +side by side. But whatever the young girl may have thought of her new +neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little +friend who had been taken from her side. There are women, and even +girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. One might as well reason with +a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the +construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from +their own way of doing their own work. It was not a question with Iris, +whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of +things to play the part of a nurse. She was a wilful creature that must +have her way in this matter. And it so proved that it called for much +patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the +kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share +in the household where accident had thrown her. She had that genius of +ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked +even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet +footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to +the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep, +or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with. + +Day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she +kept her place by the pillow.--That girl will kill herself over me, +Sir,--said the poor Little Gentleman to me, one day,--she will kill +herself, Sir, if you don't call in all the resources of your art to get +me off as soon as may be. I shall wear her out, Sir, with sitting in +this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you +leave me to the care of Nature without dosing me. + +This was rather queer pleasantly, under the circumstances. But there +are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the +larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to +them as death and death as life.--How am I getting along?--he said, +another morning. He lifted his shrivelled hand, with the death's-head +ring on it, and looked at it with a sad sort of complacency. By this +one movement, which I have seen repeatedly of late, I know that his +thoughts have gone before to another condition, and that he is, as it +were, looking back on the infirmities of the body as accidents of the +past. For, when he was well, one might see him often looking at the +handsome hand with the flaming jewel on one of its fingers. The single +well-shaped limb was the source of that pleasure which in some form or +other Nature almost always grants to her least richly endowed children. +Handsome hair, eyes, complexion, feature, form, hand, foot, pleasant +voice, strength, grace, agility, intelligence,--how few there are that +have not just enough of one at least of these gifts to show them that +the good Mother, busy with her millions of children, has not quite +forgotten them! But now he was thinking of that other state, where, +free from all mortal impediments, the memory of his sorrowful burden +should be only as that of the case he has shed to the insect whose +"deep-damasked wings" beat off the golden dust of the lily-anthers, as +he flutters in the ecstasy of his new life over their full-blown summer +glories. + +No human being can rest for any time in a state of equilibrium, where +the desire to live and that to depart just balance each other. If one +has a house, which he has lived and always means to live in, he pleases +himself with the thought of all the conveniences it offers him, and +thinks little of its wants and imperfections. But once having made up +his mind to move to a better, every incommodity starts out upon him +until the very ground-plan of it seems to have changed in his mind, and +his thoughts and affections, each one of them packing up its little +bundle of circumstances, have quitted their several chambers and nooks +and migrated to the new home, long before its apartments are ready to +receive their bodily tenant. It is so with the body. Most persons have +died before they expire,--died to all earthly longings, so that the +last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already +deserted mansion. The fact of the tranquillity with which the great +majority of dying persons await this locking of those gates of life +through which its airy angels have been going and coming, from the +moment of the first cry, is familiar to those who have been often +called upon to witness the last period of life. Almost always there is +a preparation made by Nature for unearthing a soul, just as on the +smaller scale there is for the removal of a milk-tooth. The roots which +hold human life to earth are absorbed before it is lifted from its +place. Some of the dying are weary and want rest, the idea of which is +almost inseparable in the universal mind from death. Some are in pain, +and want to be rid of it, even though the anodyne be dropped, as in the +legend, from the sword of the Death-Angel. Some are stupid, mercifully +narcotized that they may go to sleep without long tossing about. And +some are strong in faith and hope, so that, as they draw near the next +world, they would fain hurry toward it, as the caravan moves faster +over the sands when the foremost travellers send word along the file +that water is in sight Though each little party that follows in a +foot-track of its own will have it that the water to which others think +they are hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all +ages and for human beings of every creed which recognized a future, +that those who have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert +have dreamed at least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its +murmurs as they lay dying. + +The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the +future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is +extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not +insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness, +on the strength of that odious fore-knowledge often imparted by +science, before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call +_death_, has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness. +There is a singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate +of his own vital force. His physician knows the state of his material +frame well enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less +impaired or disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold +out so much longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while, +though by the logic of disease he ought to die without any delay. + +The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his +remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was +a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various +modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The +landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had +saved somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me +to carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to +the title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more +than twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to +"A Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned +before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and +forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he +said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate. +Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the +late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was +something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was +a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of talents. Could +not always agree with his statements,--thought he was a little +over-partial to this city, and had some free opinions; but was sorry to +lose him,--and if--there was anything--he--could----. In the midst of +these kind expressions, the gentleman with the _diamond_, the +Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked, in a very unpleasant sort of way, +bow the old boy was likely to cut up,--meaning what money our friend +was going to leave behind. + +The young fellow John spoke up, to the effect that this was a diabolish +snobby question, when a man was dying and not dead.--To this the +Koh-i-noor replied, by asking if the other meant to insult +him.--Whereto the young man John rejoined that he had no particul'r +intentions one way or t'other.--The Koh-i-noor then suggested the young +man's stepping out into the yard, that he, the speaker, might "slap his +chops,"--Let 'em alone,--said young Maryland,--it'll soon be over, and +they won't hurt each other much.--So they went out. + +The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one +quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man +down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such +encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to +knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do +happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be +angry, and get up and give you a thrashing. + +So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the +yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm +round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble +art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having +completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side +of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens +that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as +much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter +than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary +was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against +his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone, +judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat +backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little, +the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered +between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to +grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with +that vegetable. It was a signal illustration of that fatal mistake, so +frequent in young and ardent natures with inconspicuous calves and +negative pectorals, that they can settle most little quarrels on the +spot by "knocking the man down." + +We are in the habit of handling our faces so carefully, that a heavy +blow, taking effect on that portion of the surface, produces a most +unpleasant surprise, which is accompanied with odd sensations, as of +seeing sparks, and a kind of electrical or ozone-like odor, +half-sulphurous in character, and which has given rise to a very vulgar +and profane threat sometimes heard from the lips of bullies. A person +not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this +surprise. The Koh-i-noor, exasperated by his failure, and still a +little confused by the smart hit he had received, but furious, and +confident of victory over a young fellow a good deal lighter than +himself, made a desperate rush to bear down all before him and finish +the contest at once. That is the way all angry greenhorns and +incompetent persons attempt to settle matters. It doesn't do, if the +other fellow is only cool, moderately quick, and has a very little +science. It didn't do this time; for, as the assailant rushed in with +his arms flying everywhere, like the vans of a windmill, he ran a +prominent feature of his face against a fist which was travelling in +the other direction, and immediately after struck the knuckles of the +young man's other fist a severe blow with the part of his person known +as the _epigastrium_ to one branch of science and the _bread-basket_ to +another. This second round closed the battle. The Koh-i-noor had got +enough, which in such cases is more than as good as a feast. The young +fellow asked him if he was satisfied, and held out his hand. But the +other sulked, and muttered something about revenge.--Jest as y' +like,--said the young man John.--Clap a slice o' raw beefsteak on to +that mouse o' yours 'n' 't'll take down the swellin'. (_Mouse_ is a +technical term for a bluish, oblong, rounded elevation occasioned by +running one's forehead or eyebrow against another's knuckles.) The +young fellow was particularly pleased that he had had an opportunity of +trying his proficiency in the art of self-defence without the gloves. +The Koh-i-noor did not favor us with his company for a day or two, +being confined to his chamber, _it was said_, by a _slight feverish +attack_. He was chop-fallen always after this, and got negligent in his +person. The impression must have been a deep one; for it was observed, +that, when he came down again, his moustache and whiskers had turned +visibly white--_about the roots_. In short, it disgraced him, and +rendered still more conspicuous a tendency to drinking, of which he had +been for some time suspected. This, and the disgust which a young lady +naturally feels at hearing that her lover has been "licked by a fellah +not half his size," induced the landlady's daughter to take that +decided step which produced a change in the programme of her career I +may hereafter allude to. + +I never thought he would come to good, when I heard him attempting to +sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man +begins to attack the State-House, when he gets bitter about the +Frog-Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. Poor Edgar +Poe died in the hospital soon after he got into this way of talking; +and so sure as you find an unfortunate fellow reduced to this pass, you +had better begin praying for him, and stop lending him money, for he is +on his last legs. Remember poor Edgar! He is dead and gone; but the +State-House has its cupola fresh-gilded, and the Frog-Pond has got a +fountain that squirts up a hundred feet into the air and glorifies that +humble sheet with a fine display of provincial rainbows. + +--I cannot fulfil my promise in this number. I expected to gratify your +curiosity, if you have become at all interested in these puzzles, +doubts, fancies, whims, or whatever you choose to call them, of mine. +Next month you shall hear all about it. + +--It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As I paused at +the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the +wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:--no, this was the voice +of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in +her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them. + + + + +HYMN OF TRUST. + + +O Love Divine, that stooped to share + Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear, +On Thee we cast each earthborn care, + We smile at pain while Thou art near! + +Though long the weary way we tread, + And sorrow crown each lingering year, +No path we shun, no darkness dread, + Our hearts still whispering, Thou art near! + +When drooping pleasure turns to grief, + And trembling faith is changed to fear, +The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf + Shall softly tell us, Thou art near! + +On Thee we fling our burdening woe, + O Love Divine, forever dear, +Content to suffer, while we know, + Living and dying, Thou art near! + + + * * * * * + +ART. + +PICTURES AT SEVILLE AND MADRID. + + +_Seville, January, 1859_. + +I do not know whether I ought not to take you to the Museo on so bright +a morning, although I should like better to stroll with you on the +Paseo by the pretty river across which I look to the faintly seen hills +of Ronda, with the rich palm-trees in the foreground, and a great stone +pine in the middle distance, which would recall to us the Campagna and +Italy. Many people have said to me, "You cannot judge of Murillo till +you see him at Seville,"--they, of course, having been at Seville. This +is so far true, that his best picture is undoubtedly in the Cathedral +here; but in all other ways, Murillo is perfectly to be seen in other +cities. _You_ know, therefore, just what the pictures and the Museo +have to say to you. They speak of a most clever artist, who evidently +consulted Nature conscientiously, and who perceived and understood very +often many phases of her grace and beauty. The most masterly of his +fifteen or twenty pictures in the gallery is the one of Saint Thomas of +Villanueva giving Alms to the Poor; and it is, certainly, charmingly +arranged, with great breadth of effect and clever drawing,--on a cool +scale of color throughout. The Saint is in a black robe, relieved +against a light background of gray wall. The beggar who is receiving +alms is capitally understood, and carries the light broadly through the +picture. A charming little boy leans against his mother in the +left-hand corner, in half shadow, and shows her the coin in his hand. A +few other heads fill up the right-hand of the picture behind the Saint. +A red drapery, of a dull color, and a touch of brown-red here and +there, warm the agreeable grayness of the rest of the canvas. I like +much, also, a "Conception," in many respects like the usual picture +which Murillo repeated so often; but the Virgin in this one is +represented as very young,--about twelve or fourteen years old,--and +the whole effect is most silvery and delicate. + +But the Saint Antonio in the Cathedral is, I should say, his great +picture. It is very simple, and full of feeling. The Saint, half +kneeling, stretches forward to the vision of the Christ-Child, which +descends in a glory of cherubim toward him. The great mass of light +falls directly upon the kneeling figure and the upturned face, and +throws strong shadows on the ground. One is reminded, in some of the +angel-figures, of the brilliant light and shadow on the little flying +cherubs in the "Assumption," at Venice. Here all is silvery, where in +Titian all burns with the glory of a Venetian sunset. But this picture +of Murillo seems to me what one must call an eminently "happy" picture. +It gives one the idea that the painter enjoyed painting it, for the +expressive movement of the Saint is most admirably given, and the +extreme simplicity of every part of the picture is most agreeable; so +that we are ready to give great praise to Murillo for what he did, and +to say that he was earnest and tried to represent what he really felt. +And when we say that, we say a great deal; do we not? But we cannot, +for a moment, compare him to the great Venetians. He did not attempt +what they did, because he did not feel it at all; and, as a painter, he +is not comparable to them. One sees that he executed with rapidity and +a sort of dash, as it were. The Venetian concealed his execution, as +Nature does, and attempted to render the most subtile things which he +knew his art alone _could_ give, in their full force and beauty. As a +painter, therefore, he cannot be compared with men who wrought from so +different a principle. And when we think of the lovely elevation and +noble thought in the great Venetians, we must quietly rest grateful for +those great blessings,--grateful and happy that they exist, and that +we, in some measure at least, understand and appreciate their meaning. +Is it not delightful to think of them and know them in their precious +old corners and over their dear old altars? + + +_Madrid, March, 1859_. + + +You see that we have at last left Andalusia, and are here in what is +like a bit of Paris,--shops, dress, carriages, and now and then the +smell of asphalt pavement being renewed. Still, mantillas are the +coverings for the female head, and peasants in costumes drive mules and +donkeys through the crowds in the busy streets, and one is still in +Spain. We came, you know, for the gallery, and the first glimpse of it +showed us that we have enough to do to see that, during our proposed +stay of a month. I must tell you just a few things about the pictures, +and give you a peep at Madrid through my eyes, since you are not here +to use your own. + +Murillo is here the same as everywhere else. I very much prefer his +pictures in Seville. Velasquez, however, is to be really seen nowhere +so well as here. I do not know how many pictures there are here by him, +but a great quantity, it seems to me: Philips without number, in +childhood, youth, and age; Dons with curled moustaches; Queens with +large hoops and disfigured heads; an actor, full of life and character, +one of his very best. But his greatest picture, and really a wonder, is +his portrait of himself painting the little Infanta, who is in the +foreground of the picture with two young girls, her court ladies, her +dwarf, and a diminutive page. It is quite like a photograph, in clear, +broad effect of light and dark. From the other side of the room, full +of truth and vigor,--as you approach it, you find it is dashed in with +a surety of touch and a breadth truly extraordinary,--no details, no +substance even; painted with one huge brush, it would almost seem, all +is vigorous, dashing, clever, the triumph of _chic_, as shown by a +master hand. The dog in the immediate foreground is capital, the page +pushing him playfully with his foot. The dwarf stands next, full of a +sort of quaint truth, with her big head and heavy chin. The mass of +light falls on the Infanta, who takes a cup of something, chocolate, I +suppose, from one of the kneeling girls, while the other makes a +reverence on the other side. Beyond are a nun and a _guarda-damas_, and +in the mirror at the other end of the room are most cleverly indicated +the portraits of Philip and his wife. Velasquez stands on the left of +the picture, behind the Infanta, painting, with his canvas turned back +toward us as we look into the room. The black figure of an attendant +has passed out of the apartment and is going up a stair against a clear +white wall. The skilful way in which you are led into the picture is +astonishing, and the whole thing is quite by itself as a piece of +painting. There is no attempt at anything subtile or even delicate in +the treatment, speaking from the point of view of a result achieved by +paint on canvas,--no texture, no difference of handling, no imitation; +all is _paint_, admirably put on, for the effect across the room. I +think we must set Velasquez quite by himself as a truthful and surely +most gifted portrait-master. With a peculiar gift,--genius, I think we +might say,--certainly he is like no one else, and nobody else is like +him. Then there is his equestrian portrait of Philip IV., of which you +may remember the sketch in the Pitti Gallery,--also one of the Duke of +Olivarez, fresh, dashing, and spirited. But I prefer the portrait of +--some actor, I am sure,--full of character, against a gray wall +background,--one of those faces one is sure one has seen somewhere in +Spain, and he is declaiming evidently with the most capital action.--So +much for Velasquez. + +But I hardly dare attempt to tell you of the glory of the great Titian, +who seems almost newly revealed, in many _perfect_ works. Nothing can +equal the superb style of a portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara; it is like +nothing but Nature,--a splendid, dark, manly face and figure, standing +and looking thoughtfully at you, or rather, beyond you, caressing in an +absent way a little silky dog who puts his paw up to attract his +master's notice. The glowing flesh, the superbly painted dress of deep +blue with fine arabesques of gold,--the delicate hand lying on the +soft, silky hair of the dog, with its turquoise ring on the second +joint of one of the fingers,--you can imagine it, can you not? Next him +stands Philip II., pale, elegant, and repulsive, in gorgeous armor worn +over festal, glittering white satin. Charles V. is on the other side; +and I hardly know which of these portraits is the finest as a work of +Art, for all are _perfect_. Charles is standing, with a noble dog +leaning up against his hand; there is something _simpática_ in his gray +eyes, his worn face, and even in his protruding jaw, it is so admirably +rendered, and gives such a firm character to the face. His costume is +_elegantísimo_, white satin and gold,--with a tissue-of-gold doublet, +and a cassock of silver-damask, with great black fur collar and lining, +against which is relieved the under-dress; he wears his velvet cap and +plume, and a deep emerald satin curtain hangs on his right hand. These +portraits are just about as wonderful as any you may remember,--in his +best style and in capital condition. But I know you would say that the +great portrait of Charles on horseback is more grand. It is a sort of +heroic poem; he looks like Sir Galahad, or Chivalry itself, going forth +to conquer wrong and violence. His eager, worn face looks out from the +helmet so calmly and so steadily, the flash of his armor, which gleams +like real metal, the coal-black horse, which comes forward out of the +landscape shaking his head-piece of blood-red plumes against the golden +sunset sky and champing the golden bit, the grasp of the lance by the +noble rider: well, painting can do no more than that. It is history, +poetry, and the beauty of Nature recreated by the grand master. An +entirely different phase of his character is seen in his Ariadne Asleep +surrounded by the Bacchanals. This is full of antique Grecian feeling; +and such a subtile, delicious piece of painting! Ariadne is in the +foreground, full of warm, breathing life, her arm thrown over her +lovely head, and her golden hair falling over the vase of gold and onyx +on which she rests; a river of red wine runs through the emerald grass; +two beautiful girls have just put by their music and instruments, and +one turns her exquisite face toward us to speak to the other reclining +on the grass. The one who turns to us is the beauty of the Louvre, or +some one very like her, in full Venetian loveliness. In her bosom are +one or two violets and a paper with _Titianus_ written on it. The bit +of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the +middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying +great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny +hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam +on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity. +It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking +on the green among flowers and fruits. A figure full of action and +passion holds up a glass to the statue of the goddess in one corner. +The children are kissing each other and carrying about baskets of +fruit; these baskets are hung with rich pearls and rubies and gems of +all kinds. The green, fresh trees wave against a summer sky, and the +work is full of tender, sensitive elegance and love. It shows to me an +entirely new side of Titian in its extreme delicacy and sweetness. +Nobody can ever speak of a "want of refinement" in Titian, if they +thought so before, after seeing these pictures. Then there is the +Herodias, the same as the girl in Dresden who holds up the +casket,--wonderfully delicate and beautiful; and several other +portraits and pictures, which I cannot tell you of, even if you are not +already tired. I ought, however, to say that Paul Veronese has a very +fine Venus and Adonis here, full of sunlight and summer beauty, and +Christ Teaching the Doctors, nobly serious in character and admirable +in treatment; also two sketches of Cain and of Vice and Virtue, very +full of feeling for his subject. The Cain has his back toward you. His +wife and child look up at him entreatingly. There is a fine, solemn +horizon with a gleam of twilight. There are several Tintorets, but no +favorable specimens,--a portrait is the best. There is also a Giovanni +Bellini, which brings back the Venetian altar-pieces, quiet and lovely; +and a Giorgione, like the large one in the Louvre, in many ways; a +Madonna and Infant, with a fine female Saint and a noble Saint George. + +These are some of the glorious treasures which the Spaniards own. If we +could only have some of these! or if, while we or our country are +committing the sin of coveting the Spanish possessions, we would only +covet something worth the having! I confess, I should delight to take +away one or two fine jewels of pictures that nobody here would miss. + +I had almost forgotten to mention the great Raphael, the "Spasimo." It +is in his Roman style, with much that is, to me, forced in the action +and expression. The head of Christ, however, is beautiful, and +exquisitely drawn. Beside the Spasimo, there is a little picture of the +Virgin and Child, with Saint Joseph, in Raphael's early manner, very +lovely, and reminding one of the "Staffa" Madonna, at Perugia. It is +faint in color, and most charming in careful execution. + +Then there are the finest Hemmlings I have ever seen,--finer than those +at Munich: lovely Madonnas, meek and saintly; superb adoring Kings, all +glowing with cloth-of-gold and velvets and splendid jewels; beautiful +quiet landscapes, seen through the arches of the stable; and angels, +with wings of dazzling green and crimson. The real love with which +these wonderful pictures are caressed by the careful, thoughtful artist +makes them most precious. Every little flower is delicately and +artistically done, and everything is invested with a sort of sacred +reverence by this earnest Pre-Raphaelite. One or two Van Eycks have the +same splendor and depth of feeling. These pictures look as if they were +painted yesterday, so clear and brilliant are their colors. + +It is a pleasant circumstance, that some of the great Venetian pictures +in the gallery here were gained for Spain by the judgment and taste of +Velasquez. When he went to Italy with a commission from Philip IV., +which it must have delighted him to execute, "to buy whatever pictures +were for sale that he thought worth purchasing," he spent some time in +Venice, and there bought, among other things, the Venus and Adonis of +Paul Veronese, and several of the works of Tintoretto. The Titians had +come to Spain before, and it was from the study of them, perhaps, that +Velasquez learned to paint so well. At any rate, we know what he +thought of Titian; for Mr. Sterling gives an extract from a poem by a +Venetian, Marco Boschini, which was published not long after +Velasquez's journey to Italy, in which part of a conversation is given +between him and Salvator Rosa, who asked him what he thought of +Raphael. You will like to see it, if you have not Sterling by you. + +"Lu storse el cao cirimoniosamente, +E disse: 'Rafael (a dirve el vero, +Piasendome esser libero e sinciero) +Stago per dir che nol me piase niente.' + +"'Tanto che,' replichè quela persona, +'Co' no ve piase questo gran Pitor, +In Italia nissun ve dà in l' umor, +Perche nu ghe donemo la corona.' + +"Don Diego replichè con tal maniera: +'A Venetia se trova el bon e 'l belo; +Mi dago el primo luogo a quel penelo; +Tician xè quel che porta la bandiera.'" + +Here is a translation:-- + +The master, with a ceremonious air, +Bowed, and then said, "Raphael, truth to tell, +For to be free and honest suits me well, +Pleases me not at all, I must declare." + +"Since, then," replied the other, "you so frown +On this great painter, in Italy is none +By whom, indeed, your favor can be won; +For upon him we all bestow the crown." + +Don Diego thereupon to him replies, +"At Venice may be found the good and fair; +I give the first place to the pencil there; +Titian is he who carries off the prize." + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +1. _Dictionary of Americanisms_. A Glossary of Words and Phrases +usually regarded as peculiar to the United States. By JOHN RUSSELL +BARTLETT. Second Edition, greatly improved and enlarged. Boston: +Little, Brown, & Company, 1859. pp. xxxii., 524. + +2. _A Glossarial Index to the Printed English Literature of the +Thirteenth Century_. By HERBERT COLERIDGE. London: Trübner & Company. +1859. pp. iv., 104. + +3. _Outlines of the History of the English Language_, for the Use of +the Junior Classes in Colleges and the Higher Classes in Schools. By +GEORGE L. CRAIK, Professor of History and of English Literature in +Queen's College, Belfast. Third Edition, revised and improved. London: +Chapman & Hall. 1859. pp. xii., 148. + +4. _The Vulgar Tongue_. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases, +used in London from 1839 to 1859; Flash Songs, Essays on Flash, and a +Bibliography of Canting and Slang Literature. By DUCANGE ANGLICUS. +Second Edition, improved and much enlarged. London: Bernard Quaritch. +1859. pp. 80. + +5. _A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words_, etc., etc. +By a London Antiquary. London: John Camden Holten. 1859. pp. lxxxviii., +160. + +6. _On the English Language, Past and Present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX +TRENCH, D.D. New Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Blakeman & +Mason. 1859. pp. 238. + +7. _A Select Glossary of English Words used formerly in Senses +different from their present_. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. New +York: Redfield. 1859. pp. xi., 218. + +8. _Rambles among Words; their Poetry, History, Wisdom_. By WILLIAM +SWINTON. New York. Scribner. 1859. pp. 302. + + +The first allusion we know of to an Americanism is that of Gill, in +1621,--"_Sed et ab Americanis nonnulla mutuamur, ut_ MAIZ _et_ KANOA." +Since then, English literature, not without many previous wry faces, +has adopted or taken back many words from this side of the water. The +more the matter is looked into, the more it appears that we have no +peculiar dialect of our own, and that men here, as elsewhere, have +modified language or invented phrases to suit their needs. When Dante +wrote his "De Vulgari Eloquio," he reckoned nearly a thousand distinct +dialects in the Italian peninsula, and, after more than five hundred +years, it is said that by far the greater part survive. In England, +eighty years ago, the county of every member of Parliament was to be +known by his speech; but in "both Englands," as they used to be called, +the tendency is toward uniformity. + +In spite of the mingling of races and languages in the United States, +the speech of the people is more uniform than that of any European +nation. This would inevitably follow from our system of common-schools, +and the universal reading of newspapers. This has tended to make the +common language of talk more bookish, and has thus reacted unfavorably +on our literature, giving it sometimes the air of being composed in a +dead tongue rather than written from a living one. It gladdens us, we +confess, to see how goodly a volume of _Americanisms_ Mr. Bartlett has +been enabled to gather, for it shows that our language is alive. It is +only from the roots that a language can be refreshed; a dialect that is +taught grows more and more pedantic, and becomes at last as unfit a +vehicle for living thought as monkish Latin. This is the danger which +our literature has to guard against from the universal Schoolmaster, +who wars upon home-bred phrases, and enslaves the mind and memory of +his victims, as far as may be, to the best models of English +composition,--that is to say, to the writers whose style is faultlessly +correct, but has no blood in it. No language, after it has faded into +_diction_, none that cannot suck up feeding juices from the +mother-earth of a rich common-folk-talk, can bring forth a sound and +lusty book. True vigor of expression does not pass from page to page, +but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the lips are +limbered by downright living interests and by passions in the very +throe. Language is the soil of thought; and our own especially is a +rich leaf-mould, the slow growth of ages, the shed foliage of feeling, +fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth-change, that the +vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself anew with living +green. There is death in the Dictionary; and where language is limited +by convention, the ground for expression to grow in is straitened also, +and we get a _potted_ literature, Chinese dwarfs instead of healthy +trees. + +We are thankful to Mr. Bartlett for the onslaught he makes in his +Introduction upon the _highfaluting_ style so common among us. But we +are rather amused to find him falling so easily into that _Anglo-Saxon_ +trap which is the common pitfall of those half-learned men among whom +we should be slow to rank him.[A] He says, "The _unfortunate tendency_ +to _favor_ the Latin at the _expense_ of the Saxon _element_ of our +_language_, which _social_ and _educational causes_ have long _tended_ +to foster in the mother _country_, has with us _received_ an +_additional_ _impulse_ from the great _admixture_ of _foreigners_ in +our _population_." (p. xxxii.) We have underscored the words of Latin +origin, and find that they include _all_ the nouns, all the adjectives +but two, and three out of five verbs,--one of these last (the auxiliary +_have_) being the same in both Latin and Saxon. Speaking of the +Bostonians, Mr. Bartlett says, "The great _extent_ to which the +_scholars_ of New England have carried the _study_ of the _German +language_ and _literature_ for some years back, _added_ to the _very +general neglect_ of the old _master-pieces_ of English _composition_, +have [has] had the _effect_ of giving to the writings of many of them +an _artificial, unidiomatic character_, which has an _inexpressibly +unpleasant effect_ to those who are not _habituated_ to it." (p. xxv. +We again underscore the un-Saxon words.) Now if there be any short cut +to the Anglo-Saxon, it is through the German; and how far the +Bostonians deserve the reproach of a neglect of old English +masterpieces we do not pretend to say, but the first modern reprint of +the best works of Latimer, More, Sidney, Fuller, Selden, Browne, and +Feltham was made in Boston, under the care of the late Dr. Alexander +Young. We have no wish to defend Boston; we mean only to call Mr. +Bartlett's attention to the folly of asking people to write in a +dialect which no longer exists. No man can write off-hand a page of +Saxon English; no man with pains can write one and hope to be commonly +understood. At least let Mr. Bartlett practise what he preaches. When a +deputation of wig-makers waited on George III. to protest against the +hair-powder-tax, the mob, seeing that one of them wore his own hair, +ducked him forthwith in Tower-Ditch,--a very Anglo-Saxon comment on his +inconsistency. We should not have noticed these passages in Mr. +Bartlett's Introduction, had he not, after eleven years' time to weigh +them in, let them remain as they stood in his former edition, of 1848. + +In other respects the volume before us greatly betters its forerunner. +That contained many words which were rather vulgarisms than +provincialisms, and more properly English than American. Almost all +these Mr. Bartlett has left out in revising his book. Once or twice, +however, he has retained as Americanisms phrases which are proverbial, +such as "born in the woods to be scared of an owl," "to carry the foot +in the hand," and "hallooing before you're out of the woods." But it +will be easier to follow the alphabetical order in our short list of +_adversaria_ and comments. + +ALEWIFE. We doubt if Mr. Bartlett is right in deriving this from a +supposed Indian word _aloof_. At least, Hakluyt speaks of a fish called +"old-wives"; and in some other old book of travels we have seen the +name derived from the likeness of the fish, with its good, round belly, +to the mistress of an alehouse. + +BANK-BILL. Is not an Americanism. It is used by Swift, Pope, and +Fielding. + +BOGUS. Mr. Bartlett quotes a derivation of this word from the name of a +certain _Borghese_, said to have been a notorious counterfeiter of +bank-notes. But is it not more probably a corruption of _bagasse_, +which, as applied to the pressed sugarcane, means simply something +worthless? The word originally meant a worthless woman, whence our +"baggage" in the same sense. + +[Footnote A: This, perhaps, was to be expected; for he calls Dr. +Latham's _English Language_ "unquestionably the most valuable work on +English philology and grammar--which has yet appeared," (p. xxx., +note,) and refers to the first edition of 1841. If Mr. Bartlett must +allude at all to Dr. Latham, (who is reckoned a great blunderer among +English philologers,) he should at least have referred to the second +edition of his work, in two volumes, 1855.] + +CHAINED-LIGHTNING. More commonly chain-lightning, and certainly not a +Western phrase exclusively. + +CHEBACCO-BOAT. Mr. Bartlett says, "This word is doubtless a corruption +of _Chedabucto_, the name of a bay in Nova Scotia, from which vessels +are fitted out for fishing." This is going a great way down East for +what could be found nearer. _Chebacco_ is (or was, a century since) the +name of a part of Ipswich, Massachusetts. + +TO FALL a tree Mr. Bartlett considers a corruption of to _fell_. But, +as we have commonly heard the words used, to _fell_ means merely to cut +down, while to fall means to make it fall in a given direction. + +TO GO UNDER. "To perish. An expression adopted from the figurative +language of the Indians by the Western trappers and residents of the +prairies." Not the first time that the Indians have had undue credit +for poetry. The phrase is undoubtedly a translation of the German +_untergehen_ (fig.), to perish. + +HAT. "Our Northern women have almost discarded the word _bonnet_, +except in _sun-bonnet_, and use the term _hat_ instead. A like fate has +befallen the word _gown_, for which both they and their Southern +sisters commonly use _frock_ or _dress_." We do not know where Mr. +Bartlett draws his Northern line; but in Massachusetts we never heard +the word _hat_ or _frock_ used in this sense. They are so used in +England, and _hat_ is certainly, _frock_ probably, nearer Anglo-Saxon +than _bonnet_ and _gown_. + +IMPROVE. Mr. Bartlett quotes Dr. Franklin as saying in 1789, "When I +left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among +us, as far as I know, but in the sense of _ameliorated_ or _made +better_, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled +_Remarkable Providences_." Dr. Increase Mather's _Providences_ was +published in 1684. In 1679 a synod assembled at Boston, and the result +of its labors was published in the same year by John Foster, under the +title, _Necessity of a Reformation_. On the sixth page we find, +"Taverns being for the entertainment of strangers, which, if they were +_improved_ to that end only," etc. Oddly enough, our copy of this tract +has Dr. Mather's autograph on the title-page. But Mr. Bartlett should +have referred to Richardson, who shows that the word had been in use +long before with the same meaning. + +To INHEAVEN. "A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists." And +Mr. Bartlett quotes from Judd's _Margaret_. Mr. Judd was a good +scholar, and the word is legitimately compounded, like _ensphere_ and +_imparadise_; but he did not invent it. Dante uses the word:-- + + "Perfetta vita ed alto merto _inciela_ + Donna piú su." + +LADIES' TRESSES. "The popular name, in the Southern States, for an +herb," etc. In the Northern States also. Sometimes _Ladies' Traces_. + +LIEFER. "A colloquialism, also used in England." Excellent Anglo-Saxon, +and used wherever English is spoken. + +LOAFER. We think there can be no doubt that this word is German. +_Laufen_ in some parts of Germany is pronounced _lofen_, and we once +heard a German student say to his friend, _Ich lauf'_ (lofe) _hier bis +du wiederkehrst_: and he began accordingly to saunter up and down,--in +short, to _loaf_ about. + +TO MULL. "To soften, to dispirit." Mr. Bartlett quotes +_Margaret_,--"There has been a pretty considerable _mullin_ going on +among the doctors." But _mullin_ here means stirring, bustling in an +underhand way, and is a metaphor derived from _mulling wine_. _Mull_, +in this sense, is probably a corruption of _mell_, from Old Fr. +_mesler_, to mix. + +TO BE NOWHERE (in the sense of failure) is not an Americanism, but +_Turf_-Slang. + +SALLY-LUN, a kind of cake, is English. + +TO SAVE, meaning to kill game so as to get it, is not confined to the +Far West, but is common to hunters in all parts of the country. + +SHEW, for _showed_. Mr. Bartlett calls this the "shibboleth of +Bostonians." However this may be, it is simply an archaism, not a +vulgarism. _Show_, like _blow, crow, grow,_ seems formerly to have had +what is called a strong preterite. _Shew_ is used by Lord Cromwell and +Hector Boece. + +SLASHES. "Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. Southern and +Western." Used also in New York. + +SPAN of horses is Dutch (High or Low). + +TO WALK SPANISH; to "walk" a boy out of any place by the waistband of +his trousers, or by any lower part easily prehensible. N.E. This is, +perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary. + +TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self." +It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital +metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock,--like the +Italian _pavoneggiarsi_. We find in the _Tatler_ "spreading her graces +in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from _étaler_. + +STRAW BAIL. "Worthless bail, bail given by 'men of straw.'" This is +surely no Americanism, and we have seen its origin very differently +explained, namely, that men willing for a fee to become bail walked in +the neighborhood of the courts with straws stuck in their +shoes,--though Mr. Bartlett's explanation is ingenious. + +SUNFISH. Mr. Bartlett thinks this a corruption; but the resemblance of +the fish, as seen in the water, to the ordinary portraits of the sun in +almanacs and on tavern-signs seems to us enough to account for the +name. + +A few phrases occur to us that have escaped Mr. Bartlett. + +A CARRY: portage. _Passim_. + +CAT-NAP: a short doze. New England. + +CHOWDER-HEAD: muddle-brain. New England. + +COHEES (accent on the last syllable): term applied to the people of +certain settlements in Western Pennsylvania, from their use of the +archaic form, _Quo' he_. + +TO COTTON TO. + +DON' KNOW AS I KNOW: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to +acknowledging ignorance. + +GANDER-PARTY: a social gathering of men only. New England. + +LAP-TEA: where the guests are too many to sit at table. Massachusetts. + +LAST OF PEA-TIME: day after fair. + +LOSE-LAID (loose-laid): weaver's term, and probably English; means +weak-willed. Massachusetts. + +MOONGLADE: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water. +Massachusetts. + +OFF-OX: an unmanageable fellow. New England. + +OLD DRIVER: } euphemistic for the +OLD SPLIT-FOOT: } Devil. + +ONHITCH (unhitch): to pull trigger. + +ROTE: sound of the surf before a storm. Used also in England. New +England. + +SEEM: I can't _seem_ to see, for I can't see. She couldn't _seem_ to be +suited, for couldn't be suited. + +STATE-HOUSE. This seems an Americanism. Did we invent it, or borrow it +from the _Stad-huys_ (town-hall) of New Amsterdam? As an instance of +the tendency to uniformity in American usage, we notice that in +Massachusetts what has always been the _State-House_ is beginning to be +called the _Capitol_. We are sorry for it. + +STRIKE: } terms of the game of STRING: } nine-pins. + +SWALE: a hollow. New England. English also; see Forby. + +TORMENTED: euphemistic, as "not a _tormented_ cent." New England. + +WELL-SWEEP. + +We have gone through Mr. Bartlett's book with the attention which a +work so well done deserves, and are thoroughly impressed with the +amount of care and labor to which it bears witness. We have quarrelled +with it wherever we could, because it cannot fail to become the +standard authority in its department. Its value will increase from year +to year. For instance, the Spanish words, in which it is especially +rich, are doomed to undergo strange metamorphoses on Anglo-Saxon lips; +for it is the instinct of the unlearned to naturalize words as fast as +possible, and to compel them to homebred shapes and sounds. There is +often an unwitting humor in these perversions,[A] and they are always +interesting as showing that it is the nature of man to use words with +understanding, however appearances might lead us to an opposite +conclusion. + +[Footnote A: We remember once hearing a man say of something, that it +was written in a "very grand delinquent [grandiloquent] style,"--a +phrase certainly not without modern application. We have heard also +Angola-Saxons and Angular-Saxons,--the latter, at least, not an unhappy +perversion.] + +The least satisfactory part of Mr. Bartlett's book is the Appendix, in +which he has got together a few proverbs and similes, which, it seems +to us, do no kind of justice to the humor and invention of the people. +Most of them have no characteristic at all, except coarseness. We hope +there is nothing peculiarly American in such examples as these:--"Evil +actions, like crushed rotten eggs, stink in the nostrils of all"; and +"Vice is a skunk that smells awfully rank when stirred up by the pole +of misfortune." These have, beside, an artificial air, and are quite +too long-skirted for working proverbs, in which language always "takes +off its coat to it," if we may use a proverbial phrase, left out by Mr. +Bartlett. We confess, we looked for something racier and of a more +_puckery_ flavor. One hears such now and then, mostly from the +West,--like "Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog"; "I take my +tea _bar-foot_," the answer of a backwoodsman, when asked if he would +have cream and sugar. Some are unmistakably Eastern; as, "All deacons +are good,--but there's odds in deacons"; "He's a whole team and the dog +under the wagon"; "That's first-rate and a half"; "Handy as a pocket in +a shirt" (ironical). Almost every county has some good die sinker in +language, who mints phrases that pass into the currency of a whole +neighborhood. We picked up two such the other day, both of the same +coinage. The county-jail (the only stone building where all the +dwellings were of wood) was described as "the house whose underpinning +comes up to the eaves"; while the place unmentionable to ears polite +was "where they don't rake up the fires at night." A man, speaking to +us once of a very rocky clearing, said, "Stone's got a pretty heavy +mortgage on that farm"; and another, wishing to give us a notion of the +thievishness common in a certain village, capped his climax +thus:--"Dishonest! why, they have to take in their stone walls o' +nights." Any one who has driven over a mountain-stream by one of those +bridges made of _slabs_ will feel the force of a term we once heard +applied to a parson so shaky in character that no dependence could be +placed on him,--"A slab-bridged kind o' feller!" During some very cold +weather, a few years ago, we picked a notable saying or two. "The fire +don't seem to git no kind o' _purchase_ on the cold." "They say Cap'n +M'Clure's gone through the Northwest Passage." "Has? Think likely, and +left the door open, too!" Elder Knapp, the once noted itinerant +preacher, had a kind of unwashed poetry in him. We heard him say +once,--"Do you want to know when a Unitarian" (we think it was) "will +get into heaven? When hell's froze over, and he can skate in!" We quote +merely for illustration, and do not mean to compare the Elder with +Taylor or South. + +The element of exaggeration has often been remarked on as typical of +American humor. In Dr. Petri's "Compact Handbook of Foreign Words,"[A] +(from which Mr. Bartlett will be surprised to learn that _Hoco-pocos_ +is a nickname for the Whig party in the United States,) we are told that +the word _humbug_ "is commonly used for the exaggerations of the +North-Americans." One would think the dream of Columbus half-fulfilled, +and that Europe had found in the West the near way to Orientalism, at +least of diction. But it seems to us that a great deal of what is set +down as mere exaggeration is more fitly to be called intensity and +picturesqueness, symptoms of the imaginative faculty in full health and +strength, though producing, as yet, only the raw material.[B] +By-and-by, perhaps, the world will see it worked up into poem and +picture, and Europe, which will be hard-pushed for originality ere +long, may thank us for a new sensation. The French continue to find +Shakspeare exaggerated, because he treated English just as our folk do +when they speak of "a steep price," or say that they "freeze to" a +thing. The first postulate of an original literature is, that a people +use their language as if they owned it. Even Burns contrived to write +very poor English. Vulgarisms are often only poetry in the egg. The +late Horace Mann, in one of his Addresses, commented at some length on +the beauty of the French phrase _s'orienter_, and called on his young +hearers to practise it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience +whose problem had not always been to find out what was "_about east_" +and shape his course accordingly. The Germans have a striking proverb; +_Was die Gans gedacht, das der Schwan vollbracht_; What the goose but +thought, that the swan fullbrought; or, to de-Saxonize it a little, +_pace_ Mr. Bartlett, What the goose conceived, that the swan +achieved;--and we cannot help thinking, that the life, invention, and +vigor shown in our popular speech, and the freedom with which it is +shaped to the need of those who wield it, are of the best omen for our +having a swan at last. + +[Footnote A: _Gedrängtes Handbuch der Fremdwörter_, etc., etc., +Leipzig, 1852.] + +[Footnote B: Take, for instance, the "negro so black that charcoal made +a chalk-mark on him," or the "shingle painted to look so like stone +that it sank in water,"--itself overpersuaded by the skill of the +painter. We overheard the following dialogue last winter. +(Thermometer,--12°.) "Cold, this morning."--"That's _so_. Hear what +happened to Joe?"--"No, I didn't."--"Well, the doctors had ben givin' +him one thing another with merc'ry in't, and he walked out down to the +Post-Office and back, and when he come home he kind o' felt somethin' +hard in his boots. Come to pull 'em off, they found a lump o' +quicksilver in both on 'em."--"Sho!"--"Fact; it had shrunk clean down +through him with the cold." This rapid power of dramatizing a dry fact, +of putting it into flesh and blood, and the instantaneous conception of +Joe as a human thermometer, seem to us more like the poetical faculty +than anything else. It is, at any rate, humor, and not mere quickness +of wit,--the deeper, and not the shallower quality. Humor tends always +to overplus of expression; wit is mathematically precise. Captain Basil +Hall denied that our people had humor; but did he possess it himself? +for, if not, he would never find it. Did he always feel the point of +what was said to himself? We doubt, because we happen to know a chance +he once had given him in vain. The Captain was walking up and down the +_piazza_ of a country tavern while the couch changed horses. A +thunderstorm was going on, and, with that pleasant European air of +indirect self-compliment in condescending to American merit, which is +so conciliating, he said to a countryman lounging near, "Pretty heavy +thunder, you have here." The other, who had taken his measure at a +glance, drawled gravely, "Waal, we _du_, considerin' the number of +inhabitants."] + +Even persons not otherwise interested in the study of provincialisms +will find Mr. Bartlett's book an entertaining one. The passages he +quotes in illustration are sometimes strangely comic. Here is one: "To +SAVE. To make sure, i.e., to kill game, or an enemy, whether man or +beast. _To get_ conveys the same meaning.... The notorious Judge W---- +of Texas ... once said in a speech at a barbecue, (after his political +opponent had been apologizing for taking a man's life in a duel,)-- + +"'The gentleman need not make such a fuss about _getting_ such a +rascal; everybody knows that I have shot three, and two of them I +_saved_.'" + +We have but one fault to find with Mr. Bartlett's Dictionary, and that +it shares with all other provincial glossaries. No accents are given. +No stranger could tell, for example, whether _hacmatack_ should be +pronounced hac'matack, hacma'tack, or hacmatack'. The value of Mr. +Wright's otherwise excellent dictionary is very much impaired by this +neglect. Ignorance of the pronunciation enhances tenfold the difficulty +of tracing analogies or detecting corruptions. The title of Mr. +Coleridge's volume (the second on our list) is enough to give scholars +a notion of its worth. It is the first instalment of the proposed +comprehensive English Dictionary of the Philological Society, a work +which, when finished, will be beyond measure precious to all students +of their mother-tongue. At the end of the volume will be found the Plan +of the Society, with minute directions for all those who wish to give +their help. Cooperation on this side the water will be gladly welcomed. + +Of Dean Trench's two volumes, one is new, and the other a revised +edition. No one has done more than he to popularize the study of words, +which is only another name for the study of thought. His new book has +the same agreeable qualities which marked its forerunners, maintaining +an easy conversational level of scholarly gossip and reflection, the +middle ground between learning and information for the million. Without +great philological attainments, and without any pretence of such, he +gives the results of much good reading. + +Mr. Craik's book is a compact and handy manual. + +The SLANG Dictionaries are both as ill-done as possible, and the author +of the smaller one deserves to be put under the pump for taking the +name of the illustrious Ducange, one of those megatheria of erudition +and industry that we should look on as an extinct species, but for such +men as the brothers Grimm. The larger book has the merit of including a +bibliography of the subject, for which the author deserves our thanks, +though in other respects showing no least qualification for the task he +has undertaken. We trust there are not many "London Antiquaries" so +ignorant as he. One curious fact we glean from his volume, namely, the +currency among the London populace of certain Italian words, chiefly +for the smaller pieces of money. What a strident invasion of +organ-grinders does this seem to indicate! The author gives them thus: +"Oney saltec, a penny; Dooe saltee, twopence; Tray saltee, threepence," +etc., and adds, "These numerals, as will be seen, are of mongrel +origin,--the French, perhaps, predominating."! He must be the gentleman +who, during the Exhibition of 1851, wrote on his door, "No French +spoken here." _Dooe saltee_ and _tray saltee_ differ little but in +spelling from their Italian originals, _due soldi_ and _tre soldi_. On +another page we find _molto cattivo_ transmogrified into "_multee +kertever_, very had." Very bad, indeed! For one more good thing beside +the Bibliography, we are indebted to the "London Antiquary." In his +Introduction he has reprinted the earliest list of _cant_ words in the +language, that made by Thomas Harman in Elizabeth's time. We wish we +could only feel sure of the accuracy of the reprint. In this list we +find already the adjective _rum_ meaning _good, fine_,--a word that has +crept into general use among the lower classes in London, without ever +gaining promotion. The fate of new words in this respect is curious. +Often, if they are convenient, or have knack of lodging easily in the +memory, they work slowly upward. The Scotch word _flunky_ is a case in +point. Our first knowledge of it in print is from Fergusson's Poems. +Burns advertised it more widely, and Carlyle seems fairly to have +transplanted it into the English of the day. As we believe its origin +is still obscure, we venture on a guess at it. French allies brought +some words into Scotland that have rooted themselves, like the +Edinburgh _gardyloo_. _Flunky_ is defined in Fergusson's glossary as "a +better kind of servant." This is an exact definition of the Scotch +_hench-man_, the most probable original of which is _haunch-man_ or +body-guard. Turn haunch-man into French and you get _flanquier_; +corrupt it back into Scotch and you have _flunky_. Whatever liberties +we take with French words, the Gauls have their revenge when they take +possession of an English one. We once saw an Avis of the police in +Paris, regulating _les chiens et les boule dogues_, dogs and bull-dogs. + +Vocabularies of vulgarisms are of interest for the archaisms both of +language and pronunciation which we find in them. The dictionaries say +_coverlet_, as if the word were a diminutive; the rustic persists in +the termination _lid_, which points to the French _lit_, bed. On the +other hand, he still says _hankercher_, having been taught so by his +betters, though they have taken up the final _f_ again. Sewel, in the +Introduction to his Dutch Dictionary, 1691, gives _henketsjer_, and +Voltaire, forty years later, _hankercher_, as the received +pronunciation. Sewel tells us also that the significant _l_ was still +sounded in _would_ and _should_, as it still is by the peasantry in +many parts of England. + +Mr. Swinton's book, the last on our list, is an entertaining one, and +gives proof of thought, though sometimes smothered in fine writing. It +is written altogether too loosely for a work on philology, one of the +exactest of sciences. But we have a graver fault to find with Mr. +Swinton, and that is for his neglect to give credit where he is +indebted. He seems even desirous to conceal his obligations. The +general acknowledgment of his Preface is by no means enough, where the +debt is so large. The great merit of Dr. Richardson's Dictionary being +the number of illustrative passages he has brought together, it is +hardly fair in Mr. Swinton so often to make a show of learning with +what he has got at second hand from the lexicographer. Dr. Trench could +also make large reclamations, and several others. There is beside an +unpleasant assumption of superiority in the book. An author who says +that _paganus_ means village, who makes _ocula_ the plural of _oculus_, +and who supposes that _in petto_ means _in little_, is not qualified to +settle Dr. Webster's claims as a philologer, much less to treat him +with contempt. The first two blunders we have cited may be slips of the +pen or the press, but this cannot be true of the many wrong etymologies +into which Mr. Swinton has fallen. We hope that in another edition he +will correct these faults, for he shows a power to appreciate ideas +which is worth more than mere scholarship, vastly more than the +reputation of it among the unscholarly. + +_A History and Description of New England, General and Local._ By A. J. +COOLIDGE and J. B. MANSFIELD. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. In +Two Volumes. Vol. I. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin +J. Coolidge, 1859. pp. xxv., 1023. + +This is a book of great labor, being nothing less in plan than a +condensed town-history of New England. In spite of all efforts to the +contrary, one is forced to admit that there is very little poetry in +American history. It is a record of advances in material prosperity, +and scarce anything more. The only lumps of pure ore are the _Idea_ +which the Pilgrims were possessed with and its gradual incarnation in +events and institutions. Beyond this all is barren. There is a fearful +destitution of the picturesque elements. It is true that our local +historians commonly avoid all romance as if it were of the Enemy; but +if we compare their labors with "The Beauties of England and Wales," +for example, the work certainly of uninspired men, we shall be +convinced that the American Dryasdust suffers from poverty of material. +There is no need to remind us of Hawthorne; but he is such a genius as +is rare everywhere, and could conjure poetry out of a country +meeting-house. + +In books of this kind we see evidence of what is called the +"enterprise" of our people on every page,--one almost hears the hum of +the factory-wheels, as he reads,--but that is all. It is not to be +wondered at that foreigners fail to find our country interesting, and +that the only good book of American travels is that of De Tocqueville, +who deals chiefly with abstract ideas. It is possible to conceive minds +so constituted that they may reach before long the end of their +interest in the number of shoes, yards of cotton, and the like, which +we produce in a year. The only immortal Greek shoemaker is he who had +the good luck to be snubbed by Apelles, and Penelope is the only +manufacturer in antiquity whose name has come down to us. + +One thing in the narrative part of this volume is striking,--the +continual recurrence of massacre by the French and Indians. This is +something to be borne in mind always by those who would understand the +politics of our New England ancestors. We confess that we were +surprised, the other day, to see a journal so able and generally so +philosophical as the London "Saturday Review" joining in the outcry +about the treatment of the Acadians. If our forefathers were ever wise +and foreseeing, if they ever showed a capacity for large political +views, it is proved by their early perception that the first question +to be settled on this continent was, whether its destiny should be +shaped by English or Keltic, by Romish or Protestant ideas. By what +means they attempted to realize their thought is quite another +question. Great events are not settled by sentimentalists, nor history +written in milk-and-water. Uninteresting in many ways the Puritans +doubtless were, but not in the least _spoony_. + +The volume before us contains a vast amount of matter and fulfils +honestly what it promises. It tells all that is to be told in the way +of fact and statistics. The first settlers, the clergymen, the +enterprising citizens, the men of mark,--all their names and dates are +to be found here. Of the literary execution of the book we cannot speak +highly. The style is of the worst. If a meeting-house is spoken of, it +is a "church edifice"; if the Indians set a house on fire, they "apply +the torch"; if a man takes to drink, he is seduced by "the intoxicating +cup"; even mountains are "located." On page 68, we read that "the +pent-up rage that had long heaved the savage bosom, and which had only +been _smouldering under the pacific policy of Shurt_, now knew no +bounds, and burst forth like the fiery torrent of the volcano"; on the +same page, "the impending doom which, like a storm-cloud in the +heavens, had overhung with its sable drapery the settlements along the +coast, _and Pemaquid in particular._" Of a certain tavern we are told +that the daughters of the landlord were "genteel, sprightly, +intelligent young ladies, ambitious of display and of setting a rich +and elegant table." This is no doubt true, but surely History should +sift her tacts with a coarser sieve. + +In spite of these faults, the book is one which all New Englanders will +find interesting, and we hope that in their second volume the authors +will balance their commendable profusion of industry with a +corresponding economy of fine writing. + +_An Oration, delivered before the Municipal Authorities of the City of +Boston, July_ 4, 1850. By GEORGE SUMNER, etc, etc, Boston. 1859. pp. +125. + +The opposition in the Common Council to the order (usual on such +occasions in Boston) to print the oration of Mr. Sumner, and the series +of assaults it has encountered front the administration press, have +given it a considerable, though secondary, importance. Intrinsically a +performance of great merit, those on whom the weight of his arguments +and learning fell disclosed their sense of its power by the anger of +their debate and their efforts to repel it. + +Its value, as containing a fresh and instructive contribution to the +knowledge of our Revolutionary history, derived from original sources +of inquiry, explored by Mr. Sumner in person, would alone have rescued +from neglect any ordinary Fourth-of-July oration. + +The services and aids of Spain, material and moral, pecuniary and +diplomatic, to the American Revolutionary cause,--the introduction, +through the fortunes of Captain John Lee of Marblehead, of the American +question into the policy and polities of Spain,--the effect of the +arrival of our National Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, on the +fate of that gallant New England cruiser, then detained as a pirate, +for his heroic exploits under our infant and unknown flag,--the +incidents of vast and varied labor and accomplishment in our behalf, +connected with the name and administration of the eminent Spanish +minister and statesman, Florida Blanca,--the weaving and spreading out +of that network of influences and circumstances, in the toils of which +France and Spain entangled Great Britain, until she found herself +confronted by much of the physical and all the moral power of the +Continent, and from which all extrication was made hopeless, until the +American Colonies should be free,--the origin of "the armed +neutrality," and the shock it gave to the naval power of England, in +the very crisis of the hopes of American liberty,--are presented in a +narrative, clear, condensed, and original. + +From the aspect of peace and freedom in which our country so happily +reposes, going on prospering and increasing, "by confidence in +democratic principles, by faith in the people, and by the spirit of +mutual forbearance and charity," the orator turns to that Europe to +which our fathers there looked for succor, now "echoing to the clang of +arms, and hostile legions arrayed for combat." + +A tribute to Italy, for the gifts, poured out from her treasures of +art, science, medical skill, and political knowledge, of literature and +philosophy, to all the uses and adornments of human life, introduces a +reference to the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages, which are shown +to have been based on these great principles:--That all authority over +the people emanates from the people,--should return to them at stated +intervals,--and that its holders should be accountable to the people +for its use. "To those Republics," it is added, "we also owe the +practical demonstration of the great truth, that no state can long +prosper or exist where intelligent labor is not held in honor, and that +labor cannot be honorable where it is not free." + +Mr. Sumner's defence of democratic republican ideas,--of the fitness of +the European peoples for self-government,--his repulse of those +unbelieving theorists who would consign the French and the Italians to +the eternal doom of oppression,--are manly, powerful, and unanswerable. +His hearty love of genuine democratic principles, as taught by the old +republican school of statesmen and philosophers, and his zealous pride +of country, which always made him one of the most intensely American, +in thought, word, and deed, of all the Americans who have ever +sojourned in the Old World, shine forth from every page of the Oration. +And in the honest ardor of his defence of the natural and political +rights of man, as they were taught by Turgot, by Montesquieu, by +Jefferson, not content with declamation or rhetoric, he ploughs deep +into the reasoning by which they were demonstrated or defended, and +ranges wide over the fields of learning by which they were illustrated. +Careful for nothing but for the truth itself, he refutes the errors of +a French writer who had charged practical ingratitude on the part of +America towards de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of +France to these Colonies, and arraigns and exposes the historical +mistakes of Lord Brougham and of President Fillmore, unfavorable to +Republican France and to Continental liberty. + +The crimes of Austria are shown to have been made possible by the moral +support Austria has received from the government of England. The fruits +of the reverses suffered by Hungary, and by other nationalities +struggling for independence and popular liberty, are exhibited in the +sacrifices since endured by England in the war in the Crimea, and in +the embarrassments of the present hour. + +Among our own duties and responsibilities to the great and world-wide +cause of liberty,--discussed thus far in its relations to Europe,--Mr. +Sumner proceeds to present the grand duty we owe, not less to ourselves +than to Europe, of giving to the struggling nations an example of +government true to the memories of our National Anniversary, and to the +fundamental ideas of civil freedom "implied in an independent, but +rigidly responsible judiciary, and a complete separation of the +legislative and judicial functions." + +From Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Marshall, and Story,--to say nothing +of English and French jurists,--Mr. Sumner brings authority to define +and illustrate the true place of the judicial office in the political +system of a free government. And here, fidelity to those principles of +liberty he had explained and defended, fidelity to the "good old cause" +itself, at home and in the grand forum of the nations, demanded and +received the frank avowal, that "a recent scene in the Supreme Court of +the United States has shown that Jefferson was no false prophet, and +has furnished at the same time a serious warning to all who prefer a +government based upon law to either despotism or anarchy." + +The clear and sharp, merciless and logical veracity with which he +discriminates between the solemn judgment of a tribunal and a stump +speech from the bench,--the startling narration of decisions and +statutes, practice and precedent, condensed into a few of the closing +pages of the Oration, with which the discussion read by Chief Justice +Taney in the famous case of Dred Scott is confronted and exposed,--are +among the greater merits of this elaborate and able discourse. It must +have required of one not in the arena of political strife, who for a +large part of his manhood has occupied himself abroad in the studies of +an intelligent scholar and a patriotic American, somewhat of +self-denial, to throw away the certainty of almost universal cheers for +his performance, by incurring the displeasure of some of his audience +and many of his countrymen. + +It was not, however, in the interest of any opinion of African slavery +that the case of Scott was here referred to. It was in the interest of +republican liberty everywhere, endangered by all departures in the +model republic of the world from fundamental principles of good +government, and all the more perilled in proportion to the station, +quality, and character of the active offender. + +And Mr. Sumner was right. The truth of history, the law of this land, +and of all lands where there is any law which marks a boundary +between legal right and despotic usurpation, unite to denounce, +and will forever condemn, the judicial magistrate whose great name is +tarnished and whose "great office" is degraded by this political +_pronunciamento_, uttered from the loftiest judicial place in America. + +Stripped of verbiage and technicalities, the case is within the +humblest comprehension. The chief justice and a majority of his +associates held that Dred Scott, who sued his master for his freedom in +the Federal court, had been already legally declared to be the slave of +that same master by the highest court of the State of Missouri, in +which State Scott resided at the time. They held that this decision of +the Missouri court was binding on all other tribunals; and that the +Federal court had no authority to reverse it, even if wrong. + +The _merits_ of the cause then before the court were thus conclusively +disposed of, whether the decision be regarded as bearing on the main +issue between the parties, or on the plea in abatement filed by the +defendant, avowing that Scott was not a _citizen_ of Missouri,--an +averment, if true, fatal to his standing in the Federal court,--since +its jurisdiction of the cause depended on the citizenship of the +litigants. In a word, if he was a _slave_, he was no _citizen_, If he +was the slave of Sanford, his doom was fixed, his dream of rights +dissolved. If the decision of the Missouri court was finally binding, +the functions of the Federal tribunal were at an end. + +What, then, was the pertinency of going on to argue the effect of the +Ordinance of 1787 over Scott while a resident in Illinois, or of the +Missouri Compromise on him during his residence in Wisconsin, or the +effect of his color, race, or ancestral disabilities upon a cause +controlled finally and beyond appeal by the authority of a decision +already made and recorded? + +Mr. Buchanan made hot haste to use this _pronunciamento_ of his chief +justice, issued only a few hours after his inauguration as President, +and withheld until after the election of 1856 had taken place. He +proclaimed--on its authority as a judicial exposition of a point of +constitutional law--the existence of slavery in the Territory of +Kansas. And he endeavored to make it efficient and powerful by +practical application in the administration of the government of the +Territory, and by interpolating these bastard dogmas, dropped from the +Federal bench, into the creed of the political party of which he was +the official chief. + +These _dicta_ of Mr. Chief Justice Taney made Dred Scott neither more +nor less a _slave_, neither more nor less a _citizen_, than he had been +without their utterance. But they aided the purpose of subjugating +Kansas, of opening all American territory to slavery, of Africanizing +the continent by reopening the slave-trade, of breaking down barriers +which State legislation has interposed against the introduction of +slaves, and of putting the propagandists of slavery in full possession +of every power. + +We gladly record our sense of the skill, learning, and intrepidity with +which Mr. Sumner fulfilled his task of presenting, defining, and +defending, within the brief limits of a single oration, the cause of +Liberty,--Liberty,--American, European, universal. + + + * * * * * + +_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan & +Co. 8vo. pp. 381. + +The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a +trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may +follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has +been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its +present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or +the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of +which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized +society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means +of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty +in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in +the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so +revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's +experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one +productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class +that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so +indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this +kind which could be studied and talked about. Dumas _fils_' "Dame aux +Camelias" is a great melodramatic story; but it is so exceptional in +its incidents and episodical in its character, that its heroine is +quite worthless as a specimen for examination and analysis; and it is, +beside, so very French as to be almost valueless in this regard, for +that reason alone. What it would be well to have written is the story +of an abandoned woman, told simply and without any reserve, except that +of decency, and purely from a woman's point of view. But, except by a +woman, and at the cost of the experience to be recounted, this is +manifestly possible only to genius. The author of "Out of the Depths" +has not attained the _desideratum_; but has yet approached so near it, +that we fear the right man, or, possibly, woman, may be deterred from +the attempt to do better. If so, there is a good subject--good for the +making of a grand psychological, physiological, and dramatic +study--lost. + +The subject of this professed autobiography, Mary Smith, is the +daughter of a gardener on a large English estate. Her family is much +noticed and favored by the ladies of the mansion, and she, who is +handsome and intellectual, soon acquires tastes and an education above +her position; and as she is vain and selfish and of a voluptuous +temperament, the consequence seems inevitable. Her first fault, +however, is committed with her betrothed husband, a young gentleman, +destined for the Church, by whose sudden death, at a time when his life +was more than ever essential to her happiness, she is left an outcast, +a creature to be spurned from the door of those upon whose tender care +Nature and themselves had given her unextinguishable claims. She finds +shelter and kind treatment with two girls who belong, though not +ostensibly, to the class into which she is about to fall, and soon she +appears as the mistress of a foolish young nobleman, for whom she has +not the least affection. At last he wearies of and parts with her, and +she finds a second companion and protector in an eminent barrister, who +takes pleasure in cultivating her literary tastes. Her unfaithfulness +to him results in a separation, and she passes into the hands of a +third keeper, who abandons her on occasion of his approaching marriage. +Infuriated at his desertion, she intrudes upon him at a social party at +his private chambers, and behaves so outrageously that she is handed +over to the police, and her name appears in public as that of an +infamous and disorderly woman. From this point she rapidly descends to +the lowest rank of her unfortunate class. On her way, a strong hand is +put out to save her. It is that of a gigantic young clergyman, who +allows her to think that she has decoyed him to her room, but who +really goes there to endeavor to turn her from her course of life. She +scorns his exhortations, and attempts to browbeat him; but she finds +him ready for a row upon the spot. He offers to fight her crowd of +bullies singlehanded, and when she locks the door upon him, twists the +lock off, hasp and all, with a turn of his wrist. Although they +part,--he none the worse, she none the better, for the interview,--it +is not without fruits; for he leaves her his address, and when, after +being reduced to the lowest depths of degradation and brought to the +last endurable pinch of suffering, she determines, at the death-bed of +a repentant companion, to reform at any cost, and does set her face +upward, and is beaten back and trodden under foot by the righteously +uncharitable of her own sex, she thinks of her big clergyman, seeks him +out, and by his instrumentality is taken into the country, and made the +mistress of a school in his parish. Here the friends of her youth find +her, forgive her, and cherish her; and she receives a proposal of +marriage from an estimable and wealthy farmer, who persists in his +suit, even after she has told him of her former life, and after the +small-pox, caught on a ministration of mercy, has harrowed all the +beauty from her face. But rapid consumption supervenes, and relieves +the author from the embarrassing position into which he had brought +himself. + +This is all the story that Mary Smith has to tell; and it will be seen, +that, so far as the incidents are concerned, it is commonplace enough. +It is not distinguished by one novel incident, or one fresh character, +except, perhaps, the muscular divine. Even in the grouping and +narration of its old incidents it exhibits no dramatic power, and +little skill of characterization in the portraiture of its personages. +And not only does a matter-of-fact air pervade the narrative, but the +tale is told with such reticence of fact as well as of feeling, that it +reveals but little of the real life of a London courtesan, and leaves +the reader almost as ignorant as he was when he took up the book of +what it is that makes the horror of such existence; all of which might +have been imparted without any violation of the decorum proper to such +a book, and which, therefore, should not have been withheld. The book, +too, is much too goody-goody. There is too much preaching throughout +it, and in certain parts a suddenness in the kneeling down to pray that +is quite startling. This stupid sort of goodness helps much to defeat +the purpose of the work. Even the strong minister, although his is not +the old-fashioned way, seems to have more beef on his bones than brains +in his head, or he would not answer to a desperate exclamation of Mary +Smith,--"Don't say that. God only knows what is best for us all; even +you, and all like you, may begin to live for the good of society, +without being its bane." This is very true,--as true as Justice +Shallow's original observation, that "we must all die." But the idea of +attempting to impress a degraded woman of the town by telling her that +she, and all like her, might be brought to live _for the good of +society!_ + +But in spite of these faults, the book has one great merit, which is +not too common; it seems to be the truthful story of a real life. This +impression is partly the result of a peculiarity of style which is very +difficult to express otherwise than by saying that the use of language +seems to indicate that the writer is of the condition of life in which +Mary Smith professes to have been born, and has acquired a knowledge of +language and literature in the manner in which she relates that she +acquired hers. There is no vulgarity, but a certain air of constrained +propriety, and an absence of any elegance, or grace, or indications of +a slow and unconsciously acquired acquaintance with the phraseology of +cultivated society. If this be really assumed, the author has exhibited +a delicate refinement in the art of writing not surpassed in any work +of imagination known to us. Another ground for the seeming actuality of +the story, to those who have any knowledge of the class to which its +heroine belongs, is the cause to which she attributes her fall. This +was not seduction; for she confesses, what hardly one in a thousand of +her sisters in shame will fail to confess, if they speak the truth, +that she was not seduced;--and neither was it poverty; for her father +was well-to-do, and she the petted attendant, almost the friend, of a +young lady of wealth and station;--but it was her vanity and her +unrestrained passion. She is represented, in the first place, as +regarding a good match, a rich husband, as the great object of life; +and to such a woman chastity is not a sentiment, but a dictate of +prudence; just as to a man whose great purpose is the getting of money, +honesty is but the best policy. After she has met the man who brings +her fate with him, (it might as well have been any other of his class,) +she writes,--"The one great pleasing and wretched hope of my mind was +that I should see him again; for it is so pleasant to believe that any +man in a higher station should take an interest in me." And again she +speaks of "exultation at the prospect which opened before me of being +raised out of the station in life from which I sprang by birth"; and +again, of her "desire of being a lady." This vanity it is, this desire +to dress and live like the women above them, and have intercourse with +the men above them, which leads the greater number of our fallen women +to their ruin, or, rather, sends them to it with their eyes open; and +for the rest, when Mary Smith, living in her own fine house, the petted +mistress of the wealthy Mr. Plowden, was unfaithful to him, it was not +for love of fine clothes or fine society. It is not long since our +whole country was shocked by the dire results of a similar abandonment +to vanity and wantonness, about which the usual amount of commonplace +and cant was uttered. It is time that the very truth was told about +this matter, in sad earnestness and singleness of purpose. We hoped to +find the whole truth in "Out of the Depths"; but, finding only a part +of it, we can greet it only with a partial welcome. + +_Reply to the "Statement of the Trustees" of the Dudley Observatory._ +By BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, JR. Albany: Printed by Charles Van +Benthuysen. 1859. 8vo. pp. 366. + +The question between Dr. Gould and the Trustees of the Albany +Observatory was not one of merely private or passing interest. It +concerned not only all men of science, but all men of honor. It +concerned all who like pluck, and who, in a quarrel, instinctively take +sides with one against many. It was of interest to men of science, +because the question was between show and reality, between newspaper +notoriety and the quiet advancement of real and enduring knowledge. It +concerned men of honor, because it was of some consequence to know +whether public sentiment in America would justify, nay, tolerate even, +the printing of confidential letters, and not only the printing, but +the garbling of them to suit the ends of personal spite. It concerned +lovers of fair-play, because it was to be settled whether it is right +to accuse a man of peculation whom you wish to convict of disagreeable +manners. + +Dr. Gould's pamphlet is a thorough vindication of himself. It is so not +only as to graver charges, but incidentally, by its perfect quietness +of tone, it answers the accusation of bad temper. The hitting is none +the less severe that it is done with scientific precision, and the +astronomer shows his ability to make his antagonists "see stars" in a +less comfortable way than through a telescope. There is a grim humor, +too, as well as dignity, in the Cool way in which Dr. Gould +recapitulates all the charges made against him,--especially where he +condenses them in the Index. Better pamphlet-fighting has not been seen +since Bentley. The hardship of the matter is, that people are commonly +more ready to believe slander than to trouble themselves with reading a +refutation of it. It gave us particular satisfaction to see that the +American Association for the Advancement of Science had shown its sense +of the merits of the quarrel by electing Dr. Gould vice-president of +their body. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +Black Diamonds, gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South. By Edward A. +Pollard, of Virginia. New York. Pudney and Russell. 12mo. pp. 122. 50 +cts. + +Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders; or the Cogitations +and Confessions of an Aged Physician. By William A. Alcott, M.D. +Boston. John P. 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